Our surroundings bear a strong influence on our experience of life – something Philip Stejskal Architecture took to heart in designing this house for a bachelor that travelled frequently for work.
Regularly flying in and out of Fremantle in Western Australia meant constantly transitioning between life on the road and life at home. To ease the rather tiring transitions for the homeowner, the architect team designed a home that would "allow for gradual adjustment."
"The design grew from the client's desire to reset each time he returned from work," described the firm in a statement. "He would arrive by car straight from the airport, without the time to adequately slot back into society."
To this end, Philip Stejskal and the team created a private, solitary fort that simultaneously let the outside in.
Together with the homeowner, a flow into the home was mapped out: from the garage, through the back gate, a passageway cuts through a vegetated porch, leading into a narrow entryway of brick floors and walls and dark stained plywood cabinetry. From there a small pond sits visible through a glass door.
Making a right, one enters a circular enclave – a library, and also the heart of the home. Low-ceilinged and designed with sealed plywood, the circular space serves to reconnect the homeowner to life in the city through personal belongings and items on display.
The circular design also serves a functional purpose, leading towards other destinations in the home: the kitchen, the laundry, the living and dining areas, the toilet. A staircase also leads to the upper level of the home.
Through the kitchen, one arrives at the built-in dining booth in the northern end of the ground level, passing by a wall of glazed bricks – such is the motif of the house, a gathering of raw and low maintenance finishes as well as materials that "reference local histories," as the firm describes, including colonial latticework and corrugated zincalume cladding common in Fremantle.
The materials, hardy and rudimentary, are also intended to offer a sense of grounding for the homeowner.
Across the dining booth is the living area, with a double-height volume connecting it to the upper level of the house, and an operable lattice screen above that provides glimpses of the sky and surroundings as well as protection from the sun and privacy.
Materials and colourways also situate the homeowner: brickwork and dark-stained timber define the ground level, while the upper level features limed plywood, white tiles, and light walls.
Upstairs, a rooftop comes with a three-sixty degree view of Fremantle.
The homeowner is now part of a couple, with work circumstances also different from when building the house began. Nonetheless, says the firm, the hardy materials, along with the various spaces – light and dark, conducive to gatherings and solitude, conviviality and quiet – remain relevant to his life.
"The client wanted to kick off his shoes, walk in off the beach, have friends over without worrying too much," described the firm. "The surfaces have been designed with this in mind – as robust and hardy finishes."
See more: This Modernist Family Home in Melbourne Boldly Eschews Neutrals for Bright, Bold Colour Palettes
