Inside the suburban house with one eye on the sky

For a country – and a coastline – that enjoys such temperate weather for much of the year, Australians spend a lot of time inside. In fact, despite study after study demonstrating the link between connection to nature and a sense of wellbeing, we are indoors, rather than outdoors, about 90 per cent of the time.

While many of us are employed in roles that require us to do so, clearly we’re still choosing to be undercover even when we’re off the clock. But what if we could stay connected with nature whether we were inside or out?

Architect Clinton Cole has pondered exactly that. But when the owners of a house in Northbridge approached him, he said their list of must-haves was short, but “pragmatic”.

“It was all about the kitchen and dining,” he said. “The kitchen was her domain and it was designed around how they interacted with the kids when they were cooking, because they wanted them involved in the process.”

Space for their children to do their homework under relaxed supervision was a priority, as well as a kitchen that would work just as easily for their family as it would for entertaining.

“They weren’t very prescriptive at all about any other part of the house,” Cole said.

The initial idea was to redesign the existing 1930s house on a 650 square metre sloping site that backs onto parkland, but it proved unworkable.

“We went down a path of trying to salvage the existing [home], but the orientation – it faces east to the view [of the parkland], north to its long side and west to the front,” he said. “Essentially, to get light into the house we were turning it upside down and the cost was similar to doing a new build.”

Instead, the team took what they could from the existing house, reclaiming the sandstone foundations for use in the garden, among other things, to make space for a home that is as open as it is closed.

“The bricks got reused, it all got recycled,” he said. “We used the timber for the formwork – we used as much as we could from the demolition.”

In place of the old house, Cole and his team at CplusC Architects + Builders built a four-bedroom family home over three levels, starting with a partially excavated garage, workshop and self-contained guest accommodation on the lower ground floor.

“We worked with the existing slope to limit the excavation but in the middle of the excavation the client asked if we could have another four metres,” Cole said. “He has a classic mini so we excavated further so he could continue working on his car.”

The additional space also allowed for a plant room of sorts, housing heat pumps and a jet propu