Tattoo House in Fitzroy North, Victoria, Australia by Andrew Maynard Architects

This house is one of great examples how to filter light and views to create an astonishing residential design. At the first stage, the client wanted to have a new living and kitchen space, as well as create an open plan with plenty of natural light and high ceilings. By balancing these desires against the various restrictions of budget, town planning requirements and available space, tactics were employed to make everything within the space perform multiple tasks, both functionally and conceptually.

The tight budget generated many of the design decisions. The form is a simple box- the strongest form an architect can achieve at a bargain basement price. From simple box starting point, Andrew Maynard began to express the addition as a covered external space. The extension was to be as open as possible so that when one crosses the threshold between the original and new structures they felt as though they were entering a covered deck rather than additional internalised space.

Every element within the Tattoo House needed to perform multiple functions for maximum return, therefore the kitchen bench turns part of the stair, and the screening reflects heat and glare away from the windows. Despite these challenges a double story, non-domestic scale space was achieved with a basic palette of materials.

The new house architecture was set about as no more than a deck. Through bringing the external decking up to the original back wall of the home, then turning and folding it where existing structures were encountered, a covered open backyard was effectively created.

The tattoo was conceived as a continuation of the tree graphic around the simple white box- to soften the impact of this modern addition to a resolutely 19th-century neighbourhood. The household to the west has a manicured garden which is very important to the resident. A stencil of vegetation was created in-house and applied by the AMA team in a covet operation to give the neighbour an additional, though less than manicured, layer of garden.

Architects: Andrew Maynard Architects
Program: House Small Extension