location: Floreat, Perth, Western Australia | architecture: Neil Cownie | interior design: Neil Cownie | photography: Michael Nicholson – MICNIC

Australia and South Africa have much in common, not least of which is their architecture and the appreciation of modernism. The owners’ brief for this mostly single storey home eight kilometres from central Perth drove its designer to integrate built structure and landscape; thereby reducing the impact on the site and successfully embedding the house in its neighbourhood.

Says architect Neil Cownie: ‘In searching for the unique attributes of the site for Roscommon House, I looked to the history of the suburb – its town planning, architecture – and the ideals of the original subdivision for direction in creating a new home with a strong sense of belonging.

‘With a significant legacy of modernist and brutalist buildings still remaining in this suburb, I felt a responsibility to produce a design that served the needs and desires of my clients and that would be in conversation with the overall ethos, without mimicking or replicating the past.

‘So, the design was informed by studying the devices and forms of the original buildings in the area. These revealed a consideration for the environment, plus orientation, a simplicity of strong form, transparency and an honest modesty to be consistent. This was a regionally distinctive architectural modernism independent from the rest of Australia.’

For the full article see Habitat #276 March / April 2020 | Habitat Online #7 April / May 2020

 

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