Easy As One, Two, Three

The Age

Saturday October 6, 2007

Lou Sweeney

The owners, architect and builder formed the perfect triangle, writes Lou Sweeney.

IT'S a simple renovation rule but one that often gets overlooked in the overwhelming number of decisions to be made - get along with your architect.

It might seem obvious but the number of people who defer to, fight with or choose an inappropriate architect for their needs is astounding.

Jake Dingle and Lara Widdop knew what and who they wanted. Ramon Pleysier had worked on their previous renovation, which was also in Kensington.

They liked his eye for detail, his design awareness and his ability to marry a minimalist philosophy to a classic period house.

"Ramon is wonderful to work with," says Mr Dingle. "With him it's the whole concept, and the team he brings with him - the builder, tradies, landscapers are part of that, too."

It's comforting to have such a relationship when delivering your brief from overseas. "We were in Singapore for a while," says Ms Widdop. "So to know that we could put our trust in these people and just feel comfortable that we all understood each other was wonderful."

"I guess we had the classic triangle working really beautifully; the owners, the architect and the builder all communicated, respected each others' ideas and worked to a common aim," says Mr Dingle. From the front of their elevated double-fronted Victorian classic, all the usual suspects are in place.

The wide hallway has a mid-section arch, there are bedrooms on either side and a central bathroom.

Thanks to an earlier architect-designed renovation, those front rooms didn't need much work, but the reconfiguration by the couple and their architect has made it a much more user-friendly place for the couple and their two children, Ella, 7, and Marcus, 3.

The main bedroom has an ensuite and, under the mid-hall arch, a terrific new bathroom replaces a bedroom. It creates a modern introduction to the extended rear and space for the whole family.

"I love this bathroom," says Mr Dingle. "There aren't too many places where you can fit the whole family in and still have room to move."

Off to the side, a narrow laundry becomes a hall that opens to a deck. It's a simple but brilliant feature that uses space beautifully.

Next up is the neatly contained study, which could also be a bedroom. It has plenty of storage and a window over the garden.

The stunning transformation of the rear extension is the star here. Mr Pleysier's idea was, as Mr Dingle puts it, "to create a modern pavilion that links the old with the new".

It's a sharp piece of work. The light of the rear and the garden can be seen from the front door.

At the end of the original hall, a right-angle of floor-to-ceiling windows projects into the living space and acts as a frame for the garden.

Following the glass along the length of the north wall, the space incorporates a kitchen, dining and living area and, although it is not the most enormous footprint, the light creates a feeling of space.

The striking thing here is that the surfaces almost meld into one another: the flat kitchen cupboards, the plane of the rear wall where storage space is nattily hidden behind spotted-oak doors and the handsome, dark stone hearth.

"When you've got kids you've got a fair bit of clutter, anyway, so we wanted to be able to hide away all the other stuff behind hard surfaces," says Mr Dingle.

Problems with planning have been cleverly dealt with.

A south wall bulkhead, the result of planning restrictions, lowers the ceiling height but has been made into an elegant feature by Mr Pleysier. Soft lighting and a reference to the corner window means the bulkhead becomes an elegant part of the room, not an obstruction.

There are fine lines of sight everywhere here. The ceiling of this section becomes an external overhang so that blurring of spaces is seamless and graceful. It's what Mr Pleysier calls a "membrane", the necessary but diaphanous separation between outside.

It also means winter sun floods the living room, while harsh northern light stops at the window frame in summer.

The couple can't speak highly enough of their builder and landscaper.

"Steve was such a thinking builder with an understanding of what we were trying to achieve and an ability to see the project as a whole, and Mark's use of succulents and grasses to offset the paving and larger plantings was beautiful," says Mr Dingle.

This classic Victorian has lost none of its period charm but its contemporary extension has opened it up to the light, in a subtle but very cutting-edge way.

That triangle relationship can't be underestimated.

The details:

Architect: Ramon Pleysier, Pleysier Perkins Architects.

Phone 9533 6766

pleysierperkins.com.au

Builder: Steve Wade, Wade Builders

Phone 0412 803 806

wadebuilders.com.au

Landscaper: Mark Browning, Cycas Landscape Designs.

Phone 9572 4466

www.cycas.com.au

Suburb: Kensington

Size of addition: 94 m2

Budget: $250,000

What we like:

?"The open-plan living is exactly what we wanted. You can be in the kitchen, kids in the lounge, someone at the table; it's a very inclusive space and so light."

?"The utility space and sneaking a separate laundry off the bathroom leading to the back deck is brilliant."

? The kitchen: "We all like to spend a bit of time in here and there's plenty of room for that. It's the most functional kitchen I've ever worked in."

© 2007 The Age

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