Room11 Architects

Lighthouse

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

LIGHTHOUSE

Room11 Architects

MANUFACTURERS
Equitone, Adbri, Csr, Cemintel

PHOTOGRAPHS
Benjamin Hosking

AREA
88 M²

YEAR
2015

LOCATION
Hobart, Australia

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

It has been previously noted that Hobart is a small city in a large landscape. The beauteous mountainous isle is justly renowned. But the southernmost capital city in Australia is beset by the perennial problem of an expanding edge.

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

The Lighthouse is a carefully considered consolidation project which demonstrates the potential for bespoke building which offer an urban alternative to unchecked suburban haemorrhage.

Our client came to the office with a proposal to deliberately downsize. Selling a large family house to finance construction, they wanted a smaller home. A large lot owned by the family was identified as a suitable site.

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

In an older area, with a convivial community and suitable services, the site was walkable. An existing house on the property was to remain. The site was indeed constrained, with reactive soils and surrounded by overlooking neighbours on all sides.

All these things led logically to the adoption of a courtyard. A perimeter strategy defines a rectangle within which the house is positioned.

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

A generous courtyard to the north becomes an outdoor living room. The dwelling feels more generous than its modest size.

A simple kitchen sits on the short wall of the living room. Along the northern edge, wooden doors open, enabling the space as experienced to extend up and over courtyard walls to the forested ridge which rises beyond.

The home is passively heated and ventilated with openings and orientation sensibly deployed. A wood fire for winter warming and a ceremonial hearth.

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

Bedrooms and bathroom are organised perpendicularly to the main space. Skylit and intensely private, these rooms are modest in scale and furnishings.

The Lighthouse has a subdued vocabulary of cement sheet, gravel and blockwork. Timber window reveals and wooden doors are meticulously detailed.

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

Those parts of the house which are touched offer a rich haptic experience. The crunch of gravel and the texture and scent of timber enliven the formal simplicity of the architecture.

A productive garden has been established between the existing house and the new dwelling. The scale and tactics of the building are polite and respectful to neighbours.

Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking
Lighthouse
© Benjamin Hosking

Our office is a short walk from the Lighthouse and we often see our client out walking in the late afternoon sun. With a smile on her face she tells us that her house makes her happy every day. This makes us extremely glad.


Lighthouse
Floor Plan

Room11 Architects
T +61 3 62248642
Room11 Architects
358B Macquarie St, South Hobart TAS 7004, Australia