- Interior
This dark-coloured yet warm, cosy and stylish interior is the design of Blair Smith Architecture. With the Brunswick Lean To project, they created a clever addition to an old cottage, enriching the residents' lives with a limited architectural intervention.
Melbourne-based architecture and design studio Blair Smith Architecture designs their projects based on the aspirations of the client. They believe this and a thoughtful and unbiased process are key elements of architecture. ‘Our focus is on creating places that are both poetic and pragmatic in a way that enriches every lived experience.’ Brunswick Lean To is one of their beautiful projects that embodies their approach and style. It is an addition to a cottage – which is heritage listed –in Brunswick located in their home town. The design is the result of an ongoing dialogue with clients. ‘When friendships are formed through an architectural commission, we see the building through a different lens than others...this physical thing becomes more than the grain in the wood panelling or a shadow moving across the floor, it is imbued with the spirit of your collective aspirations,’ says founder Blair Smith. This is exactly what happened with the Brunswick Lean To project.
“Our focus is on creating places that are both poetic and pragmatic in a way that enriches every lived experience"
The main objective was to enrich the clients' way of life through modest architectural intervention. For example, the addition is limited to 51 square metres and was positioned to preserve an edible garden and detached studio. ‘As the Victorian buildings in the street have a cohesive quality, it was important that the addition would adapt to the scale of the cottage so that it would remain the prominent form in the streetscape. The new building is therefore set below the cottage's roofline and is reduced in height towards the rear,’ says the studio. The design was inspired by the dilapidated structure it replaces. The architects took on the challenge of distilling the simplicity and poetry inherent in these otherwise problematic structures often added to such old buildings in Melbourne. They also opted for a better view and more convenient layout.