Carmody Rd House

The brief received from the client was for an elegant, modern house that takes advantage of the natural beauty in its backyard as well as the healthy North aspect looking towards Brisbane City and the hills to the West. Located high up on the hilly Carmody Road in St Lucia, the site slopes dramatically from the road towards a nature reserve and shallow creek. Aside from the advantage of backing onto a nature reserve, the steep terrain presented several challenges to the design of the house. The solution to this issue was to create a continuous ground plane on the main living level while stepping the two upper volumes with the slope. From the street, the rectangular upper volume cantilevers  beyond the supporting walls with a sliding timber screen adding a degree of warmth and character to the form.

Internally, the view to the large fig tree and nature reserve in the back yard is framed by glass sliding doors in the dining room and a continous floor plane that extends out to meet the tree trunk. Two voids, the first above the entry vestibule and the second adjacent to the main stairs, bring a level of connection between the ground and upper floor. The use of natural materials such as timber and sandstone, are an attempt to integrate the house with its surroundings while maintaining the elegant feel from the original brief.