Jenkin St. House, South Fremantle
A small home located in a coastal garden.
Looking into the house from the street - Photo by D-Max Photography
Designed for a sociable, community-minded couple & their two dogs, a focus of the house is the front yard where neighbourhood interactions can take place in a beautiful native coastal garden space.
It was important that the private & public areas blurred together somewhat without feeling that one overwhelmed the other. Hang out spaces are layered starting from within the house out to the street in a series of small ‘rooms’.
Looking into the kitchen & the hall with high glazing - Photo by D-Max Photography
The intention was to ground the house into its setting quickly & without fuss. A relaxed aesthetic of simple materials, natural colours & external aging materials gives a feel of it having been there longer than it has.
The external timber greys quickly & internal ffinishes such as the face limestone bricks, give a sense timelessness & relevance to the area.
Rear garden with louvre ventilation - Photo by D-Max Photography
A daybed tucked inside a timber nook - Photo by D-Max Photography
“Is it a restaurant?” - Photo by D-Max Photography
It is modest in scale & construction but with strong sustainable features of passive design & cross-ventilation. A high louvre window to the south allows cool summer breezes in throughout the house & vents warmer air out. No air-conditioning is required.
All walkable areas & driveways are compacted, well drained limestone gravel - no paving has been done. This both gives a nice sense of coastal connection as well as the benefits of water absorption directly into Perths large aquifer.
Two comments about it have stuck in my memory. “Is this going to be a restaurant?” & “It looks like a happy character, smiling out at the world as the world passes by.”
I’ll take that.
Floor plan.