The North Perth House is an urban-infill project in inner-city Perth. Located on a small block with restricted access, the design responds by providing a variety of spaces, determined by a simple structural arrangement. Efficiencies of construction and economies of trade were key considerations in managing a tight budget and a difficult site with restricted access. Concrete precast panels are deployed to be both the finishing material and the building structure. By using this commercial construction system as the design concept, the project was able to gain significant budget and time savings, while maintaining design integrity and innovation.

These panels provide the ground floor privacy from the street front and create a threshold leading deeper into the private life of the house. On the first floor, the panels offer long views towards Perth city and welcome northern light into bedrooms. Moments of overlap allow for interesting spatial dynamics. Each panel is punctuated with two types of arch, a grand arch, and a pedestrian arch. The grand arch is provided for the more significant gestures in the house and the pedestrian arch is for clean perpendicular travel.

The material palette is deliberately restrained to these three treatments; raw concrete for the heavy and hard-working elements, timber for the intimate moments, and translucent sheeting to mediate the hard east and west sun and provide soft light to the height of the interior spaces. The simplicity of the design belies the complexity of the resulting spaces that are created; spaces that are compressed and dark, high and washed, raw and unfinished, and rich and intimate.

The North Perth House demonstrates that lateral thinking and borrowing judiciously from other industry sectors can be a valuable tool in delivering innovative, high-amenity, and high-quality outcomes.

Furniture: Mobilia. Lighting: client’s own, Mobilia, Montauk Lighting Co. Fittings & Fixtures: Nood Co.

Photography: Benjamin Hosking