B House

Architect: e+architecture, 2017

Building Description

This bespoke two-level, three-bedroom home, within a historical neighbourhood in Bendigo, occupies a long narrow site. The brief was simple: plenty of natural light, contemporary in design, and flexible in its layout. The project consists of a refined palette of materials, selected based on the simple criteria of being low maintenance, and hard wearing, yet textural and playful in spirit–and to ensure a light-filled interior.

The white porcelain blocks and wedge breeze blocks were identified early in the concept for the ‘retro feel’. The beautiful ‘softness’ of the honed finish and white appearance provided a flexibility in the product that could be implemented across many elements, including the external wall cladding, solid fencing, privacy screening, internal partition walls and balustrading. The wedge breeze blocks create screening elements within the design, providing layering, filtered light and privacy. Several external courtyards are positioned through-out the plan including the sculptural garden allowing for private areas of the home to open onto green spaces, and for light and breezes to enter the internal spaces while maintaining security and privacy. The external solid blocks, laid in a stack-bond pattern, seamlessly flow from inside to out, and the honed finish gives a subtle texture and a juxtaposition to the polished black concrete floors.