Nic Brunsdon Perth House, Pre-cast Concrete Building, Western Australia Home, Property Photos

North Perth House by Nic Brunsdon

28 Aug 2020

Pre-cast Concrete Perth House

Location: North Perth, Western Australia

Design: Architect Nic Brunsdon

North Perth House building construction

Photos by Ben Hosking

North Perth House by Nic Brunsdon

The North Perth House is an urban-infill project in inner-city Perth. Located on a small block, 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.

North Perth House by Nic Brunsdon North Perth House Australia

Concrete pre-cast panels are deployed to be both the finishing material and the building structure. By using this commercial construction system as the main conceptual organising principle, the project was able to gain significant budget and time savings, while maintaining legible design integrity and innovation in housing type.

North Perth House pre-cast concrete building interior

There are only two panel types in the project; one for the ground floor running east-west parallel to the street, and one for the first floor running north-south pointing to the city. The four panels on the ground floor support the four on the first floor and interlock like a lattice, staying secured by gravity with some lateral bracing.

North Perth House pre-cast concrete building interior

On the ground floor, these panels demarcate layers of privacy from the street front back towards the rear of the property, each signifying a threshold leading deeper into the private life of the house. Garage, Gallery, Vestibule, Kitchen, then Living and Garden.

North Perth House pre-cast concrete building interior

On the first floor, the panels rotate 90 degrees, giving long views back to Perth city on the south side and to welcome northern light into bedrooms. Moments of overlap allow for interesting spatial dynamics and vertical and oblique views through and out of the house

Each panel is punctuated with one of two types of arch, a grand arch, and a pedestrian arch. The grand arch is provided for the more significant gestures in the house – prospect from the kitchen, a sun-shade to the rear, a hidden robe, and a gallery window. The pedestrian arch is for clean perpendicular travel.

North Perth House property floor plan

The pedestrian arch also maintains the length and width of the site. On opening the front door, an uninterrupted sightline is presented from the front to the rear of the lot. Similarly, on arriving on the first floor, the pedestrian arch presents the full width of the house. These are Important gestures on a constrained site of 9.5 x 23 metres.

North Perth House pre-cast concrete building interior

When the arch is not required, it is filled in with a timber inlay or insulated translucent polycarbonate sheet, keeping the opening legible. The material palette is deliberately restrained to these three treatments; raw concrete for the heavy and hard-working elements like the structural panels and the floor, timber for the intimate moments like furniture, kitchen joinery, balustrades and bedheads, and the translucent sheeting to mediate the hard east and west sun and provide soft light to the height of the interior spaces.

North Perth House pre-cast concrete building interior

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.

Architectural Awards

WA Architecture Award Best New House 2020
WA Architecture Award Best Interior 2020
Shortlist Australian Houses Awards Best House Under 200m2

North Perth House pre-cast concrete building interior North Perth House bathroom design sink

Questions and Answers

What was the brief?

The project brief was for a small inner-urban house that made the most of its site. The cleints came with wonderful precedents, focusing on Japanese urban-infill hosues. They were set on a concrete house but our initial investigations revealed that they wouldn’t be able to afford an in-situ concrete build. Hence the move to pre-cast concrete panels and restricting the type and number of them.

What were the key challenges?

A tight site and an inner-city build. The pre-cast concrete construction methodology allowed us to fabricate off-site and reduce our build program, restricting disruption to the street and allowing clean trade scheduling.

How is the project unique?

This project is unique in that there are only two panel types used and these are the conceptual framework for the spaces of this home. The resultant spaces, although being conceived in restriction and limit, are incredibly varied and delightful.

North Perth home roof deck sun terrace

Pre-cast Concrete Perth House by Nic Brunsdon – Building Information

Project size: 195 m2
Site size: 230 m2
Completion date: 2019
Building levels: 2

Architect: Nic Brunsdon, Perth, Australia

An award-winning architecture studio operating locally and internationally from Perth, Western Australia.
nicbrunsdon.com

Photographs: Ben Hosking, Melbourne based Architectural Photographer

North Perth House by Nic Brunsdon, Western Australia images / information received 280820

Location: North Perth, Western Australia

Western Australia Buildings

Perth Architecture Design – chronological list

Perth Architecture News

Perth Buildings

Forrest Street House, Fremantle, Western Australia
Design: Philip Stejskal Architecture
House in Fremantle
photograph : Bo Wong
Forrest Street House in Fremantle

Leighton Beach Facilities
Architects: Bernard Seeber Pty Ltd
Leighton Beach Facilities Western Australia
photograph : Douglas Mark Black
Leighton Beach Facilities in Fremantle

Irwin House
Design: MSG Architecture
Irwin House Western Australia
photograph : John Madden
Irwin House in Fremantle

Lefroy Road House
Design: Philip Stejskal Architecture
Lefroy Road House Western Australia
photograph : Jack Lovel
Lefroy Road House in Fremantle

Australia Architecture

Australian Architecture Design – chronological list

Australian Architecture

Australian Houses

Australian Architect Studios

Australian Homes

Comments / photos for the North Perth House by Nic Brunsdon, Western Australia – page welcome