Park Street House, Fitzroy North

Park Street House has been designed to create an intensely private residential space for a young family. The exterior of the house is informed by observations of everyday urban buildings. There is a deliberate attempt to carry through external details and elements, which continue to form part of the interior expression.

The building bookends a row of nondescript townhouses and opens itself to north facing parkland views with a two-storey curtain wall and void, which is screened by 6-metre-long flowing, sheer curtains. The north facing exterior façade has been planted with creepers, which grow along expressed vertical wires, giving an additional layer of greenery, shading and privacy to the house.

The interior spaces of the building aim to be domestic, architecturally intense and pragmatic all at once. The house is essentially one room wide with the circulation space becoming an adjunct to the prescribed rooms. The deliberate placement of a double-height void facing to the north allows for an expansion of interior views from the top level, whilst creating a vertical connection that helps belie the small overall floor area of the house.