Triangle House

Crafted from triangular blue blocks and terracotta tiles, with a warm yellow ceiling, Artefact’s extension celebrates the client’s heritage, inspired by the book Caribbean Style. The vibrant architecture is framed by an exuberant planting scheme by Phenomena, as banana palms and lush planting unfurl along the sweeping blue terrace that unites the existing house and the extension. A series of interconnected spaces flow from the street through to the garden. A canopy marks the new entrance and is supported on a triangular column that references the detail of a nearby mid-century building. It leads into the dramatic double height entrance lobby where old and new collide under an open mezzanine and family bathroom. Passing through the hall, an enfilade of living spaces unfolds along the garden, culminating in a picture window that frames a view over the adjacent park. Designed without internal doors, the kitchen flows through a pair of openings into a top-lit dining room which leads on to an intimate snug. With an ambitious brief on a tight budget, Artefact skimmed the fat of the building, developing a lean material strategy that gives the building its character, while reducing the cost and carbon of the construction. Single leaf walls are constructed from hollow fairfaced blocks, exposed internally, with insulation and render to the outside. Exposed timber beams and OSB sheathing board are exposed and painted in yellow. The blue blocks were skilfully cut on site to create deep triangular columns, with inset terracotta tiles echoing the arrowhead tiles of the original house. This triangular motif recurs across the project, from the shape of the plot and the canopy column to the patterning of the original mid-century wallpaper.