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Lornewood Creek House
By : Orangeink Design
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 17th edition
Discipline : Architecture : Grand Winner
Categories : Residential Building / Private House > 2 000 pi2 (> 185 m2) : Gold Certification
Nestled high up in a wooded ravine this 1960’s era bungalow was given a new life through a series of careful additions and subtractions to the overall building massing. Commissioned as a family home for a local couple, the house was designed to balance the need for a space that’s comfortable, intimate and flexible enough to accommodate gatherings with extended family and friends
Not visible from the street, the house slowly reveals itself as you approach from the long meandering driveway offering visitors a glimpse of the interior spaces within and beyond. Adding to the inviting feel of the front is a design inspired from a family trip to Portugal, where the homeowners found themselves dining at a seaside restaurant designed with an informal courtyard, defining the dining area from the beach area. Back home, a similar feel was recreated with an l-shaped boardwalk that offers a direct path to the front door and forms a modern, minimal outdoor courtyard for informal gatherings and outdoor dining effectively creating a small semi private oasis in the front yard. The new boardwalk delicately floats above an ever-changing grade, offering the homeowners and visitors a new, not previously accessible vantage point to enjoy the ravine below.
At the centre of the ground floor plan; the kitchen, dining area and family room form one large, bright, flexible living space suitable for the family’s daily routine and the entertaining of guests. Adjacent to this space are two quiet zones each containing the family bedrooms. The two secondary bedrooms sit in a dedicated wing to the right of the main living space, accessible through a discreet door set between the front entry and main stair. The primary bedroom is tucked behind the family room fireplace to the left of the main living space, accessible by a small glazed walkway with views into the ravine.
The main staircase sitting directly in line with the front door, gently steps down to a mid landing and continues through to the lower level. The proportions of the stair combined with the 13 sq.m green wall at mid landing is designed to mimic the descent down the sloping ravine on either side of the home beneath the expansive tree canopies. The second stair is a narrow, folded steel plate, that climbs briskly up to the roof top level. Here a small covered deck that includes a wood burning fireplace provides the homeowners with outdoor all-season amenity space offering a ‘treehouse’ perspective over the ravine below. At the lower level an existing indoor pool room was demolished and exterior walls removed to create a covered year-round deck area with a hot tub open to the elements just a few steps up off the adjacent forest floor.
The interior showcases a crisp restrained material palette with exterior materials seamlessly transitioning between inside and out. Simple and consistent detailing, rich textured finishes and warm complimentary tones in the millwork, furniture and artwork combine to at once modernize the home, and create a welcoming and inviting feel throughout.
The renovations involved removing portions of the exterior wall. The existing bricks were carefully collected, cleaned and re-laid as needed thereby reducing material waste. The newly tinted existing brick was paired with shou sugi ban wood siding. This siding, vertically set, charred and brushed to reveal the beautiful natural grain was seen as a compliment to the tall, dark, quiet nature of the ravine trees surrounding the dwelling.
Much of our existing residential neighbourhoods represent dated approaches to indoor environment, energy use and life cycle thinking. In the hands of motivated owners and designers, our housing stock can be transformed into healthy modern living environments that can last another 60+ years, effectively foregoing the need for the wasteful cycle of build new, demolish, build new and repeat with every generation of homeowner.
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