HOUSE JONES

The scope and budget of the project extension saw the home being transformed, updated, and extended into a substantial 413 square metre luxury modern home. Retaining the existing house, the idea was to expand it, incorporating the semi-basement below and the substantial loft above. With a hands-on team of client, architect, and master-builder, the structure was quite literally opened up both vertically and horizontally allowing for a the decompartmentalization of the spaces and enabling the creation of flow and connection.

The layering of the façade facing the glare reflected off the ocean saw the creation of steel and timber screens and balconies which also allow for an easy indoor/outdoor relationship to the garden on the lower level and to breath-taking 360 degree mountain and ocean views from the upper floors. From the newly constructed entrance with its beautifully made timber gate and sandstone textured walls, to the open plan living rooms and sentient loft rooms made possible by the subtle folding away of sections of roof and the removal of stretches of unnecessary wall, the effect is a stylish yet simple aesthetic of whites, natural timbers and custom placed glazed picture windows and doors. Through the use of these simple, expressive materials and meticulously crafted structural details, the new interventions blend in seamlessly with the original character and style of the architecture. This belies the extent of the transformation of the architectural intervention, where dated aspects of the suburban house made way for understated elegance and spatial coherence ordered around a simple staircase element connecting the various levels and thereby avoiding the all –too – slick facelifts being applied to many homes in the area.

Team:
Building contractor – Elmo Strydom Construction, structural engineer – Hulme & Associates