Host House

Com­menc­ing as a worker’s cot­tage, the Host House evolved through an incre­men­tal design process, expand­ing to accom­mo­date a grow­ing fam­i­ly. The orig­i­nal white cot­tage was first extrud­ed to extend the pitched roof vol­ume to run from the front to back of the site behind the orig­i­nal façade. This cot­tage then ​‘hosts’ a num­ber of new black vol­umes and artic­u­lat­ed pro­grams added over time. These fine­ly detailed black fea­tures express exter­nal­ly and cre­ate unique space form­ing inter­sec­tions cut­ting through the interiors. 

The dia­logue between exist­ing white struc­tures and new black ele­ments is empha­sised by a ver­ti­cal rep­e­ti­tion across the project. The asym­met­ri­cal mate­r­i­al appli­ca­tion pro­duces a soft­er edge along the new roofline, fenc­ing and at var­i­ous aspects through­out the inte­ri­or. Fold­ed planes with ver­ti­cal win­dows bring an abun­dance of nat­ur­al light into the open plan liv­ing spaces.

Beyond the rela­tion­ship between the black and white vol­umes, the home’s mate­ri­al­i­ty explores a rich­ly tex­tured approach through per­son­al exper­i­men­ta­tion. A chrono­log­i­cal evo­lu­tion across mul­ti­ple inter­ven­tions, the sur­face treat­ments show­case mate­r­i­al explo­ration in sus­tain­able rough sawn tim­bers, tex­tured plas­ters, formed con­crete and rough-cut stone, reg­u­lar­ly used in Splin­ter Society’s work. The tex­tures pair with arti­fi­cial and nat­ur­al light, designed to wash the sur­faces to pro­duce dynam­ic effects through­out the day. 

The extrud­ed cot­tage vol­ume con­tains the open plan liv­ing spaces and one of the bed­rooms. Aspects of the orig­i­nal cot­tage form and gabled roofline car­ry through the entire space through to a per­go­la in the back gar­den. The new ver­ti­cal ele­ments form a loft-style mas­ter ensuite and an addi­tion­al bedroom.

Draw­ing on influ­ences from trav­el, the liv­ing spaces are specif­i­cal­ly designed to ​‘host’ hos­pi­tal­i­ty and enter­tain­ing. The large kitchen has a dis­tinct restau­rant aes­thet­ic includ­ing reflec­tive sur­faces, a stone bench­top and a styl­ish illu­mi­nat­ed bar. The pri­ma­ry bath­room on the ground floor has a unique soak­er bath, recessed into the floor and sur­round­ed by indoor and out­door gardens.

Work­ing har­mo­nious­ly togeth­er, the charm of the orig­i­nal cot­tage and fine hand-craft­ed qual­i­ties of the new ele­ments take full advan­tage of the cor­ner East Brunswick site.

The Host House is cur­rent­ly list­ed with Nel­son Alexander.