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Faced with compromised privacy due to a new development across the road and the need for a stronger connection to the garden, the owners of this Brisbane home engaged Arcke to design an outdoor room that would open their home out to the garden, but distance themselves from the neighbours.
Architect Matt Kennedy, director of Arcke, worked closely with landscape architect Sidone Carpenter of Green Canopy to create a ‘permeable outdoor room’ that defines new garden spaces and encourages outdoor living.
The resulting pavilion is delicately linked to the original house with a crafted timber screen. The structure, designed to gracefully grey with age, is made from exposed, recycled Class 1 hardwood. Framed views from inside — including a new bay window in the existing living room — mean the garden is enjoyed both from an immersive external experience, and from multiple internal vantage points.
The planting, of course, is what really ties this new extension and verdant courtyard together. The homeowner’s love for Frangipani trees has seen them retained on the boundary during the build and a few transplanted to the new courtyard as a focal point.
The rest of the garden is created through layers of textural tropical plants such as Colocasia (Elephant Ears), Aspidistra elatior (Cast Iron Plant) and Alpinia Nutans (Dwarf Cardamon). While low-lying plants such as various Dichondra and Crassula Ovata Hobbit (Jade) provide ample coverage and lush green texture below.
Colour is brought in through Walking Iris, Kalanchoe Silver spoons, Kalanchoe Orgyalis (Copper spoons) and Viola Hederacea (native violets). And a fernery featuring Cyathea Cooperi (tree ferns) and Blechnum (silver lady ferns) creates a cool green tunnel outside the main bedroom.
At night the pavilion becomes ‘a lantern that floats in the landscape’ says Matt, and during the day, it’s a sanctuary away from life, beyond the Frangipani trees.
