Lindsay Avenue Studio

The aim of the project was to design a studio that provided an extension to a family home in Alice Springs. The studio needed to support a variety of uses (work space, self-contained studio, guest rooms) in such a way that it enhanced and took advantage of opportunities offered by an established indigenous garden.

The key strategy was to place the extension on the most degraded part of the site in order to improve the overall qualities of the existing garden and house.

The project offered the opportunity to work with timber and included using sustainably harvested and sourced timbers both for their aesthetic and structural possibilities.

The studio is sited on the eastern boundary looking back towards the original house to maximise the potential of the garden’s existing shade and space. A simple floor plan was developed that accommodates multiple uses to meet the changing needs of life i.e. a loose fit long life solution. The plan consists of a 1.5m wide service zone that contains a bathroom, kitchenette and storage. Two well proportioned and light filled rooms access the services. The two rooms are divided by a glazed translucent wall that can be folded away to create one large room 10.5m x 4m.

Recycled ironbark has been used for window frames and doors. The window frames are given expression in the steel framed walls as ‘window boxes’ which frame views to the garden. The studio also utilises Australian plantation and re-growth hardwood timber for the roof framing and deck structures. The decking is radial sawn hardwood timber.

Concrete slab on-ground construction and core filled concrete block with a layer of insulation on the outside (to the fire rated boundary wall only) are used to give the small building thermal mass in order to stabilise internal temperatures.

Low VOC paints and non-toxic oil finishes have been used internally and externally.

This work won the 2007 Royal Australian Institute of Architects NT Small Project Architecture Award.