2021 Eleanor Cullis-Hill Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)

Jury citation

When the engagement between client and architect achieves harmony, the result can be amazing. Beaconsfield House is the consequence of such a synergy. The outcome of this modest intervention – a two-room extension and internal repurposing of existing spaces in a 1940s worker’s cottage – is exquisite. The project is an essay in considered materiality, space and light that coalesces into a series of self-sufficient chambers in which the thresholds are as important as the habitable spaces themselves. Travelling through the sequence of spaces, which compress and then release, the approach to openings illustrates the architect’s attention to detail. Openings are treated as frameless expressions that accentuate the fundamental qualities of the new recycled brick surfaces and concrete structural elements.

A heroic curved ceiling celebrates the transition from old to new, uplifting to a double-height brick screened clearstory. Each new space is lit with circular skylights that accentuate the place or surface upon which the light shaft plays.

The final space of the extension is an enclosed bedroom. The singular use of colour – a palette of light blue, indigo and deep bottle green, using lime-based paints and natural pigments – locates it as a destination, in contrast to the transitional nature of the preceding spaces. A completely external bathroom, screened by the eastern garden, indicates the special nature of this gentle project. According to the clients, they are now “living in a functional sculpture where materials, space and light beautifully coalesce, enhancing the quality of life on a daily basis.”

— Beaconsfield House was reviewed by Gemma Savio in Houses 138.

Project credits

Architect: Simon Pendal Architect; Project team: Simon Pendal, Stephen Neille, University of Notre Dame; Builder: Kelly Building; Structural engineer: Scott Smalley Partnership; Building surveyor: ICS Building Surveyors; Quantity surveyor: Peacock Quantity Surveying

Beaconsfield House is located in Beaconsfield, Western Australia on the land of the Whadjuk people of the Nyoongar nation.