Above & Beyond: A Sensitive Remodel That Celebrates the 'Undercroft' in Brisbane, Australia

When architect Kieron Gait was asked to include a bathroom, space for entertaining, and two more bedrooms to a couple’s modest Queenslander (a standard Australian home which is elevated on stilts) in Brisbane, he arrived up with a two-aspect alternative: elevate the home to generate additional dwelling place in its “undercroft” (generally made use of for storage), and shift the complete construction additional back on the residence, up a gentle slope, for improved light-weight.

“The ‘build under’ is a usual answer to creating far more room in Queensland—lifting a timber residence and making under—but [usually] they establish walls straight underneath the present, and the resultant areas are badly planned and often dim and uncomfortable,” states Gait. With this “build less than,” even though, designed for a faculty trainer and a health practitioner and their four children, Gait and his team manufactured confident that the recently purposeful area under the initial making would be airy, inviting—and open to the outdoor.

Soon after all, in a aspect of Australia where the coolest month of the year (July) even now sees an ordinary higher temperature of 69 degrees farenheit, it helps make feeling to style and design a household that makes it possible for for seamless indoor/out of doors living. “We appeared to create a shelter underneath the present household that felt like it was section of the backyard somewhat than the residence,” states Gait. “In the summertime it can get hot and humid. In these warm months [the undercroft] is generally the most snug section of the house—celebrating it is a considerably nostalgic way of redefining the character of this place.”

Beneath, a tour of this interesting, breezy property. And be sure to scroll down to the base for a peek at the dwelling pre-renovation.

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones, courtesy of Kieron Gait Architects.