• LAND/ KAURNA
  • LOCATION/ SEMAPHORE, SA
  • PROGRAM/ INTERIOR
  • SCALE/ 20 SQM
  • STATUS/ BUILT
  • BUILDER/ ADELAIDE BUILT
  • IMAGES/ KATE BOWMAN

This heritage maisonette dated circa 1895 was an exhibition of a historical layering of materiality, culminating a series of haphazard additions and alterations. Situated in the coastal Adelaide suburb of Semaphore, with a rich history of row dwellings with narrow living arrangements to accommodate the port side workers for the bustling industrial shipping revolution, a brief was formalised to emphasise the theoretical idea of a ship fit out. Articulating the layering of exposed structure offset by modular planar surfaces to conceal and hide equipment, balanced with expressed storage volumes for quick access items – similar to a galley of a ship.

The project is formally manipulated, removing all existing internal walls in the rear portion of residence, opening and reorienting the living and kitchen arrangements to allow ambient northern light to radiate deep into the volumes. The fireplace is stripped back to reveal its original form and construction, forming a central hearth balancing the spatial separation. A modern galley style kitchen & laundry subtly offsets from the existing tactical mass, running the length of the party wall connecting to the rear yard. A small bathroom is concealed opposite/