This project involved the renovation and transformation of an existing gables-roof warehouse/factory into a residence and workshop for a couple. The 242m squared industrial building originally served as a stable and more recently as a motor mechanic's garage.

Initially, the warehouse was gutted to create a barn or loft-like space. Within this shell, a new set of geometries were developed to offset, blur and reconvene the essentially orthogonal interior. The scheme was developed from an interest in articulating this 'secondary' geometry in order to create a clear division between work, rest and living spaces and to draw light into the building.

The client's requirements have been realised as autonomous architectural events that slip past each other and through the existing structure. The work spaces are separated from the living and dining areas by a 12m long sealed ply wall. This 'wing-wall' is terminated at either end by white plasterboard quarter-cubes that mark the entries to the study and the workshop.

The kitchen is defined by an overhanging light well and a freestanding preparation and eating bench. The internal surface of the light well folds back on itself to enclose the laundry, which may be opened or closed off by a hanging timber sliding door. The living area is also defined by an overhead light well. An identical light well occurs over the study.

The bedroom/ensuite is conceived of as a floating pod or capsule. This pod is partially cantilevered nearly a meter off the ground plane and is entered via a ramp. Braced steel arms suspend two speaker boxers off the entry/storage wall facing the living area. Like a nautilus shell, the pod wraps its skin into itself both in section and plan, while drawing light through two light cannons that breach the existing roof line. The exterior of the building has been left largely untouched. The entry, however, is defined by a suspended galvanised steel canopy.

The materials employed in this project are simple and unheroic. Plasterboard, Plywood, Ply veneers, a polished and tinted concrete floor, and few steel elements were simply detailed and left largely unadorned. Emphasis, instead, was placed on developing an interior architecture that functions, quite directly, to create a dialogue between old structure and new form.