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The Gala House by PW Architecture Office is located on a suburban subdivision in Orange, NSW. The clients were after a space that offered constant calmness and repose, but could cater for their needs as a contemporary family.
‘The project was conceived as a case study house designed and built by PW Architecture Office as a form of mild anarchy in the suburbs,’ says architect, Paddy Williams. ‘It was seen as an opportunity to reimagine the domestic suburban house, pivoting away from the “box on a block” to open up to the landscape and utilise the entire site as an extension of the house.’
Situated on just one floor, the rooms are split across three pavilions. The floor plan bifurcates after the threshold, offering a dining, kitchen, living and office zone to the east and a sequence of bedrooms to the north. This flank of private rooms is connected to the backyard (landscaped by Sala4d Landscapes) via a windowed gallery, which runs the length of the northern pavilion and stops short of the main bedroom.
The main suite sits on its own pavilion at the northernmost tip of the footprint, and separated from the other bedrooms by a small private courtyard.
The eastern wing unfolds to the same backyard via a glass doors and a terrace, meaning the landscape is wrapped on two sides by the house.
‘At no point in the house are you ever confined between two walls without glass opening you up to the natural elements outside,’ Paddy points out. The natural connection was imperative to ensure the house felt fluid, breezy and serene.
In order to achieve the ambitious layout, it was important to ground the house in a natural, warm material palette. Timber is featured heavily throughout to connect interior and exterior spaces, while painted white brickwork creates a subtle textural touchpoint. Green accent tiles complement the natural greenery of the multiple outdoor zones.
Most importantly, this relaxed material combination gives the space a calm ambience – one of the central tenets of the client’s brief.
Paddy describes the house poetically. His vision was to, ‘design a home for a sensory and tactile experience of the everyday. A space created and imagined for its specific context, to provide for an intimate relationship with nature, light and craftsmanship of materiality. Combining intimacy and social space for gathering of family and friends as well as private retreats through incidental spaces and courtyards.’
That he has achieved!
