Originally designed by Greg Dickson in 2003 while at FMSA, the owners commissioned Dickson Architecture in 2012 to design a new bedroom wing extension.
Being in a rural setting and assessed as a BAL29 bushfire category, the Mount Macedon House addition needed to comply with modern bushfire construction rules. Fortuitously, the original brief for the house led to a structural design that featured a suspended concrete slab supported by concrete block walls, and a cladding system of steel and compressed fibre cement sheet over a highly insulated timber frame. These original decisions allowed the same construction method and detailing to be used without modification while meeting the current rules. The new wing uses the same architectural language as the original design externally, while including a few "twists" to update the internal spaces. A new internal stair leading down to a basement features the high level of design rigour, playfully utilising materials more at home in a workshop setting. The basement level gives additional garden tools space for the owners, in addition to an integral bushfire bunker should the property be threatened by bushfire in future. |
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