A historic postwar cottage nestled in the lush forests of Brisbane's northern suburbs has completed its third major renovation phase, with architecture firm Nielsen Jenkins collaborating with designer Michael Lumby to create a stunning extension that seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor living. Stuartholme House, which sits at the top of a sloped block backing onto the foothills of Mt Coot-tha, represents a thoughtful approach to architectural renovation that prioritizes preservation and integration with the natural landscape.
The latest renovation follows a 2019 project by Kuhnell Architecture that added a front building and entrance area to the original cottage. Nielsen Jenkins and Michael Lumby were tasked with upgrading and extending the original structure into the backyard, creating additional living space while maintaining the home's connection to its forest setting. The lower portion of the property serves as a designated overland flow path, which influenced the design approach and placement of the new additions.
The architects adopted what Nielsen Jenkins director Morgan Jenkins describes as "an act of repair," focusing on preserving and restoring existing elements wherever possible through deliberately minimal intervention. Original windows and doors were carefully repurposed and retrofitted into the new configuration, demonstrating the firm's commitment to both architectural design and construction methods. This philosophy informed their response to the existing built form and guided their approach to the extension project.
To prevent the rear extensions from blocking natural light to the cottage, which already had additions at the front, the architects implemented two strategic design moves. They inserted a new skylight at the core of the existing structure, positioned directly above the dining table, and created a small side garden connected to the kitchen through a sliding window. The courtyard is walled to provide privacy from neighboring properties while maintaining the home's connection to nature.
The centerpiece of the extension is an external room, an open-air entertainment space accessible from the dining area that features built-in seating and a grill surrounded by drought-tolerant native landscaping. This outdoor room showcases a dwarf gum tree, native bushes, rocks, and pebbles, creating an immersive garden experience. The space is framed by two new volumes extending from the cottage, housing a bedroom and a lounge respectively.
The slight rotation of the northern volume creates a subtle angle that results in a courtyard opening toward the surrounding bushland. Beyond the backyard boundary, the sloping landscape populated with wattle and gum trees forms an untamed backdrop to the new extension. Working with the natural ground contours and utilizing leftover spaces on the property, the external room develops its own character while embedding the residence deeper into its forest context.
Transitions between spaces throughout the home create compelling experiences through the strategic use of compression and expansion, as Michael Lumby explains. The journey from kitchen to lounge takes residents through a narrow passageway that suddenly opens into an expansive room, creating striking spatial contrast. A brick plinth traces the northern and western interior walls of the lounge, stepping out diagonally from the passage to give the room a sense of direction and movement.
The threshold into the new bedroom features a dark, timber-lined vestibule that opens into a generous volume, while moving from the low dining area in the cottage to the external room projects residents directly into the outdoor environment. This carefully staged sequence of spaces provides the project's central theme – a sophisticated and surprising progression that comes together as a captivating architectural ensemble.
Simple brick serves as the primary material for the new extension, chosen during the pandemic as the most economical option available at the time of design. The material appears in both the double-layered walls of the two protruding volumes and the garden's retaining walls, providing visual unity across indoor and outdoor spaces. Large windows and doors enhance spatial cohesion by sitting flush with the building when opened, disappearing seamlessly into the structure.
The rough texture of the brick, which is developing a natural white patina over time, reflects the architects' commitment to honest material expression. Beyond simple truthfulness, they explore the brick's expressive potential through creative shapes and patterns in the design of the fireplace and its chimney, which are framed by the glazed upper wall of the lounge room. Brick is complemented by concrete used for flooring and roof structure, and timber featured in the joinery, creating a rich interplay of textures throughout the home.
The stepped form of the lounge's concrete roof evokes the iconic Casa Malaparte in Capri by Adalberto Libera, a reference particularly meaningful to the designers. By exposing the stepped structure internally as well as externally, the architects add a sculptural dimension to the interior that is further intensified by the double-height space. High windows in the lounge admit natural light while framing views of the tree canopy above.
A small set of steps leads down to the main bedroom, following the natural slope of the backyard in a subtle change of level that generates a soaring interior volume positioned below the ground level of the surrounding gum trees. This design allows residents to contemplate the trees from bottom to top, emphasizing their height and dramatic presence over the building. The slightly sunken bedroom creates a grounding effect that connects the room more intimately with the site.
Through its combination of soaring volumes and connections to the ground plane, the latest evolution of Stuartholme House invites occupants to look upward toward the sky while enjoying unexpected views throughout the residence and into the surrounding nature. These deliberate acts of framing and directing sightlines produce an extension filled with spatial intrigue and experiential delights that celebrate both architecture and landscape in equal measure.
