Understorey House

2022

in association with Marc & Co

Understorey House is a local collaboration with Architect Practice Marc & Co and its director Angus Munro and our Clients. Conceptually, we chose to inhabit the existing understorey rather than displace it or infill it with more ‘house’. The existing Queenslander is a constant presence or cloud above the plan.

The Understorey is created by the differential between the natural typography and the planar raft of timber framed body of the house. The Understorey is a residual space of little understood consequence, it is perhaps the most idiosyncratic of all parts of the vernacular. A place of inpatriate objects, uncontested territory, a world of patina, rawness and honesty. As David Malouf so eloquently describes “Down here is the underside of things: the great wedge of air on which the house floats… It is a forest that stretches for miles...belonging to the geography of the body's experience of it...It is its own place” - 12 Edmonstone Street.

The new typology of 'raise and infill under' of the stock of Queenslander house is a common practice to increase reaching epidemic portions and increasing trend in Brisbane/ Meanjin’s suburbs. Like the infill of verandahs in the preceding generations, these latent spaces are often devalued for what they are perceived to contribute (or not contribute) to the house type. Simply stated: the understorey is seen by many as 'cheap available real estate'.  

Phorm and Marc & Co question the insistence that architecture of the lower half (new infill) should reflect the top half of the house (core) in transparency and massing. The understorey is retained as a valid spatial order with its own inherent and unique characteristics.

The new architecture plays with the connection to the ground plane and backyard. The existing house is a presence or cloud which is propped above the plan. We introduced a new underlying terraform; made of a series of retaining walls, terraces and decks. The new architecture plays with the connection to the ground plane and backyard. Enclosure is the sensitive issue. Invention is derived from the design expectation the whole of the Understorey operates primarily as an external space which can momentarily be enclosed as weather or security requires.

We maintained the existing taut structural grid, in recognition of the unique spatial ordering it imparts onto the space ‘under the house’.  All frame members are constructed in equal 150mm x 150mm section in recycled Australian hardwood. The timbers have been reclaimed from decommissioned power poles which previously adorn the street of our town. The inherent strength of the seasoned hardwood allows for a lean appearance of the primary structure. This reflects the culture of ‘flimsiness’ of lightweight traditional architecture.

Photography: Christopher Frederick Jones