The Duffy Residence contains two homes that operate separately, yet link together.
The project brief was to design two dwellings on a small 600 square metre lot, each with their own address, private sanctum, and connection to the landscape. However, from the street, the dwellings were to not read as discernibly separate.
The granny flat, the smaller of the two, is accessible, without being clinical; the client’s punchy stylings assisted here. The larger dwelling is suited to entertaining a large number of guests, while maintaining a comfortable scale when occupied by two. Employing an open plan living space, with spill-out spaces front and back, the social function of the home flexes comfortably with its changing uses. The connection with the exterior also opens up the home to tropical living.
In section, the relationship between ground and floor is staggered, positioning the homes seamlessly into the landscape. The project reinvents the notion of what a front yard and back yard could be. Sight lines from within the two inhabited spaces share external vantage, without offering returning observations of other’s living rituals. Each household can operate distinctly from the other, yet gain the ‘use’ of the landscape beyond.
