“Architects Statement, ‘PETER’S GARRET’

The brief was simple, to construct a room and a retreat to feature the city. We were conscious of introducing ‘the vertical’ to the existing horizontal elevation but seized the opportunity of extending what Gaston Bachelard observed as the ‘polarity within the house’, or the spectrum of offered experiences. What we added, we describe as a garret, a counterpoint to the existing house with its grounded rooms, indeed, it’s very ‘groundedness’.

Whilst the experience of the addition conspired to be counter, the architecture seeks to be empathetic, not foreign. The mass and sense of enclosure dissolves along the path from the house up the stair, giving way to the sky.

The garret, a raised terrain hovering amid the tiled rooftops offers a private room, a panoramic view and refuge. We have designed the garret as an ‘exploded room’. The space is dominated by the weight and presence of the folded timber lined roof. This is where the mass has been redistributed, redefining the sense of enclosure and the experience of place.

“…if a house is a bit elaborate,  if it contains a cellar and a garret,  nooks and corridors,  our memories have refuges that are all the more delineated.” Bachelard. “”