Greenhouse Mt Stuart by Bens Malcah in Hobart, Australia

Project: Greenhouse Mt Stuart Architects: Bens MalcahLocation: Hobart, Australia
Area: 3,692 sq ft
Year: 2019
Photography: Adam Gibson

Greenhouse Mt Stuart by Bens Malcah

Bens Malcah designed the Greenhouse Mt Stuart project in Hobart, New South Wales, Australia. With an area of just under 4,000 square feet, this modern home uses the position of Mount Stuart and wraps beautiful views in all directions.

Culverden built around 1900 takes advantage of the height and direction of Mount Stuart. Facing from the street toward Hobart and the Derwent River, it occupies a large site with an extensive private garden. Culverden demonstrates typical features of its federated Italian style: asymmetry, a narrow two-story square entrance tower and a wooden veranda with detailed iron balustrade. The red brick house with sandstone base, high brick chimneys and glazed chimney pots.

The project included:

– Demolition of the failed 1986 glass greenhouse addition and replacement with a new kitchen and dining room,

– New bathroom with walk-in wardrobe for the main bedroom

– Expansion and reconfiguration of the existing first-floor bathroom to provide access from the guest bedroom, and

– Corresponding landscaping including a thermal bath.

The client expressed the desire to live 'enveloped by garden'. The new addition was designed as a garden room, greenhouse or conservatory. The new kitchen and dining space grows from the southeast corner of the existing house, surrounding it. As you move through the home, traces of the new emerge gradually, culminating in the kitchen and dining room where the full scale is revealed. The kitchen serves as the finishing element of the formal route through the house and connects upper and lower landscape terraces.

On the upper floor, the bathroom and walk-in wardrobe are directly accessible from the main bedroom and located above the kitchen and dining area. The new addition shares formal characteristics with the existing building. The sandstone base establishes a connection between the existing structure and landscape, reinforcing the new construction. The greenhouse addition contrasts with the interior spaces of the existing house. Transparent yet deliberately and clearly structured, it captures proximity to the garden and formally establishes relationships with the existing veranda while also practically providing storage and organization opportunities in the kitchen.

The volumetric space that expands upward, capturing the scale of nearby vegetation and city views yet conforming to the existing house ceiling. Handwork and materials blur the distinction between old and new, ensuring continuity of pattern and texture throughout the space. The project offered opportunities for local craftspeople and specialists including a blacksmith, stucco restorer, metalworker, ceramicist, and materials such as travertine, brass, and sandstone. Raw, handcrafted natural materials. Preference was given to materials that age and develop patina.

Living space. The new addition features double glazing for efficiency and includes its own thermally insulated system. It naturally ventilates through custom-made steel windows and high-performance fans. Serviced by the existing home heating system. For clients with a professional couple and their children, the Greenhouse Mt Stuart provides a setting for family life connected to garden and veranda in the style of quality and craftsmanship of the existing home.

– Bens Malcah