A compromised site burdened most significantly by flood and overland flow, the project is a balance of contrasts, defined by conditions below and above council’s Minimum Habitable Floor Level.

Function is organised by this horizontal datum by necessity, construction types, conditions of light and introversion are contrasted by this datum – the conditions drawn together by brick materiality borrowed from the undercroft of the existing house.

In the terrain of the flood plain, a new red brick wall inserted falls away to piers, permeable to flood waters. Brick marches through the undercroft to far-reaching brick remnants retained at the rear of the site, growing from the terrain at places of outdoor gathering.

A new half-height platform sited between levels is negotiation of the Flood Report, bringing garden and outdoor amenity to the new lightweight public rooms.  A 10m-tall gum is captured within, its trunk belonging to and informing the interior landscape.

The house is the front fence – conceived as trellis, permeable to flood waters, giving the front garden to the street and passers-by.