More an observation, rather than advice this week….

We had a nice experience at this weeks site meeting. Neighbours from two doors up were admiring the house from the street and were full of praise for the building, which was lovely to hear. It was nice to see them acknowledge the building was making a positive contribution to the streetscape (and that they noticed some of the finer details :)…

The interaction reminded me of the way in which a new building can change the shape of a neighbourhood and engage with those around it.

In the case of our project we have removed a dilapidated (virtually unliveable home) that was staining the fabric of the streetscape, and replaced it with a building, that although presenting very privately to the street, offers some interest and detail that passers by can engage with.

Although as a single home it has limited ‘public responsibility’, it is nice to see that the ideas employed early on, are indeed having an effect, whilst maintaining the concepts of what the clients were after.

Every building in a neighbourhood has the capacity to either improve or negatively effect the established environment it enters into. It is nice to see in our case, the effect is positive, that the house offers something to the public realm and that our clients appear to have landed themselves in a lovely little neighbourhood.

Photo showing the view of the deck at the rear of the property away from the public realm. Enjoy your weekend!