{"id":879574,"date":"2026-09-04T10:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879574\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:06:18","slug":"inside-a-sculptural-addition-to-a-south-perth-bungalow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/879574\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside a sculptural addition to a South Perth bungalow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Way back in 2021, in the early days of Perth is OK! Homes, you might recall us sharing a dramatically colour-blocked townhouse\u2026 <\/p>\n

Located in North Perth<\/a>, it had loomed large in our memories ever since this writer\u2019s halcyon days as design student \u2013 after all, how could anyone forget that intensely vivid Prussian blue sitting room, or strikingly bisected green and white kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/p>\n

That home was designed by architect Simon Pendal<\/a> \u2013 and today we\u2019re sharing another project by the Fremantle-based practice, this time from 2020. <\/p>\n

Located in South Perth, this sculptural addition to an existing 1934 bungalow reiterates those same colour-drenched motif that we loved so much in the North Perth townhouse \u2013 but expressed a little more softly, with a gentle sage hue that picks up the garden greenery spied through the window.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

And while the colour might be more delicate than the full-bodied, vibrant hues in North Perth, the delineation between colours and spaces is no less crisp \u2013 with precise diagonal lines and curves cutting across the floor. <\/p>\n

The crispness is benefitted by the contrast of the bright white \u2013 which rather than being oppressively stark or clinical, has a more tranquil, cloud-like effect.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

The immersive floor-to-ceiling white is perhaps most tranquil and cloud-like in the kitchen, with the curves \u2013 of the cabinetry, arched doorway and gently curving wall to the living room \u2013 adding a softness to the space.<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

A step down and you\u2019re even more immersed, with the sunken living room featuring a skirt of painted brickwork that encloses the space in a gentle curve, matched by the curved framing around the window that looks out to the backyard. <\/p>\n

The rise and fall of rooms correlates to the site\u2019s slope, with one room allocated to each level within the site \u2013 the ceilings contracting commensurately to each step down in \u201ccascading floor levels\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the centre of the original house the new wing\u2019s interior is thick, mostly white, fluid and undulating,\u201d wrote the practice about the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cLight rolls around coves and soft edges. [\u2026] The rooms contract and expand depending on the intimacy required. Each room is correlated to a different garden \u2013 a pool, a shady summer clearing and an outdoor living room under the concrete rotunda. Floors and low plinth-walls form vessels defining rooms character beneath the undulating white ceilings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

Outside, the home is encased within a distinctive, oversized shingled cladding \u2013 a proprietary material developed through a process of drawing and physical modelling that the practice describes as \u201cexhaustive\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis allowed us to address constructional consistency, an aesthetics of economy, and perceptual enstrangement (from Viktor Shklovsky),\u201d they added, referring to the Russian literary theorist\u2019s technique of transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar. <\/p>\n

The scale of the shingles here especially transforms the home into something quite distinct \u2013 evoking a Swiss farmhouse, a fairytale cottage or children\u2019s cubby house as equally as a mechanical slater ready to curl into a ball. <\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

As it was inside, a bold use of colour is deployed here \u2013 in this case, with bright turquoise external blinds that mimic the cool blue of the adjacent pool. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfurled in hot months, the blinds shade the interior and create a colour relationship with the resurfaced swimming pool \u2013 a vivid blue vessel set into grey concrete which vibrates in Perth\u2019s searing light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

\"South<\/p>\n

Architects: Simon Pendal and Callum Spurge<\/a>
Image credits: Rob Frith<\/a>
Builder: The Little House Co.<\/a>
Landscape: Kelsie Davies Landscape Architecture<\/a><\/p>\n