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Real home: Inner-city ‘Dollhouse’ built on tiny block

November 5, 2018 Leave a Comment

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Built atop just 173 square metres of land, this North Perth home, affectionately titled โ€˜The Dollhouse 2.0โ€™ is proof that bigger isnโ€™t always better. The homeโ€™s owners and architects Jakub and Laura Chruscinski decided to eschew the wide open spaces of more far-flung suburbs and stay living in the city when looking to expand their family.

Dollhouse front elevation
‘Dollhouse 2.0’ was designed by JC Design Studio in association with Laura Chruscinski, Architect

โ€œThe design brief was to create a family home that functioned on a small footprint close to the city centre, that felt comfortable and spacious for everyday living with the flexibility to cater for larger gatherings. After living for close to 10 years in a small inner cityโ€‹ โ€‹villa, we valued the benefits and convenience of living close to the CBD. With this in mind, and wanting to start a family in the near future, we decided to build small and central, so that we could still have access to the lifestyle we enjoyed,โ€ says Laura Chruscinski echoing a trend we reported on recently.

Dining and kitchen
Dining and kitchen

โ€œWe found a small subdivided 173m2 lot in North Perth, which enabled us to gain those few extra rooms we needed, without having to build a large house with spaces that we donโ€™t need and further out from where we wanted to be. By building small, weโ€™ve had to be clever about how weโ€™ve used the spaces, so they have the ability to expand as needed,โ€ says Laura.

Bathroom
Bathroom

The projectโ€™s most striking aspect, its dollhouse-like front elevation, was influenced by the work of Swiss architects Herzog and De Meuron. โ€œThe child-like impression of a โ€˜house-shapedโ€™ form has always been somewhat of an obsession of mine since university, in particular projects such as Herzog and De Meuronโ€™s house in Leymen. This particular form lent itself to the North Perth vernacular, with its pitched roofs and picket fences,โ€ says Laura.

Dollhouse from the side

The homeโ€™s diminutive size was catalyst for some clever design solutions, particularly when it came to joinery. โ€œWorking with small spaces, we have put a lot of emphasis on the functionality of cabinetwork and built-in features. Our favourite part of the home is the bench seat which spans across one full side of the living room. It provides overflow seating for guests, as well as storage via the drawers underneath. The bench then continues externally in the same plane, but in concrete block, separated by a louvred window which provides a connection between the indoor and outdoor living,โ€ says Laura.

The bench seat continues from inside to the alfresco
The bench seat continues from inside to the alfresco

Capturing the northern light was also central to the design โ€“ Laura and Jakub were so intent on it that they sacrificed floor space in the end. โ€œOur neighboursโ€™ site has a four metre high wall on our northern boundary so we made the decision to pull the upper storey off the northern boundary a significant amount and create a large window on this elevation that opens up into a double void space over our dining and kitchen area,โ€ says Laura. Itโ€™s a decision that means the home is flooded with natural light all year round, but it wasnโ€™t without cost.

A light-filled void makes the small home feel more spacious
A light-filled void makes the small home feel more spacious

โ€œThat decision, while for a lot of people would equate to a loss of floor area internallyโ€‹, โ€‹for us has equated to a central light well in the space that permeates through the rest of the home. Despite being a small home, this design feature ensures that we always have access to light and ventilation which gives the home its sense of spaciousness. To us, this is much more valuable than having additional rooms,โ€ says Laura.

Perth readers can tour this home (and many fabulous others) when it opens as part of the upcoming Open House Perth programme on November 10-11, 2018.ย 

For moreย | Savvy space ideas for smaller properties

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Amy Collins Walker

About Amy Collins Walker

Amy is our regular feature writer, an experienced journalist and interior stylist living in Perth, Western Australia. Find out more about her styling work at http://www.amycollinswalker.com/

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