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Projects

Private

Keep House

Keep House is where a couple live, work from home, and raise their two teenagers.

Their corner block is a wedge shape, its rounded edge facing a park across the street, its back garden culminating in a triangle. The block is elevated from the street, placing it on view all along its extensive street frontage and from the park.

They needed a house that would connect the parkland and garden to the family, yet guard their privacy on the inherently visible site.

For them, Keep House is forever. It’s theirs to keep, and it keeps them cocooned and safe.

People say your home is your castle, and we often discussed ideas of the mediaeval castle keep: the tower within a castle compound fortified as a refuge in case enemies penetrate the rest of the castle.

Client
Private
Location
Glen Iris, VIC
Country
Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung
Bunurong
With
Haydn Barling Landscapes
Year
2016 – 2018

Keep House shows how architecture can explore shades of privateness between what is totally inner and what is gladly revealed to passers-by.

It’s tailored for a family that needs spaces to come together, and spaces to be apart.

The spaces for living, both inside and outside are intrinsically Australian and, as Robyn Boyd said about other houses, they “do the essential thing as simply and directly and purely as possible”.

For
Private
With
Haydn Barling Landscapes
Sector
Residential
Status
Completed
Year
2016 – 2018
Location
Glen Iris, VIC
Country
Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung
Bunurong
Photographer
Tom Blachford
Awards
2022 Dezeen Awards Public Vote, Winner, Urban House of the Year
Keep House · BKK Architects