Keep House / BKK Architects

Keep House / BKK Architects - Exterior PhotographyKeep House / BKK Architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Countertop, WindowsKeep House / BKK Architects - Interior Photography, Bathroom, WindowsKeep House / BKK Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade, Garden, WindowsKeep House / BKK Architects - More Images+ 6

Glen Iris, Australia
More SpecsLess Specs
Keep House / BKK Architects - Exterior Photography
© Tom Blachford

Text description provided by the architects. Keep House is where a couple lives, work from home, and raises 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.

Keep House / BKK Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade, Garden, Windows
© Tom Blachford
Keep House / BKK Architects - Image 9 of 11
Plan - Ground Floor
Keep House / BKK Architects - Image 10 of 11
Plan - 1st Floor
Keep House / BKK Architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Countertop, Windows
© Tom Blachford

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 medieval castle keep: the tower within a castle compound fortified as a refuge in case enemies penetrate the rest of the castle. Similarly, Keep House shields the home’s privacy from the publicness of its frontage. Of course, it’s also a play on the popular idea of a “keep” or “forever” house.

Keep House / BKK Architects - Interior Photography, Bathroom, Windows
© Tom Blachford

After experimenting with many arrangements for fitting the house onto the site, we settled on an elongated shape bent into a squared-off C, essentially forming three wings. It’s set back from the curved frontage and pressed against the site’s diagonal boundaries, leaving a small, wind-sheltered triangular garden at the back. The C-shaped house folds around a native garden courtyard so the rooms have views into the garden and then through to the rooms opposite. Verandas line the courtyard, blurring the transition between garden and interior. It’s an inherently Australian landscape and a counterpoint to the manicured European park opposite.

Keep House / BKK Architects - Image 11 of 11
Diagram

There is a transition of privateness across the varied landscape zones: the visible lawn and veggie patch out the front, the native garden courtyard, and the back triangle accessed from the media space, which is fenced on all sides. 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”.

Keep House / BKK Architects - Exterior Photography
© Tom Blachford

Project gallery

See allShow less
About this office
Cite: "Keep House / BKK Architects" 15 Jun 2022. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/983623/keep-house-bkk-architects> ISSN 0719-8884

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.