POLYGREEN - architeria.eu

POLYGREEN
Architects home office, Completed 2007

The central idea in this project was to create a container for living and working that whilst still engaging
with all the site issues of the industrial neighborhood enabled us to take a thread from the first cocoon
we spun for ourselves in Wye River and weave it into the fabric of this next home for ourselves.

The site is in a narrow service lane of old brick warehouses, sheds and garages: these are predominately
built to the boundary allowing for maximum internal space and minimum external fuss.
Our response to this context and our needs was to create a new warehouse/container building, using
the same formal language going for maximum site coverage with a building wrapped on three sides in
a translucent printed skin. The skin was removed on the north side to allow north glazing and a elevated
slice of deck along the length of the building.

The image does two things it is our graphic garden experienced from both the inside and the outside,
our urban jungle and most importantly it is the thread that continues a series of works, personal line
of investigation, inquiry . The first in the series “Cocoon Wye River” created for ourselves, in its unfinished
basket weaving form gave rise to a sculpture called “2 Cocoon” which was then cut up to become “polywarp”
which was then photographed and digitally cut up again to become the cladding for this latest house
“polygreen” thereby creating some lineage for this succession of houses or shells for ourselves.

The office is on the ground floor facing the street separated from the house by the garage with the kids
bedroom downstairs, the rest of the space is open with split level floors enabling kids play areas, master
bedroom and kitchen/living/dining on separate levels with separate split level decks joined by a slide carpet
in fake grass.

To make the most of the available amenity the length of the house facing north has double glazed windows
and doors, louvered windows ,an awning, a water tank and services for hydronic heating tucked under
the floor. To be kind to our neighbours we have given them a light and lovely backdrop that disperses light
and greenery throughout the neighborhood. In fact the choice of color for the image was in response to
a neighbour who asked for a bit of greenery.

It is a compact low budget house and office that utilizes all its available space and actively engages with its
neighborhood and life in this busy friendly little street.