Henry Street House / Eugene Cheah Architecture


© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein
  • Structural Engineer: Co-Struct
  • Directors: Eugene Cheah, Joanne Saw

© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein

From the architect. In keeping with the unassuming character and intent of the original weatherboard cottage, this extension is a modest project, in scale and budget.


© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein

The project starts with the Victorian cottage – a row of dense enclosed spaces along a narrow circulation space. The new extension inverts this figure-ground diagram, with a density of program in a narrow strip along an expansive open space. The new addition is therefore an extension of, and contrast with, the existing fabric.


© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein

The structure and cladding of the extension is almost entirely of a singular material – laminated hoop pine – acting as a unifying texture.


© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein

Ground Floor Plan

Ground Floor Plan

© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein

Structural elements are employed as the main expression of the building fabric and define the experience of the new space. A full-length skylight on the north edge of the space brings in abundant light, which is filtered and diffused by the exposed rafters, changing through the course of the day, and amplified by the varying depths of the rafters.


© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein

The experience of the house is of the tracks of sunlight and shadow moving across the space. 


© Trevor Mein

© Trevor Mein