Blok Stafford Heights

Blok Stafford Heights is a simple, low-cost house on a sloping suburban site.

The house was designed as a modular building, constructed off site in Blok Modular’s factory before being delivered and assembled as separate pre-fabricated components. These modular elements were paired with site-built landscape structures, such as the blockwork garden walls and retaining elements that bench the site and unify the house and the ground plane.

The site has been divided into two distinct territories, approximately half the site has been allotted to a walled garden bounded by two blockwork walls. The other half contains a simple, single storey living pavilion. The design of the pavilion takes advantage of the natural slope of the land, discretely locating car accommodation below the building.

The siting of the house allows for outdoor space capable of accommodating significant shade trees. A single-sided kitchen adjoins a walled garden and is the first room encountered by guests when entering the house. This configuration is intended to promote daily occupation of the edge of the garden and support the use of the garden as a ‘living room’ of the house with convenient access to food preparation and refreshments when entertaining.

The building adopts a formal language inspired by local mid-century practices such as Hayes and Scott, Peter Heathwood and Robin Gibson, combining an international vernacular style with a more restrained, climatically attuned pavilion model suited to the regional climate, local timber building traditions and necessary expediencies of a restrained budget.