Floating Gable House

Floating Gable House was conceived for a semi-retired couple—one an established Brisbane artist—seeking to downsize from their Queenslander family home to a new residence next door, on the site of their former tennis court. Light was central to the design; the client, describing herself as a “cold frog,” desired warm, sunlit interiors, particularly in winter. The architects mapped the site’s natural light and developed a plan shaped by light, translucency, and surface, drawing inspiration from a Paul Klee painting.

The design maintains both a visual and emotional dialogue with the neighbouring family home. Carefully inserting itself within the existing streetscape, the house responds to nearby forms, materials, and datums. The exposed pitched roof—integral to the experience—references the spatial unity of Asian longhouses and the familiar silhouette of the Queenslander, while fostering the idea of lives lived communally under one roof.

A treasured heirloom bookshelf set the spatial rhythm of the interior, aligning with the home’s long axis and informing joinery and clerestory heights. Landscape by Stephen Clegg’s team retains the original tennis court fence, now supporting cascading greenery. Beside an existing WWII bomb shelter sits a new off-form concrete garden studio—an ambient, light-filled atelier designed for a permanent artist in residence.