I
f you really knew what was ahead of
you, you’d think twice about starting
your own architectural practice. Verging
on madness and being a risk-taker
are prerequisites. My first clients were
my husband’s former neighbours: Jo and
Shaun and Jo’s mother, Carol. After several
conversations and a fair bit of red wine they
took a leap of faith and commissioned me to
design their home, with only our own home
renovation as a form of project reference.
Jo’s, Shaun’s and Carol’s trust was
unwavering when they discovered I would
have my second child in the middle of
the project and that their project would
ultimately launch my practice, Fred
Architecture (formerly Fiona Winzar
Architects). I was employed at the time they
engaged me, but was thinking about starting
my own practice. Having their project and
a baby “under my belt” sealed the deal,
as completely against the odds as that
would seem.
As it turned out, babies were a feature
of the project. Jo was soon to have identical
twins, which, with their first child, Max,
would make them a family of five. My baby,
Agnes, was born the day after a four-hour
meeting with the clients and the builder
to sign the construction contracts. No rest
for the wicked! That was a few days before
Christmas of 2005. When building started in
the new year, Agnes came to every site visit
in a pouch and the site office became the
change and feeding room when required. A
baby is a calming device on site, with the odd
swearing or heated conversation toned down
to whispers and cooing from the tradies.
The challenge for this project – Eyelid
House (seeHouses56) – was to create a
light-filled, open-plan, three-bedroom,
two-bathroom house on a tight and difficult
site. The starting point was a typical single-
fronted Victorian terrace, poky and dark.
Here was a great opportunity to contribute
to sustainable and compact inner-city living
for a family.
The clients’ lack of pretension and
relaxed lifestyle meant that a pristine
white box with designer furniture was not
something that would work for them. With
young children, they wanted spaces to be
informal, warm and functional. I used a
layering of ideas to respond to the brief.
The central idea of the design is the roof
form of the extension. Its shape has been
manipulated like an eyelid, to create an open
