When clients come to an architect with a well-loved house and garden, the architect’s role is to work a little bit like a tailor: splicing their work into what is already there, carefully unpicking and amending without losing the original qualities. Alena and Dave are art collectors and avid gardeners, they love to cook and, importantly, they love their brick stucco house, located just north of Hobart. When they engaged Bence Mulcahy, they specified the usual set of requirements – new kitchen, dining, lounge, main bedroom – but without some of the standard requests for “large,” “open plan” or “lots of windows.” The backyard extension that Bence Mulcahy has designed is skilfully crafted around the personalities, passions and needs of this family, and the constraints of their tight suburban site.…
