Peter Besley shelters Brisbane home with walls of perforated brickwork

Perforated screens of reclaimed terracotta brick and metal mesh for climbing plants wrap the volumes of this home in Australia, designed by local architect Peter Besley.

Named Birdwood, the home on a sloping site at the base of Mount Coot-tha in Brisbane was designed for a multi-generational family that wanted a dwelling where they could age in place.

The uneven nature of the site led to Besley dividing the home into separate volumes that were each created to have a unique feel – from a series of more insular bedrooms to a bright, double-height living area and library beneath a ziggurat-shaped skylight.

"The house is like a string of objects and volumes, with its blurred indoor/outdoor nature allowing the subtropical landscape to be enjoyed," Besley told Dezeen.

"The site is steep - on the slopes of a mountain - and to achieve the aims of aging-in-place and multigenerational living I had to carefully work the sections in what is a complex plan," he continued.

"The separation of the volumes allows different things to happen. Moving about the house you feel like you are in several 'worlds'. These nevertheless had to feel as one, a composition."

Addressing the street, the home's bedrooms are contained within a simple, white volume with a largely blank exterior, wrapped by a screen of metal mesh that will gradually become overgrown with plants.

Tall, narrow openings in this block were sheltered behind sliding wooden shutters, mirrored by sliding doors that open onto an external, paved link that connects to the living areas.

In contrast, the volume at the rear of the site opens up to the landscape with a double-skinned exterior, comprised of an inner layer of glazing that is shielded by an outer layer of perforated brickwork.

For both, the perforated brickwork, as well as areas of external tiling and paving, Besley used salvaged brick and terracotta pieces from a closed local brickworks.

A large living, dining and kitchen area occupies the ground floor of the living volume, with sliding, timber-framed glass doors opening onto a paved garden that ends in a small, deep plunge pool.

Above, a more secluded sitting and play area sits next to a timber library mezzanine that hangs above the living area below, illuminated by a ziggurat-shaped skylight.

"This is lovely, experiential work: at one moment you are slightly in the earth, then you're floating just above, then, before you know it, you're really high and soaring," said Besley.

"To sit up there in the suspended library with a book and long views to the city and landscape is really special. But I also love the little pond-like pool. It's tall and deep. When it gets really hot you can sink down to the bottom like a stone where it's cold."

Elsewhere in Brisbane, the founders of Australian studio Zuzana & Nicholas recently renovated a former worker's cottage to be their own home and studio while local studio John Ellway updated a Brisbane cottage with a series of small gardens.

The photography is by Rory Gardiner.

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