East Street is an Excellent Example of The Humble Suburban House

Located on the outskirts of the regional town of Albury, East Street is an excellent example of the humble suburban house transformed by sophisticated architecture. The project’s highly restrained material palette – a combination of concrete blockwork, dark plywood and fibre cement sheeting – is carefully composed to create spaces that are elegant without pretence. 

The house sits unassumingly away from the street and has been carefully orientated on its semi-rural site to frame and capture the surrounding landscape. The planning of the house is simple and rigorous, allowing the users to occupy the spaces in varying ways as the seasons change throughout the year. Semi-enclosed veranda spaces and diagonal movements through the stepped volumes enlarge the spatial experience of the small footprint. The wet areas, kitchen and built-in joinery are free from unnecessary embellishment, allowing the basic materials to beautifully hold their own.  

East Street is a fraction the area of the average Australian house and is one of the smallest projects Kerstin Thompson and her team have undertaken. The house truly demonstrates that building modestly and with care and consideration can cultivate results that are grand, generous and enriching. 

Project Information

Architect: Kerstin Thompson Architects

Photography: Dan Preston