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Join us for an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of one of the award-winning houses from the 2024 Australian Institute of Architects, ACT Architecture Awards, House on a Path. A 1970s house on an experimentally planned suburban site in Canberra has been reorganised and reoriented through 2 precisely placed but loosely programmed additions to ‘front’ and ‘rear’.

Japanese influences are evident in the original house and courtyard and Radburn planning principles in the battleaxe block – the unfenced ‘front’ boundary is to a public pedestrian path while the ‘rear’ driveway leads to the street. The principal architectural idea is to amplify these distinctive attributes while providing legible entries and introducing circular routes.

The additions internalise 7 external openings – slotting under the existing eaves to the ‘rear’ and matching the footprint of a demolished deck to the ‘front’. The additions function equally for utility, or to detour, gaze out and welcome in.

Inside, these circular routes enrich living patterns while outside, a new circular path skirts a new pool and gathers up narrow and generous spaces into a continuous whole.

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Image Credit: Joanna Nelson Architect | House on a Path 2023 | Photographer Anthony Bash