Park Street House

This is the Park Street house designed in 1978-9 by Klopper and Gare. This is probably the best known example, and according to Molyneaux, ‘the most idiosyncratic of a number of houses designed and built by the architects in Subiaco.’ It is a small house, but the details and materials and ideas explored in this house are absolutely amazing and forward thinking. The use of recycled materials, most notably brick, a Klopper trademark, and old railway sleepers, the old style detailing juxtaposed with contemporary planning and ideas. It is a rejection of mainstream aesthetics and the dominance of modernism, and a return to the bespoke, hand made tradition, but reinterpreted so that it is completely new, utterly amazing, and a style all of their own. I had the fortune to go in a very similiar one yesterday in Fremantle, and it blew my mind. The interior planning, with a mezzanine floor, open balconies onto the double height living area, central spiral staircase and brick floor, all Klopper and Gare trademarks (and I would assume are repeated here), are amazing. My favourite bit, the entrance on the 45 degree with the corbelling that eats away at the corner. So, so amazing.