Led by the Surrounds – Poinciana House by Nielsen Jenkins

Nestled into an immersive landscape, Poinciana House looks out toward both Toowong and Mt Coot-Tha as dual focal points. While its views are concealed from the entry, they slowly reveal themselves over a journey through the home, where portals direct views out over neighbouring rear gardens.

As both a restoration and addition effort, the original home is expanded and overlaid with a new masterplan that better interacts and engages with its site. With the landscape and the natural elements as the key focus, ensuring openings supported this conversation beyond the architecture formed an important part of the brief.

Nielson Jenkins references the surrounding and typified Queenslander homes to proposesa unique interpretation of what living in such a climate can be, pushing the boundaries on what is expected.

Dropping away to the rear, the home navigates a steeply sloping site as the form grows and reaches deeper lengthways. From street level, the form almost aligns, and from there it changes as it drops to align with the terrain. On approach, an embedded privacy reinforces a sense of enclosure for the residents, while access to private outdoor spaces act as a relief to the overall form.

Throughout, curated and differing garden areas support the built form and create moments of pause. A careful replanning of the home lowers the living level down to the ground level, to allow a better connection to the site and these various outdoor settings – responding thoughtfully to its previously disconnected location on the upper level.

Circulation is key and plays a vital role in connecting the existing with the new, as well as funnelling movement throughout the home. While the existing is opened and rearranged based on how the spaces best functioned and connected to the outdoors, the addition is intentionally narrow in form and sits along one of the existing boundaries to lessen its impact.

The rearranging also follows the existing structural grid, ensuring a decreased influence. Emphasising a sense of openness, increased ventilation ensures no mechanical cooling is needed. Binding the old and new is a shared restraint, where minimal variations in finish come together to create an idyllic calm, all within the same low maintenance sensibility.

Through a considered approach, Poinciana House comes together as a naturally focused and open home. Neilsen Jenkins takes selective elements from the traditional homes in the area and leaves other behind – ultimately paving the home’s own path in the process.