westgarth hall, northcote, victoria
Ruth plays the harp and is a super mother of two adult sons and a couple of wonderfully indulged whippets. And on weekends she's a caring, community spirited dynamo. Peter keeps people alive. If someone ever had cause to dig around inside your chest you'd want Peter by your side sending you to 'gagaland'. I trust him implicitly and he trusts me, most of the time! He’s an incredible advocate for architecture. He has the ideas. Buckets of them. I have a big bat and belt a lot of those ideas away. Always in good humour.
This is our third project together and we work hard to construct a world that makes Ruth happy.
At Westgarth Hall we inherited (from the very cool previous owners) a world of opportunity. Ruth and Peter wanted to create cosy spaces in the vastness of the hall and the chance to step outside onto a small balcony or deck. The absence of north-south ventilation was a big issue, so we set about getting approval to cut a hole in the southern wall. For the most part the neighbours were wonderfully supportive. There were very few restrictions on redeveloping the site. It’s perhaps a blessing that Ruth and Peter arrived ahead of the ubiquitous northern suburbs ‘cram as much as you can’ developers. All neighbours have to deal with now is the occasional melodic strumming of a harp or the whippets being called to dinner.
Ruth and Peter have become great friends. Architecture can, and has opened doors to lifelong friendships for me and my family. In a sweet twist of fate they're also the new custodians of our original family home, 'House for Pam'.