Garden Gallery capitalises on the relatively recent planning law changes that have encouraged the proliferation of backyard secondary dwellings and studio spaces across Sydney.

The establishment of this gallery can be seen as one small part in the remaking of our suburban periphery to enable a richer, more diverse and sustainable culture of work and habitation.

The primary question of sustainability (in an environmental, economic and social sense) was to make a structure which would be appropriate to the existing place, not only at the moment of construction, but into the future. To find the nature of a small building which would age gracefully and so be appreciated. Appreciation being the gaining of currency over time.

Frugality enabled a lythe structure and construction. Use will enable the reduction of Panovscott Architects’ client's environmental footprint through travel. This building as an exemplar of other such transformations will enable a greater diversity of use within the urban periphery.

Historically the place of production adjacent the home has been referred to as the shed. This carries connotations of a rudimentary structure which enables many forms of constructive endeavour. In suburban environments it has traditionally been a place dedicated to hobbies, whiling away time, tinkering, and finding enjoyment in the act of making for its own sake. Panovscott Architects’ clients understood this tradition and wished to engage in a manner of working which adopts a similar pattern of habitation.

This was a deliberately formulated stance against the recent arrangement of our urban spaces in which places for living, for working and for relaxing are all individually defined and compartmentalised. The clients instead wanted to meld their work and family lives, to limit wasted time and energy in travelling, and to bring their environmental footprint inward a little.

KEY INITIATIVES

  • A small building located within a long garden
  • Took into consideration the tradition of sheds within our culture
  • The cladding is battened off an internal skin of fibre cement, sarking and insulation
  • The small adjacent external space, which doubles the space of production, has a ground cover of crushed recycled brick and concrete from Concrete Recyclers in Camellia and a couple of the existing backyard slabs which have been retained