Backyards are remarkable places that offer both the freedom to ‘play’ and the self-inflicted pressure to ‘perform’. They are often the birthplaces of extraordinary talent. This project is the musical equivalent of backyard cricket . . .
In teaching mode the plan is key—often a parent observing, baby grand, student with music stand drifting between learning and performing. It was important that the space strike the right chord to enable this mental drift to occur.
For an architect, the mention of music and Helsinki brings the Alvar Aalto masterpiece Finlandia Hall to mind—its white marble façade scalloped around adjacent trees, and a performance space with honey coloured timbers, white walls and indigo trims.
In the backyard, this translated into fibro faceting around the olive tree, with an interior homage to its international aspiration.
The studio has an elevated timber floor for resonance and a tall ceiling for acoustic purposes, with a resultant scale that exceeds its predecessor and other neighbourhood sheds. In response, the ghost of the bygone shed was returned to form a gable cut out, transforming an ‘overhang over a porch’ to a proscenium over an outdoor stage.
The result is a public building in a backyard; a fibro shed with international aspirations, a place for lessons, concerts or quiet contemplation, a place in a garden where music grows.
