House at Police Park

Residential Architecture · Police Park Avenue, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka

The brief

A house older than the architect, on Police Park Avenue. It had been in the same family for more than seventy years. The brief was simple and very difficult. Make it work for a modern family without making it look like we had been there.

Paved side passage along the white walls of the House at Police Park

Project overview

Location: Police Park Avenue, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka
Type: Residential Architecture
Completed: 2006
Architect: Design Republic
Area: 355 m²
Site area: 1045 m²
Project cost: Rs. 18M
Services: Architecture, Interior Design, Renovation

Paved drive across the lawn to a pavilion with a clay-tiled roof

Open courtyard with a shallow pond, weathered timber columns and a rain chain from the tiled roof

Lawn courtyard framed by clay-tiled verandahs on timber columns

Garden verandah with turned timber columns, artworks and a long counter

Design response

We re-planned the service end, opened up the back of the house to a new garden room, and matched every new line to an old one.

Living room opening to the courtyard through glazed doors under carved timber fretwork

A table made from an old timber boat hull, with bar stools, on the verandah

Dining room with a long dark table and a patterned rug, fretwork over the garden doors

Lawn courtyard facing a clay-tiled pavilion

Materials

We reused timber where we could, and tried to keep the new joinery quieter than the original.

Bedroom with a dark timber bed, table lamps and a framed photograph

Bedroom with a four-poster bed under a timber-beamed ceiling

Sitting room with a leather sofa and a patterned rug, opening to the garden

Carved timber entrance doors set in a white stepped gateway

Outcome

Nine months on site. The budget held at Rs. 18M. The family moved back in and the neighbours, importantly, did not notice anything had changed.

Covered entrance walk between square white columns to the carved front door

Bedroom with a black four-poster bed and a zebra-print rug

Kitchen with dark timber cabinets, black counters and a steel splashback

Kitchen with light timber cabinets and a steel splashback

Open entrance pavilion under a timber roof, white columns framing the walk to the door

Next project

House at Colombo