Aru House
Maryville, New South Wales
An alteration to a weatherboard workers' cottage in Newcastle by Curious Practice, finished in 2023 and adding just eighteen square metres. The screen in the picture is the reworked western face: a threshold a metre and a half deep with sliding spotted gum battens, opened right up in summer and closed down snug for winter.
Aru is the Awabakal word for insect, and the name is literal: the back lawn went to native planting, and native bees have made homes in the holes of the timber screens. It was designed as the architect's own family home, and in 2024 it took a national award for house alterations and additions from the Australian Institute of Architects.
Curious Practice
A Newcastle practice founded in 2017 by Warren Haasnoot and Greg Lee, working across architecture, landscape and urban design from a studio on Hunter Street.
Architecture Curious Practice (@curious_practice). Builder Built by Eli (@builtbyeli). Landscape @wattlebird_garden_designs. Stylist @monsoonliving. Photography Clinton Weaver (@_clintonweaver). Seen via @archfeed_.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram, with more in a second post.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.