Zixuan April Li

Nestled within the suburban enclave of Preston, Melbourne, A Long House in Preston emerges amidst a sea of private homes with an already entrenched connection to the land. From the enclosed front yard to the expansive backyard to the ambiguous borders delineated by either trees, grass, or even potted plants, the site exudes a poetic ambience that challenges larger-scale interpretation.

Against this backdrop, A Long House in Preston seeks to capture domesticity through a collective assemblage that reinterprets both literal conditions and poetic expressions of living.

The project celebrates and reassembles the most ordinary and mundane architectural elements,  such as a column, a wall, a shed, a deck, a tree, grass, and so on. These elements are then carefully reassembled to create acts such as area, enclosure, and cover. Then, these become an array of spaces with diverse spatial qualities and affordances.