THE ARCHITECT / AT HOME
Bill Hames A waterfront site has generated such a strong interpretation of place that Villa Flavia by Bill Hames could not be built anywhere else. WORDS: CASSANDRA SIMPSON PHOTOGRAPHY: KELLY PILGRIM-BYRNE
Bill Hames needs little introduction. Founder and chairman of leading architectural firm, Hames Sharley, his work in Perth and across Australia is well known, from the Bell Tower on the banks of the Swan River to the innovative Harry Perkins Medical Institute. What is less well known is that at 15 Bill was enrolled at Le Fevre Technical School in Adelaide with the intention of becoming a mechanic. It was here that, on a whim, Bill chose to enrol in after school art classes run by the school’s art teacher. Bill remembers sitting at the water’s edge, drawing boats and his teacher asking him what he wanted to be. When Bill replied that he was going to become a mechanic, his teacher commented that his drawing skills would be going to waste and that he should become an architect. Not knowing what an architect was or what one did, Bill went to the library to find out. He decided that he might enjoy that line of work and his architectural journey commenced. As a graduate, Bill started out designing pergolas and residential additions and building the occasional house. After designing around 20 homes, he decided to expand his horizons and was awarded a scholarship to study urban design and planning at Harvard University in Boston. His quest for knowledge continues today and is entrenched in the ethos at Hames Sharley. “Architects have a lot to contribute,” says Bill. “We should always seek to add design value. Our role goes beyond merely designing a built form that meets a client’s brief. We should question the brief. We need 90
AT HOME / BILL HAMES
to interrogate the proposed spaces and should not be afraid to challenge the norms.” It is through challenging the norms that Villa Flavia, Bill’s personal project, has delivered such an immersive experience. The design and build of Villa Flavia became Bill’s outlet and, at times, distraction, for 15 years. “I did a lot of sketches,” says Bill, “most of which were thrown away. I was working with the worst client I had ever had. Me. Everything had to be detailed down to the last millimetre.“ Bill has a passion for design and observing how people relate to space. Studying urban design changed his approach fundamentally. He draws upon Kevin Lynch and his seminal work Image of the City when he refers to how people orient themselves around a city and obtain a sense of place and location. He has drawn these broader concepts into the design of Villa Flavia. In designing the villa, he started with the site. “I looked at how the site fits in to its context, what makes it fit in, and then started to celebrate this connection,” says Bill. “I incorporated environmental cues into the built form so that it could not stand anywhere else.” Named in honour of his wife, and incorporating symbolism from her home in Rio de Janeiro such as the Burle Marx patterned waterfall tiles on the northern façade and a pebble pattern on the garage roof, Villa Flavia is an experiment in duality. Its built form is juxtaposed with the surrounding landscape yet, walking through the house, one feels connected with nature.
