Australian Residential Architecture and Design
ISSUE 135
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HOUSES AWA R D S 2020 Celebrating Australia’s most outstanding houses, gardens and apartments
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At a Glance
From the Editor Musings
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Contributors
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Durbach Block Jaggers 111 Profile The ceaselessly curious trio behind Durbach Block Jaggers designs masterfully sculpted and sophisticated homes. Out Driving 130 Postscript Captured during road trips around suburbia, this photographic collection offers a candid portrait of Australian mid-century houses.
48 Houses Awards 2020
Budge Over Dover by YSG
Celebrating the winning, commended and shortlisted projects in this year’s Houses Awards, recognizing Australia’s most outstanding residential architecture and design.
Alteration + addition Sydney, NSW
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Seawind by Coy Yiontis Architects
Tjuringa House by Jesse Bennett Studio
Block House by Ha
New house Balnarring Beach, Vic
New house Toowoomba, Qld
New house Melbourne, Vic
HOUSES 135
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AT A GLANCE
120 Wilson Beach House by John Railton Revisited Built in 1968, this humble coastal home is an enduring example of elegant and expressive Australian design.
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Musings
01 In an exciting milestone for Houses magazine, 2020 marks ten years of the Houses Awards. This year’s winning, commended and shortlisted entries are celebrated in this issue, recognizing the outstanding work of Australia’s residential architects and designers. Collectively, the entries represent a return to the local – they are inventive and responsive, taking inspiration from their varying contexts to engage generously with their neighbourhood and community. The Australian House of the Year is Cantala Ave by ME (page 50), an alteration and addition to a typical weatherboard cottage on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Modest and minimal, the home is a reminder that living well is about quality, not quantity. The 2020 Houses Awards jury explain, “ME has solved ordinary design problems in an extraordinary way, reconsidering the suburban status quo and pushing boundaries.” Congratulations to all those recognized and thank you to our generous Houses Awards supporters Cult, Allegion, Artedomus, Blum, Bosch, Brickworks, Heritage Council Victoria, Sussex and Taubmans.
02 Engage with a vast collection of community-made art projects inspired by 50 Australian creatives. Do It (Australia) invites you to participate in a series of instructions written by artists, musicians, writers and architects, including Pritzker Prize-winning architect Glenn Murcutt. The project encouraged activity away from the screen and gathers an eclectic mix of ideas that range from the mundane to the absurd and the philosophical. Kaldor Public Art Projects will share audience contributions to the Do It (Australia) project on Instagram and in an upcoming publication. Photograph: Timothy Burgess. doit.kaldorartprojects.org.au
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03 03 Rediscover your green thumb with books full of tips, tricks and ideas for cultivating an oasis at home. We’ve been spending a lot of time indoors recently, so the desire to bring the outdoors in has never been greater. Revel in the process with books dedicated to greening your space. The Gardens of Eden: New Residential Garden Concepts and Architecture for a Greener Planet, edited by Gestalten and Abbye Churchill (Gestalten, 2020) offers clever ways to grow food, get creative with native plants, and make greener cities and suburbs.
Gemma Savio, editor
Write to us at houses@archmedia.com.au Subscribe at architecturemedia.com Find us @housesmagazine
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01 See inside Australia’s most celebrated homes through Talking Houses: The Decade’s Best. To celebrate ten years of the Houses Awards we invited past winners of the Australian House of the Year to create a video that shares the stories and ideas behind each of these homes. The Talking Houses series reflects the vibrant milieu of Australian residential design and reveals the unique character of each practice. Pictured here is Darling Point Apartment by Chenchow Little – Australian House of the Year, 2016. Photograph: Peter Bennetts. architectureau.com
MUSINGS
Contributors Editor Gemma Savio Editorial enquiries Gemma Savio T: +61 3 8699 1000 houses@archmedia.com.au
Michelle Bailey Writer Michelle Bailey is an architecture and design writer based in Brisbane, Australia. She has visited close to 200 projects in South East Queensland and has written about these for local newspapers and national magazines.
Shannon McGrath Photographer Shannon McGrath has been photographing architecture and interior design works for 15 years. Shannon’s images are known for their beautiful portrayal of light and form, with a soft realism that celebrates the subject matter.
Editorial director Katelin Butler Assistant content editor Stephanie McGann Editorial team Nicci Dodanwela Cassie Hansen Josh Harris Alexa Kempton Production Simone Wall Design Metrik studiometrik.com General manager sales & digital Michael Pollard Account managers Amy Banks Tash Fisher Advertising enquiries All states advertising@ archmedia.com.au +61 3 8699 1000 WA only OKeeffe Media WA Licia Salomone +61 412 080 600
Cassie Hansen Writer Cassie is editor of Artichoke magazine. She has a degree in creative industries, majoring in journalism and creative writing. Cassie has written for a range of publications, including Houses, Landscape Architecture Australia and Houses: Kitchens and Bathrooms.
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Derek Swalwell Photographer Derek Swalwell is a photographer of architecture, landscapes, food, travel and art. Shooting since 1999, his work has expanded to include international design firms, advertising agencies and many overseas titles. He enjoys working with great people and ideas.
CONTRIBUTORS
Print management DAI Print Distribution Australia: Ovato Australia (newsagents) and International: Eight Point Distribution
Cover: Cantala Ave by ME. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones.
Managing director Ian Close Publisher Sue Harris General manager operations Jacinta Reedy
Published by Architecture Media Pty Ltd ACN 008 626 686 Level 6, 163 Eastern Road South Melbourne Vic 3205 Australia T: +61 3 8699 1000 F: +61 3 9696 2617 publisher@archmedia.com.au architecturemedia.com Endorsed by The Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.
Member Circulations Audit Board
Subscriptions architecturemedia.com/store subscribe@archmedia.com.au or contact the publisher above ISSN 1440-3382
Copyright: HOUSESÂŽ is a registered trademark of Architecture Media Pty Ltd. All designs and plans in this publication are copyright and are the property of the architects and designers concerned.
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BUDGE OVER D OV E R BY YSG
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Perched on a hillside in Sydney’s coastal suburb of Dover Heights, this vibrant house riffs on tone and texture to create a sculptural backdrop to the life of a growing family.
Words by Cassie Hansen Photography by Prue Roscoe
Prior to designing this house, YSG principal Yasmine Saleh Ghoniem had worked with her client on Pacific Bondi, a 70-square-metre two-bedroom apartment (completed when Yasmine was a principal of interior design practice Amber Road). Newly engaged, with two kids and a third on the way, the owners purchased their next home in nearby Dover Heights and again engaged Yasmine for a renovation and refurbishment. Rather than a home that relied on tired tropes of coastal living, where muted “sand and sea” colour palettes reigned, they wanted one that would offer a vibrant but calm home for their growing family. Perched on a hill, the boxy home was a rabbit warren of tiny dark rooms and hallways, a “soulless” house with “overzealous” travertine floors, explains Yasmine. YSG opened up the ground floor, demolishing several internal walls and raising the ceiling height to create a fluid living area that is connected to the outdoors. Outside, a northern courtyard, previously unused because it was too hot to stand in, is now enjoyed daily, linking to the kitchen and living areas via oversized bifold doors. Pavilion-like ceiling structures extend from the dining room to the courtyard to provide a shady, inviting entertaining area. The pool, which originally abutted the connecting door to the house, was reduced in size and resurfaced, affording more outdoor space for little ones to run around in. These key structural changes have worked to support a highly nuanced interior that balances unexpected colour palettes and textural variations and depth. Sharp, square corners have been replaced by soft, sweeping curves, arched walkways give the home atmosphere and energy, and polished and raw surfaces interplay masterfully. In the formal lounge and dining areas, what could have been a jarring colour combination – aubergine ceilings and pistachio walls – is surprisingly successful, united by a Marmorino polished finish. A hemp-rendered fireplace
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BUDGE OVER DOVER
01 Unexpected textures and materials combine throughout the home, eschewing the “sand and sea” tones used so routinely in coastal interiors.
Budge Over Dover is built on the land of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people of the Eora nation.
5 Sydney, NSW
Alteration + addition
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acts as a seating edge to gather around, giving the formal space an easy approachability. At the clients’ recent engagement party, Yasmine delighted in seeing guests use the space as it was intended: wine bottles were propped up on the ledge while people perched on it and chatted. In the kitchen, Black Panther marble and aged brass on the island bench mix unexpectedly with handmade terracotta tiles on the floor. Opposite, a banquette seat traces along a curved wall, creating an inviting breakfast nook. On the first floor, the main bedrooms echo the downstairs palette, but with a deeper intensity – sage greens turn into deep eucalypts and soft eggplant purples become rich plums. Both main bedrooms look out to the South Pacific Ocean, the calming blues of ocean and sky looking particularly magnificent when underscored by the intentionally darkened interiors. The eucalypt-toned ensuite is paired with black marble with caramel veining, while in the plum ensuite, black joinery walls and rose-shaded marble provide another vivid spatial experience. The travertine that overwhelmed the former home has been retained somewhat in these bathrooms, on walls and floors. Art plays an important role in the house, at once telling the couple’s story and enriching the home’s spatial qualities. A piece by Stanislas Piechaczek, which hangs in the entry foyer, is the first artwork the clients purchased together and a reminder of an Easter holiday in Byron Bay. Another piece, by Kirsty Budge, was commissioned specially for the former Bondi pad (it is also the source of the home’s moniker, Budge Over Dover) but now sits above the fireplace, its colour and spiritedness integrating perfectly in the new family home. Budge Over Dover has a confident, powerful energy, steeped in functionality and beauty. For Yasmine, craftsmanship plays an important role in achieving this – from the brushstrokes of the plaster walls and ceilings to the stonemason’s chiselled motions on the sandstone plinths and the handmade terracotta tiles. “We like to see the maker’s touch. All of our projects sport incredible craftsmanship. This attention to detail ensures that when people inhabit the space, they breathe it – not just watch it from afar, but become engulfed in all its beauty,” Yasmine says. This craftsmanship and materiality has always been a signature part of Yasmine’s approach. When you visit the YSG website, a giant, animated slogan of sorts greets you: “The magnetism is in the mix.” “It references the materiality of our work, and how varied that materiality is, and so the magnetism is in the variety of any of our palettes. But it also references my heritage, which is also mixed, my mum being Australian and my father from Egypt,” Yasmine says. For Yasmine, these origins, without doubt, inform her interiors. “Interiors were a big part of my growing up. I grew up in Kuwait and because it’s really hot there, you don’t spend a lot of time outside. Your interiors became your world. I was always really affected by them.” The owners’ baby was born just one week after the family moved into their new home, and a few weeks before COVID-19 restrictions forced all Australians to self-isolate. For the children, growing up in an enriching, beguiling space like this one may well mean that interiors become an important part of their world, too.
HOUSES 135
ALTERATION + ADDITION
Site Floor
654 m² 447 m²
Design 4 m Build 5 m
Products Internal walls: Custom Marmorino by Uprising Cement Renderers in ‘Sage Green’, ‘Toffee’ and ‘Blushing Aubergine’ Flooring: Bisanna terracotta tiles in ‘Maroc’ Lighting: Herman Miller Saucer Bubble pendant by George Nelson from Living Edge; Allied Maker Alabaster pendant; Douglas and Bec Line pendant; Soren pendant light by Pinch from Spence and Lyda; Temperature Design TW solid downlight cylinder in ‘Walnut’ Kitchen: Black Panther marble and oxidized brass kitchen island benchtop; stone benchtop and splashback from Mediterranean Marble in ‘Bianconi’ Bathroom: Astra Walker tapware in ‘Aged Brass’; Nood Co Pill basin in ‘Ivory’; custom stone vanity in ‘Rosso Portogallo’ from Euro Marble; Travertine floor and wall tiles External elements: Trace armchair by Adam Goodrum from Tait; coffee table by Paola Lenti from Dedece; custom pool fence by Metrowelding Other: E15 Houdini dining chairs; custom cushions designed by architect, fabricated by Rematerialised; vintage leather and chrome dining chairs from The Vault Sydney; custom rug designed by architect, fabricated by Tappeti; custom brushed brass handrail by Architectural Metalworking Services; Tussah Linen curtains from Solis; custom dressing table designed by architect in ‘Juperana Bahia’ from Euro Marble, 2-pac finish tubular leg and custom bronze-finished brown cattle horn cabinet handles from Spark and Burnish
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Garden Entry Store room TV room Dining Kitchen Lounge room Terrace
HOUSES 135
9 Swimming pool 10 Outdoor dining 11 Bedroom 12 Outdoor living 13 Garage 14 Patio
03 A hemp rendered fireplace doubles as an edge for seating or a spot for a glass at parties. Artwork: Kirsty Budge. 04 Built-in banquette seating provides a cosy dining nook in a softened corner of the main living space.
ALTERATION + ADDITION
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05 A custom dressing table in the upstairs bedroom serves as a functional accent piece. Artwork: Radha Deva. Architect YSG +61 45 0047 193 yasmine@ysg.studio ysg.studio
06 Black joinery, rose-toned marble and a terracotta archway combine for a vivid spatial experience.
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BUDGE OVER DOVER
Project team Yasmine Ghoniem, Jaime Bligh Builder Promena Projects Landscape designer Svalbe and Co
Every great architect is a poet Frank Lloyd Wright
Walls & Ceiling Elton Group WoodWallÂŽ Frosted Oak Architecture Madeleine Blanchfield Architects Photography Anson Smart
S E AW I N D BY C OY YIONTIS ARC H I TECTS
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SEAWIND
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Divided into two highly personalized living wings, this home in regional Victoria is unequivocally functional while also deeply symbolic of its owners’ lives.
Words by Brett Seakins Photography by Shannon McGrath
Architectural theorists Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown and Steven Izenour famously posed that a work of architecture could either be a duck or a decorated shed. The decorated sheds were featureless buildings that had been layered with a superficial veneer of “meaning,” while the ducks were buildings that were symbolic in and of themselves. Writing during the 1970s, the authors were grappling with the phenomena of Las Vegas and its appropriated architectural icons. Since then there have been occasional ducks in the pond, but architecture has arguably been travelling down the path of decorated sheds for some time. There is something about Seawind by Coy Yiontis Architects, however, that drags the dichotomy of the duck versus the decorated shed back up to the surface. This is certainly a building that is beautifully crafted and sensitively designed for its site, ticking all of the boxes of contemporary residential architecture, yet to know something of the clients and their influence on the design is to understand that the house is also deeply symbolic of them and their relationship, both to the house and to each other. Having secured a block of land in Victoria’s coastal hamlet of Balnarring, the clients came to Coy Yiontis after becoming smitten with another coastal home completed in 2016 by the practice, Humble House. Coy Yiontis director Rosa Coy notes that it took some gentle persuasion to guide the clients away from simply wanting “that house on my block” and to form an architectural response that was unique to them. The project, as it turns out, morphed into a singularly unique commission for an architect and the couple’s story soon enabled a bespoke approach to emerge. Both clients are in their 80s, have travelled extensively, have lived in major cities across the world and are both still working. On top of this,
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SEAWIND
Seawind is built on the land of the Boon Wurrung/ Bunurong people
2 Balnarring Beach, Vic
New house
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the couple had very firm views, shaped by a lifetime of living together, on how they wanted to live. The first requirement was that the house should in fact be two houses. The plan comes together at what the clients term “areas for mutual relaxation,” such as the kitchen and the lounge, but the house is effectively split into two almost self-sufficient dwellings. This allows the couple to be together and share their home but also to have their own, highly cherished private spaces that are tailored to their needs. Secondly, the house had to connect with the outdoors, and this is achieved by an internal garden space and a long, almost invisible wall of sliding doors to the rear garden. Knowing this about the brief, the separate volumes presented to the street can be understood as “his and hers” wings and not purely architectural form-making. “His” wing is the darker, more recessive volume of the two and is built around his ongoing work as an academic and a lover of books, creating a romantic sense of a library with dark timber panelling and beautifully framed views of the gardens. These are spaces into which he can burrow away and write all day. “Her” wing is its antithesis: light-filled and clad in a white sheath of metal, it takes the open airiness of her studio space and extends it throughout the rest of the volume with clean white walls and a white-toned buffed concrete floor. From the street, the entry into the dwelling is announced by a bright fuchsia front door (her favourite colour) that literally bridges the separate wings of the house. Greying timber boards detailed within the pitched roof forms effect a connection between the two wings through their material. However, on entering the house the separation is immediately evident, with the two volumes split by an internal courtyard garden and, beyond, a long view to the private rear garden. The effect is enhanced by the soft curves of the ceiling planes above, flooding the space with light and gently guiding visitors further into the house. Rosa notes that the practice strives to frame every view with purpose, avoiding mindless expanses of glass that create useless spaces. The corridor off the entry confirms this, with windows set low at floor level to provide connection to the garden spaces while also allowing for a thoughtful display of the clients’ incredible collection of artworks and cultural curios from their travels. Dead corridors are also avoided and here the corridor can be used as an extension of the art studio by simply opening up a large sliding door. Throughout the house, the needs of the clients have been answered. Each has their own way of enjoying the ritual of bathing, with a step down bath set into the floor for her and a spot to perch in the shower for him, both clad in a stone tile they loved from a previous life. The kitchens are designed to avoid storage at impractical heights and there is nary a step in the house. In the clients’ own words, the house is “a perfect home for our third age” and is surely no decorated shed.
HOUSES 135
3
NEW HOUSE
780 m² 240 m²
Design 1 y Build 1 y
Products Roofing: Mack Bros Straightline 406 roof decking in Colorbond ‘Shale Grey’ and ‘Monument’ External walls: Mack Bros Straightline 406 deck cladding in Colorbond ‘Shale Grey’ and ‘Monument’; Eco Timber Group spotted gum in natural oil finish Internal walls: CSR Gyprock plasterboard in Resene ‘Eighth Blanc’ Windows: Capral black anodized aluminium windows Doors: Ladenko cavity sliding doors in Resene ‘Eighth Blanc’ Flooring: Polished concrete flooring by Concrete Rejuvenating Company Kitchen: Fisher and Paykel rangehood, cooktop, oven, dishwasher and fridge; Oliveri Right Angle Mixer in ‘Chrome’; AFA undermount sink from Reece; Hafele accessories Bathroom: Milli Edge tapware in ‘Chrome’, Kado Arc under counter basin and Roca toilet suite from Reece Heating and cooling: Cheminees Philippe fireplace from Wignells; Samsung ducted airconditioning
01 Designed for independence, the couple who share Seawind live across two separate wings joined by shared relaxation spaces.
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04 02 A framed view to garden plantings softens the clean lines of the kitchen, which is equipped with ample easyto-access storage. 03 The bathrooms reect individual bathing rituals – hers replete with a step down bath. 04 Each wing has a study from which the clients work on their own personal and professional pursuits. Artwork: Jock Clutterbuck.
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NEW HOUSE
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05 The home is split into two wings that are differentiated externally by colour and separated by a courtyard garden. 06 With nary a step in the house, Seawind is the perfect home for a couple enjoying their “third age.�
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Architect Coy Yiontis Architects +61 3 9510 5700 info@coyyiontis.com.au coyyiontis.com.au
SEAWIND
Project team Rosa Coy, George Yiontis, Maria Gutierrez Builder A.C. Paul Constructions Engineer Maurice Farrugia and Associates Landscape design Nadette Cumming and Jo Ferguson Joiner Mondo Furniture
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TJ U R I N G A HOUSE BY J E SS E BENNETT STUDIO
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Motif, texture and concrete acrobatics unite in this sculptural new home, befitting its majestic escarpment setting on the precipice of Toowoomba’s Great Dividing Range.
Words by Michelle Bailey Photography by Kristoffer Paulsen
A skilled architect and builder, Jesse Bennett established Jesse Bennett Studio with his partner Anne-Marie Campagnolo, an accomplished interior designer, in 2010. Their first project, Planchonella House in Cairns, proved their talent when it was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects’ Robin Boyd Award, as well as the Houses Award for Australian House of the Year, in 2015. The project became a fascination for publishers, featuring in print across Africa, Europe, Asia and America. A review in this magazine (see Houses 104) piqued the interest of another Queensland-based family, prompting them to engage the studio to transform their own historic site in Toowoomba. Known as Tjuringa House, it was to be Jesse and Anne-Marie’s most ambitious project to date. The project was named by the clients, who suggested the site was akin to an Indigenous Tjuringa, or artefact, carved with motifs and patterns communicating “mythological dreaming, stories of man and great mythic beings.” From the outset, there were ambitions for the site to serve a public function, welcoming garden tours into the generous grounds and emerging sculpture park. Serendipitously, the architecture has evolved into something of a sculpture itself, best experienced from vantage points dotted around the gardens. The site is significant for both its size and its position on the precipice of Toowoomba’s Great Dividing Range escarpment. The original two-storey homestead, constructed in 1954 in a style reminiscent of the English Arts and Crafts movement, was something of a recognizable local landmark. Jesse’s initial design sought to preserve the home’s masonry envelope, radically refurbish the interior and introduce a concrete superstructure to sit over existing walls to awaken new connections to landscape and sunlight. But when the team discovered that the existing brick walls could not withstand the described interventions, a radical redesign ensued. They resolved to preserve
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TJURINGA HOUSE
01 New masonry walls preserve the original perimeter of the English Arts and Crafts-style house that formerly occupied the site. 02 Like a fluid canvas,the home’s monumental concrete form takes on scalloped curves and repeated ziggurat motifs.
Tjuringa House is built on the land of the Barunggam people
5 Toowoomba, Qld
New house
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the building’s original perimeter by reinstating its form with new masonry walls and to salvage and re-use the terracotta roof tiles in appreciation of the building’s history and the weathered patina of its original materials. With the concrete superstructure remaining a crucial element of the scheme, it transitioned from being an overlay component to becoming the first structure to emerge from the ground. With the building expressed as two distinct elements – masonry shell and concrete roof – suddenly, the concrete had become the ruin and the new masonry walls the contemporary home taking up shelter within it. The concrete roof grounds the building in the landscape, shielding it from both westerly winds and prying eyes from the street above. Like a forest canopy, it establishes an overarching shelter while asserting the horizontality of the garden terrace and horizon. The architecture is a joyous collision of material, craft and geometry. At the northern corner of the house, closest to the approach, an extraordinary junction resolves an intriguing crucifix form. Slender brick arches support a two-storey, L-shaped concrete column that extends beyond the top of the slab to emerge like a pair of inverted obelisks etched out by ziggurat cutaways. It is impossible not to draw comparisons to Carlo Scarpa’s Brion-Vega Cemetery, a building that explores motifs rigorously, overlaying and repeating simple geometries with an unapologetic relentlessness. Here, Jesse Bennett Studio demonstrates a similar obsession with motif, texture and concrete acrobatics. When pressed to describe the genesis of such architectural motifs, Jesse suggests they emerged almost involuntarily. “[They are] something that recurs organically through our design process,” he muses. What they do reveal is a masterful understanding of making and material. The repeated ziggurat motifs forming edges and tops to concrete elements stand as small reminders that these details were formed with care, by human hands. With such gestures, the architect finds a way to connect this artefact of monumental, civic scale with the palm of a human hand. Clay masonry and tile also appear in rather gravity-defying ways. The latter forms the feathered walls enveloping the main bedroom suite, enriched by a visual tapestry of glazing and lichen. Masonry acts as container, but also becomes the crucial material defining landscape edges and raised planter beds. Along the building’s eastern edge, a raised brick planter marches along the entire frontage. Held aloft by twin brick columns, it appears like a kind of viaduct, carrying water and supporting growth both deliberate and random. One imagines that, with time, the brick container will disappear as landscape consumes it. It is rare for a residential building to transcend both function and time but Jesse and Anne-Marie have achieved that here. “The building will play with time and we hope for it not to be from any distinguishable period or style of architecture,” says Jesse. “Roof gardens and plantings [will] help soften the hard edges and become overgrown, creating intrigue and delight; a relic to be discovered, explored and reinterpreted.”
HOUSES 135
NEW HOUSE
Site Floor
26,038 m² 723 m²
Design 1 y 6 m Build 2 y 6 m
Products Roofing: Euroclad zinc roofing; concrete Externa walls: External wal s: PGH Bricks and Pavers bricks in ‘Black and Tan’ and ‘Copper Glow’; concrete Internal walls: Plaster in Dulux ‘Berkshire White’ paint finish; PGH Bricks and Pavers bricks in ‘Black and Tan’ and ‘Copper Glow’ Windows: Architectural Window Systems aluminium windows and doors Flooring: Agglotech terrazzo tiles in ‘Multicolor Grigio’; Mafi oak timber floors; Godfrey Hirst Decor Plush carpet Lighting: Atelier Areti Mobilia lights K tchen: V-Zug oven, cooktop Kitchen: and microwave; Franke sinks from Winning Appliances; Gessi Oxygene kitchen mixer; custom joinery in Dulux ‘Berkshire White’ paint finish; ceiling in Dulux ‘Marshal Blue’ paint finish; Inax Accordi U and Hacienda tiles, and Maximum pressed porcelain panels, from Artedomus Bathroom: Maximum pressed porcelain panels from Artedomus; Fantini Rubinetti tapware in ‘Matt British Gold’ External elements: Swimming pool by Rogers Pools
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Architect Jesse Bennett Studio +61 437 772 886 studio@jessebennett.com.au jessebennett.com.au
TJURINGA HOUSE
Project team Jesse Bennett, Anne-Marie Campagnolo Builder Mark Ross Timber Homes Engineer Optimum Structures Landscape design Cloudlake Design Lighting Ashburner Francis
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home.liebherr.com.au
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Inspired by the raw, expressive quality of classic brutalist architecture, this Melbourne home draws on the once gritty and industrial character of its neighbourhood to create a calming, cave-like oasis.
Words by Tobias Horrocks Photography by Derek Swalwell
The houses in Melbourne’s oldest suburb are scattered between commercial and industrial buildings and, increasingly, hip cafes that reveal themselves when the steel roller doors are up. Collingwood has been typified by this mix of small residential subdivisions and industrial sites since its inception in 1839. Though the buildings rarely rise above two storeys, the area is gritty and urban in feel and mostly treeless. No wonder it attracted a couple interested in the industrial aesthetic. They came to architecture studio Ha with an idea for creating a domestic oasis they titled “industrial/botanical,” and, as principal architect Nick Harding explains, “they wanted a brutalist piece of architecture that was really focused around the natural landscape; they wanted that contrast.” Classic brutalism is typified by off-form concrete – concrete that has been poured into handcrafted moulds that are then dismantled and removed once the concrete has set. Effectively, these structures are built twice – once out of timber and again out of concrete – and the process is therefore not a cheap one. The budget wouldn’t stretch that far so Ha came up with the alternative of building with concrete block, a typical industrial material and equally raw and expressive although the practice selected a module that was tinted a darker grey than the standard block. For reasons of economy, the upper level was always
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going to involve a change to a more lightweight material. Ha’s dark metal cladding matches the concrete and offsets the greenery: the goal is to train plants to grow on and climb around, over and inside the house. At the time of the photo shoot, the young vines had not yet started covering the trellises. In planning the new house, Ha’s first idea was to create a garden courtyard between two pavilions, but inflexible planning regulations quickly curtailed that idea. The lot had an existing crossover (the ramp that allows cars to access the driveway) on the less ideal side of the site and there was a requirement for two off-street car parking spaces. These things, combined with the more standard residential building codes that limit where upper storeys can be located, started to define the building envelope. Ha’s response was to turn the ground-floor plan into two staggered rectangular volumes, each one touching one of the boundaries of the narrow allotment. The upper level had to be located centrally in order to minimize overshadowing to the neighbours, but rather than leaving it as a utilitarian square-edged box, Ha has formed and shaped its silhouette by adding shading/privacy hoods fabricated in perforated metal. A connecting stair is attached to the side of this upper-level volume, contributing to the chamfered composition externally; inside, the stair lands in the open-plan living space but is made more
NEW HOUSE
01 Steel elements and lush garden create a mood that is equal parts industrial and botanical. Artwork: Helen Gory. 02 A muted palette of blockwork, blackened timber and stone is adorned with copper. Artwork: Marian Drew.
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Block House is built on the land of the Wurundjeriwillam people of the Kulin Nation
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ethereal, less “present” than it might have been because, like the hoods outside, the balustrades, treads and risers are made of folded perforated metal. Adhering to the brutalist aesthetic, the interior walls are left raw. The floor is concrete, the kitchen benches are black and white stone. Nick describes the interior as “moody and intimate.” There is one highlight material that deviates from the otherwise greyscale colour palette: polished copper. The leading edge of a single shelf in the dark-stained kitchen joinery is lined with it and I can imagine it glinting in the candlelight at dinner. Nick says they were always planning to include copper in the finishes, but they also found a use for it that is reminiscent of the Japanese art of kintsugi, where cracks in ceramics are repaired with gold-tinted lacquer. It’s standard practice when designing with masonry to set out all the dimensions as multiples of the masonry block length, thereby minimizing the need for cutting or ordering special blocks. “We had to come up with a bit of a strategy, not so much for relief aesthetically, but a way to deal with the imperfections of not being about to make everything work out to an entire block set-out.” Anywhere an odd or difficult junction made it impossible to use whole blocks, they put in a copper strip, even on the external facade. For example, building from boundary to boundary meant internal downpipes were needed, and this gap in the blockwork is covered by a copper panel that also allows access for maintenance. “We turned a problem into an opportunity,” says Nick. Brutalism emerged in the postwar period when conventions were questioned, and the movement has a connection to psychology, evoking the primitive cave and the sheltering rock that soothes our collective unconscious. Raw, unadulterated materials full of texture tend to make one aware of the world “as it is,” waking us up to the present moment in all its authentic existential reality. Ha’s Block House is a cosy cave that faces out to lush greenery, warmed by the sun and in-slab heating, naturally ventilated and without the need for artificial cooling. There is a certain confidence exhibited in the decision to use dark materials. In his book In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki contrasts the contemporary world’s obsession with light with traditional Japanese domestic interiors, where gloom is not a dirty word. Ha and its clients have embraced light and nature as well as the shadows. And shiny metal that glints in the dark.
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Products Roofing: Lysaght Spandek roofing in Colorbond ‘Monument’ External walls: National Masonry Architectural Designer Block concrete blocks in ‘Honed Face Charcoal’; Lysaght Spandek cladding and Locker Group perforated metal sheeting in Colorbond ‘Monument’ Internal walls: Plasterboard painted in Dulux ‘Lexicon Quarter’; National Masonry Architectural Designer Block concrete blocks in ‘Honed Face Charcoal’; Timberwood Panels blackbutt veneer panels in charcoal stain Windows and doors: Architectural Window Systems aluminium windows and doors in Colorbond ‘Monument’; Viridian fluted glass; custom silvertop ash front door in WOCA ‘Black’ stain finish Flooring: Corsi and Nicolai honed brecciolino slab; burnished concrete slab; Feltex Diamond Lake carpet Lighting: Rakumba Highline by Archier; custom pendant by Giffin Design; Lucci Fresco
283 m² 185 m²
Design 1 y Build 1 y
Per m² $5,200
Sentinel wall light; Light Project architectural lighting Kitchen: Asko Volcano Gas cooktop; Falmec Milano rangehood; V-Zug Combair pyrolytic oven and Combi-Steam oven; Bosch dishwasher; Fisher and Paykel Activesmart fridge; Vintec 170-bottle wine storage cabinet; Franke double-bowl sink pack; Oliveri Vilo Pull Out Spray Mixer Bathroom: Milli Pure tapware in ‘Chrome’; Kado Lussi freestanding bath; Caroma Cube 500 under-counter basins; Laufen Palomba wall-hung toilet suites; National Tiles Rectified White Matt wall tiles; Corsi and Nicolai honed brecciolino slab Heating and cooling: In-slab hydronic heating; Beacon Lighting ceiling fans External elements: Ilve built-in barbecue; Bamstone bluestone pavers; custom timber screens in WOCA ‘Black’ stain finish Other: Agostino and Brown Major Chair; custom dining table by Alex Earl; Poliform Bristol sofa; Great Dane Moller 77 chairs and Nanna Ditzel side table
03 Sunlight warms the home and offers an ever-changing visual play of light and shadows. 04 Raw materials in dark grey and black offset the green of the garden, which will envelop the building over time.
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Architect Ha +61 3 9417 2494 info@h-a.com.au h-a.com.au
BLOCK HOUSE
Project team Nick Harding, Madeleine Hodge, Sam Horwood, Ron von Felden Builder Moon Building Group Engineer Oranik Consulting Engineers Landscape design Peachy Green Garden Architects Landscaping Jones Landscapes Lighting Light Project Stylist Beck Simon
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TA U B M A N S B Y P P G S H O W C A S E
Borrowed light: Insights from a coloursmith
Colour has inspired great thinkers throughout the ages, in disciplines from philosophy and psychology to science and art. Here, Rachel Lacy, Chief Coloursmith at Taubmans Australia, offers a lyrical reflection on living life in vivid colour.
“Man needs colour to live; it's just as necessary an element as fire and water.” Fernand Leger 1881–1955 Colour, and the concept of colour, can be approached from different perspectives and disciplines, from the natural sciences to colour theories, technology, philosophy, medicine, psychology and art. What remains unquestionable is the impact of colour on our state of mind. The first known theory of colour belongs to Aristotle, who devised a linear sequence of colours that can be observed during the course of a day: the white light of noon becomes tinged with yellow and changes gradually to orange, then red as the sun sets, followed by purple, dark blue and eventually black at night-time. As the changing colours of day so eloquently demonstrate, colour is not the property of objects, spaces or surfaces. Colour is the sensation caused by certain qualities of light that the eye recognizes and the brain interprets. Light and colour are, therefore, inseparable. But, for most of us, colour is a visual experience; much like music, it takes a shortcut to our senses. Colour is, I believe, of the eye and of the heart. One of the most important ingredients in shaping a space is colour. It adds complexity and enriches our experience of place. It defines the space, indicates function, suggests temperature, influences mood and projects personality. Colour interacts with light and all the other elements in the room to create atmosphere. Colour, and our understanding of it, goes well beyond what is currently in fashion. There is no wrong colour. Whatever colour you love is what is right.
01 Project by Bossley Architects. Photograph: Simon Devitt.
Rachel Lacy Chief Coloursmith Taubmans Australia
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TAUBMANS.COM.AU
02 Project by Marshall Cook. Photograph: Simon Devitt.
01 A potent visual and spatial element, colour influences mood and projects personality. 02 Coupled with everchanging daylight, colour ignites the senses.
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For more information: taubmans.com.au
TAUBMANS BY PPG SHOWCASE
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2020 Presenting the winning, commended and shortlisted projects in the 2020 Houses Awards, celebrating the meaningful way Australia’s architects and designers enhance the way we live.
HOUSES AWARDS 2020 JURY Barrie Marshall established Denton Corker Marshall in 1972 with John Denton and Bill Corker, with whom he shares an Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal. He has an interest in all aspects of design, spanning architecture, the urban environment, landscape and furniture. James Russell is the principal of Brisbanebased practice James Russell Architect and a previous Houses Awards Australian House of the Year winner. Using traditional pen on paper and cardboard models, James explores architecture through making.
See more, visit housesawards.com.au/gallery
Poppy Taylor is a founding director of Taylor and Hinds Architects, a highly awarded Tasmanian practice with a reputation for rigorous, experientially rich work. She was the recipient of the 2011 Australian Institute of Architects Tasmanian chapter Emerging Architects Prize. Hannah Tribe founded Tribe Studio Architects in 2003. The studio is underpinned by the belief that every piece of architecture and design has a responsibility to improve the public domain of the site, to contribute to a sustainable future and to enhance the lives of its users. Katelin Butler is the editorial director at Architecture Media. Prior to this role, she was editor of Houses (2010–2018) and assistant editor of Architecture Australia (2005–2009). She has coedited three books, published by Thames and Hudson.
SUPPORTERS
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HOUSES AWARDS
AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
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NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
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NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M²
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N A N D ADDITION UNDER 200 M²
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² JOINT WINNER
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² JOINT WINNER
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A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT
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GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE
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HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T
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C O M M E N D AT I O N S SHORTLIST
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
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EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
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WINNER 2020 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
C A N TA L A AV E N U E HOUSE BY M E G O L D C O A S T, Q L D
Award for Australian House of the Year is supported by
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CANTALA AVENUE HOUSE
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Cantala Avenue House by ME champions the capacity of modest residential architecture to significantly impact the way we live in Australia. Sited within an unremarkable yet incredibly familiar suburban context, this alteration and addition to a ramshackle 1970s-era house offers its neighbourhood a welcoming communal space comprising a new brickwork entry sequence, planting and seating under a mature poinciana tree. The balance between public and private space has been skilfully navigated, with all the public zones of the home pushed to the street edge. The experience of the dwelling is expanded to encompass the street, demonstrating how design interventions can genuinely build community and neighbourhood. Responding to its location on the Gold Coast, the house is a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional beach shack – carefully avoiding replication, it is a playful and refreshing reinvention of this typology. It has civic respect, yet individualism. Standard or everyday materials and accessories, and the reuse of the existing structural systems,
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HOUSES AWARDS
reveal the architect’s masterful ability to create architecture where it might otherwise not exist. Equal priority has been given to indoor and outdoor spaces, appropriately embracing the subtropical climate. Both the existing plan and the new addition are punctuated with planted courtyards to maximize natural light and ventilation, while minimizing heat from the harsh western sun. The broader context of the world’s current challenges – the climate emergency, global pandemic and economic downturn – calls on us to reflect on what is truly important and what we essentially need to live well. Cantala Avenue House is an alteration and addition that celebrates a simple life. ME has solved ordinary design problems in an extraordinary way, reconsidering the suburban status quo and pushing boundaries, literally and figuratively – and all within a reasonable budget. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 133.
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Architect ME office@mearchitect.com.au mearchitect.com.au
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Project team Matthew Eagle, Samara Hayes, Shane Collins Builder Ivey Built Engineer Rymark Engineers and Westera Partners Surveyor Alan Sullivan and Associates
Photographer Christopher Frederick Jones
CANTALA AVENUE HOUSE
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FITZROY NORTH HOUSE 02
WINNER 2020 NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
FITZROY NORTH HOUSE 02 BY ROB KENNON A R C H I TECTS MELBOURNE, VIC
Award for New House under 200 m² is supported by
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Walking past this home, in a street full of heritage terrace houses in Fitzroy North, Melbourne, you may not immediately realize the building is new. From the street, the crisp facade of what at first appears to be a historic worker’s cottage hints at the highly resolved architecture beyond the front door. This “door” however, is in fact a battened gate that deftly mediates between the public and private realms. Behind the unusual entry, the main twostorey volume of the house sits between a verdant front courtyard and a rear outdoor living space. Crafted from concrete, glass and steel, this modernist structure is bathed in sunlight from two courtyards
Architect Rob Kennon Architects +61 3 9015 8621 mail@robkennon.com robkennon.com
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with orientation to the east and west, and a quasi terrarium to the north. This clever siting, responding to the perils of the typical long, linear site with built-up boundaries, is sensitive to the street and the rear laneway. With refined and contemporary detailing throughout, this is a skilful response to context that provides freedom within a relatively constrained site. It enables daily life and play in a village of sorts, highly connected to the outdoors. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 134.
Project team Rob Kennon, Jack Leishman Builder Ben Thomas Builder Engineer Meyer Consulting Landscape design Eckersley Garden Architecture
Photographer Derek Swalwell
FITZROY NORTH HOUSE 02
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WINNER 2020 NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M²
SUBIACO HOUSE BY VOK E S AND PETERS PERTH, WA
Award for New House over 200 m² is supported by
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SUBIACO HOUSE
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Subiaco House by Vokes and Peters is radical by stealth. It wears the uniform of its Federation-era neighbourhood with polite grace: timber bay windows on street elevations; an exuberant hat of terracotta tiles; rainwater heads like neat broaches on notched lapels; and its rafters, battens and struts glimpsed in flashes of the petticoat. The home’s finely detailed interiors are rich with material and tectonic expression, in tile, stone, concrete, metal and timber. Skirts and cornices are there but not there. Neat ankles touch down lightly. This polite heritage response belies the home’s true radical heart. Its planning subverts the object-inlandscape, “garden suburb” type. The ground-floor wall extends to the site boundaries, transforming from bay window to gate to arbor, fence to screen, engaged seating, entry, circulation. It harnesses the “public” front garden of the house, coopting it into the private space of the house, while also cunningly giving it back to the street. Inside and outside are drawn together, as are public and private. The suburban corner is held by an occupiable cloister edge, as if the Federation house figure-ground diagram now has intriguing shades of grey at its periphery. It is an expansive and radical rethinking of the suburban garden fence. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Architecture Australia July/August 2019.
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Architect Vokes and Peters +61 7 3846 2044 mail@vokesandpeters.com vokesandpeters.com
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Project team Stuart Vokes, Aaron Peters, Emma Robinson, Marty Said, Kirsty Hetherington Builder Mulberry Homes Engineer Structerre
Photographer Christopher Frederick Jones
SUBIACO HOUSE
WINNER 2020 H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M²
BISMARCK HOUSE BY AN D R E W BURGES ARC H I T ECTS S Y D N E Y, N S W
Award for House Alteration and Addition under 200 m² is supported by
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BISMARCK HOUSE
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The mastery of Bismarck House, located on a corner block in a Bondi laneway, lies in its civic generosity to the urban margin. In crafting this extension to the rear of a typical semi-detached dwelling, Andrew Burges Architects has sought active engagement with the public realm that, in turn, brings the domestic life of the house into direct relation with the energy and materiality of its laneway context. The salvaged brick boundary wall is articulated with amenity and civility, undulating to soften the streetscape and to create new thresholds into the site. As part of the elevation’s mise en scène, the kitchen window opens directly into the lane, anticipating
Architect Andrew Burges Architects +61 2 9331 7433 aba@aba-architects.com.au aba-architects.com.au
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serendipitous social interaction with passersby – an important and urbane connection that is so often avoided in tight metropolitan sites. An ingenious shift in the geometric language of the plan establishes a series of roof gardens and light courts. This nuanced spatial realignment affords privacy while bringing natural light from above deep into the plan. The elongation of the landscaped pockets across the site delightfully extends the experience of the garden throughout the entire length of the house, and generously shares its life with the street. From the Houses Awards jury.
Project team Andrew Burges, Min Dark, Eric Ye, Peter Ewald-Rice, Charles Choi Builder Robert Plumb Build Engineer E2 Civil and Structural Design Landscape William Dangar, Dangar Barin Smith Interiors Karen McCartney and David Harrison, Design Daily Timber Joinery Cranbrook Workshop Steel fabrication Marco Steel Steel doors and windows City Scape Steel
BISMARCK HOUSE
Photographer Peter Bennetts
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RUCKERS HILL HOUSE
JOINT WINNER 2020 H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M²
RUCKERS HILL HOUSE B Y ST U D I O BRIGHT MELBOURNE, VIC
Award for House Alteration and Addition over 200 m² is supported by
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Bands of stately Edwardian houses at the edges of our major cities mark the reach of tram and train lines over time. Ruckers Hill House by Studio Bright, an intriguing alteration and addition to one such Edwardian, reflects new changes to the city and the way we live in it. The new addition pulls to the rear of the site, giving importance to secondary streets, and sends up a first floor, periscope-like, to take the measure of Melbourne’s ever-changing skyline. Ruckers Hill House celebrates then subverts the order of operation of the Edwardian. The original double-loaded central corridor is extended in high-vis, bisecting the garden into an entry court and pool. It is a powerful move that is then totally dissolved in the extension, which has a subtle and unexpected circulation logic. A floating metal staircase acts as a spatial divider while level changes and theatrical curtains demarcate rooms. The addition has a rich and playful material language. It reinterprets and abstracts the brick, timber and leadlight of the Edwardian house, as well as responding to its workaday corrugated fencing and sense of diminishing formality from front to rear. Kitchen and casual dining are sited on the street, and views in and out are filtered through a screen – a generous civic act that registers the changing context of contemporary family life. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 133.
Architect Studio Bright +61 3 9853 4730 info@studiobright.com.au studiobright.com.au
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Project team Melissa Bright, Robert McIntyre, Todd de Hoog, Emily Watson, Pei She Lee, Maia Close Builder 4AD Construction Engineer Meyer Consulting Landscape architect TNLA and Rachel Freeman
RUCKERS HILL HOUSE
Photographer Rory Gardiner
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JOINT WINNER 2020 H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M²
C A N TA L A AV E N U E HOUSE BY M E G O L D C O A S T, Q L D
Award for House Alteration and Addition over 200 m² is supported by
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Once typified by scenes of bronzed bathers enjoying long, hot summers, the Gold Coast has been going through a slow transition from holiday playground to Australia’s sixth-largest city. With the unfortunate demolition of many of its understated 1950s houses, the laid-back and neighbourly feel of the area has shifted. Located within this challenging suburban context, Cantala Avenue House by ME is an alteration and addition that joyously reinterprets the history of its place and beach shack typology. Rather than erase the character of the neighbourhood, ME has tactfully taken an ordinary 1970s split-level house, reworking and extending the plan to better engage with the street, the garden and the yard. The courtyard and pool are now allowed privacy, while
Architect ME office@mearchitect.com.au mearchitect.com.au
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a low brick wall and terrace connect the home’s interior to the activity of the street. A sheltered outdoor room has also been created from a formerly interior space, embracing the subtropical climate. While details reference the early houses of the area, and work has been completed in line with the Burra Charter, the new addition is regionally influenced and subtly modern. Acknowledging its humble origins while meeting the needs of a young family, the project sits comfortably within the suburban Gold Coast and adds to the sociability of its quiet cul-de-sac. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 133.
Project team Matthew Eagle, Samara Hayes, Shane Collins Builder Ivey Built Engineer Rymark Engineers and Westera Partners Serveyor Alan Sullivan and Associates
CANTALA AVENUE HOUSE
Photographer Christopher Frederick Jones
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CREMORNE POINT APARTMENT
WINNER 2020 A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT
CREMORNE POINT A PA R T M E N T B Y ST U D I O P LU S T H R E E S Y D N E Y, N S W
Award for Apartment or Unit is supported by
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Cremorne Point Apartment is a work of intelligent, restrained design. Its simplicity and limited palette of white walls and pale oak timber bring light and life deep into the interior of this moderately sized apartment in a way that might seem inevitable. Yet it has taken Studio Plus Three’s sure hand and subtle confidence to make it happen. A reworking of a 1980s apartment in Sydney’s Chippendale, the project replaces a semi-enclosed kitchen and opens up the interior to harbour views. With minimal structural alteration, it allows the floor plan to manifest both private and contiguous space, which is in itself a transformative approach that makes modest spaces appear generous. The architect has held true to the design idea in every detail of its execution. Of course, Cremorne Point Apartment has its own calm, clear personality. The design is balanced, however, in such a way that the owners can choose to add their own personality – there is room for them. For an architect, it is often difficult to decide where architecture ends and decoration begins. But at Cremorne Point Apartment the line is drawn clearly and results in an architectural outcome that is punctuated by clarity. From the Houses Awards jury.
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Architect Studio Plus Three +61 406 801 311 info@studioplusthree.com studioplusthree.com
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Project team Julin Ang, Simon Rochowski, Joseph Byrne, Sreeja Basak Builder Laycock Constructions Engineer Cantilever Consulting Engineers Fire engineer Ferm Engineering
Photographer Benjamin Hosking
CREMORNE POINT APARTMENT
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WINNER 2020 GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE
VAU C LU S E GARDEN BY JANE IRWIN LANDSCAPE A R C H I TECT U R E W I T H B AT E S LANDSCAPE S Y D N E Y, N S W
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A dramatic clifftop site is carefully calibrated into a series of episodic encounters at Vaucluse Garden – of foregrounds and backgrounds, and worlds within worlds. Seeking first to establish the geologic circumstances of the escarpment, Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture with Bates Landscape has used the garden as a contextualizing “habitat,” mediating between the extraordinary site and the architecture of the house. The garden consists of sense-rich native and edible flora, set against the raw strata of exposed bed rock. This new topography ingeniously creates a series of subtle, protected and verdant microecologies, which resolve the edges of the built elements on the site. To the seaward side, the gardens are sunken and sheltered below the cliff edge, whilst also serving to foreground the horizon’s expanse. Delicate and detailed, Vaucluse Garden’s small series of landscape interventions acts to experientially ground the domestic life of the house. Delightfully measured and scaled, these gardens are conceived holistically, as a shared habitat for communities of human and non-human life. From the Houses Awards jury.
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Landscape architect Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture +61 2 9212 6957 info@jila.net.au jila.net.au
VAUCLUSE GARDEN
Project team Jane Irwin, Dan Harmon Landscape Bates Landscape Architect Paul Pholeros
Photographer Dan Harmon and Dianna Snape
WINNER 2020 HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E CONTEXT
NORTH FITZROY HOUSE 02 BY R O B KENNON A R C H I TECTS MELBOURNE, VIC
Award for House in a Heritage Context is supported by
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Fitzroy North House 02 by Rob Kennon Architects presents an elegant solution to the tension that can exist between a new house and its heritage streetscape. The home’s carefully composed form reflects the typical urban massing of Victorian cottages and replaces a non-contributory building in a heritage precinct of Melbourne. Rob Kennon Architects has used traditional materials, like timber, brick and corrugated metal, in a contemporary way to make a quietly powerful statement. The pitched roof, implied verandah and timber picket fence highlight the critical lines of the neighbouring properties, while restrained and thoughtful external detailing encourages closer inspection.
Architect Rob Kennon Architects +61 3 9015 8621 mail@robkennon.com robkennon.com
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All expectations of the terrace house typology immediately dissolve, however, on entering Fitzroy North House 02. This is inner urban living with a delightful connection to nature and sky that belies the location. Conceived simply as a living zone surrounded by garden, with sleeping quarters above, the house delivers this intention beautifully. The living space opens seamlessly at either end to a full-width courtyard and a rear garden, respectively. Landscape and building are harmoniously linked with fluidity, and in a way that is inconceivable from the street. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 134.
Project team Rob Kennon, Jack Leishman Builder Ben Thomas Builder Engineer Meyer Consulting Landscape design Eckersley Garden Architecture
Photographer Derek Swalwell
NORTH FITZROY HOUSE 02
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WINNER 2020 S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
W A R ATA H S E C O N DARY HOUSE BY A N T HRO S IT E NEWCASTLE, NSW
Award for Sustainability is supported by
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The jury found the deliberation for this year’s Sustainability Award to be a delightful challenge, given the breadth of mature and thoughtful shortlisted work that championed sustainability as inherent to good design. Waratah Secondary House by Anthrosite stood out to the jury, however, in part due to its modesty. It is a home designed and built with affordability, pragmatism and comfort in mind, while also delivering a resolved and thoughtful architectural outcome. Waratah Secondary House demonstrates something that we need more of – housing that doesn’t cost the earth, literally or figuratively. The jury was particularly impressed by its response to context as an infill dwelling created on a small, challenging site, along with the architect’s focus on creating a high-performance envelope, and on utilizing efficient and low-waste materials and construction methodologies, such as the Structural Insulated Panel System (SIPS) and embracing raw, exposed finishes. An integrated approach to sustainability isn’t simply about adding technology or satisfying a particular performance rating. And, frankly, size does matter. Waratah Secondary House is a small, humble project that delivers something that we need to see more of in our cities and the jury commends all involved. From the Houses Awards jury.
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Architect Anthrosite +61 2 4031 8988 officemail@anthrosite.com.au anthrosite.com.au
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Project team Mark Spence, Dana Hutchinson Builder F&D DeVitis Engineer Skelton Consulting Engineers Landscape architect Bosque Studio
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WARATAH SECONDARY HOUSE
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Existing house Entry/terrace Living Kitchen/dining Laundry Deck Garden Bedroom
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WINNER 2020 EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
LINEBURG WAN G BRISBANE, QLD
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Award for Emerging Architecture Practice is supported by
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LINEBURG WANG
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01–02 Park Road House (Qld), 2019 03 Indooroopilly House with Owen Architecture (Qld), 2018. Photograph: Toby Scott 04 Stack Street (Qld), 2018. Photograph: Toby Scott
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Established in 2016 by Michael Lineburg and Lynn Wang, Lineburg Wang is an emerging practice that has already asserted itself among Queensland’s wonderful lineage of architectural talent. The influence of work experience at prominent Brisbane-based practices is apparent, but there is a palpable freshness to the suite of houses by Lineburg Wang. The residential work by this duo is ingrained in its context, tracing histories and inventing new ones. Park Road House (see Houses 134) is a fine example of a response to a traditional Queenslander house: it is subtle and sympathetic to the existing condition, with layers of history revealed. Simultaneously, the architects’ bold and clever design moves transform it into a contemporary home. Lineburg Wang’s depth of interrogation of each new residential brief is impressive, solving pragmatic concerns with poeticism. Although there is a consistent and gentle aesthetic evident in the work, the practice takes a sensitive and contextual approach to each unique design problem. The jury members were impressed with the formal clarity and spatial experimentation seen in the collection of predominantly alteration and addition projects, and are looking forward to seeing what’s to come from Lineburg Wang.
Architect Lineburg Wang +61 401 496 264 mail@lineburgwang.com lineburgwang.com
From the Houses Awards jury.
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Photographer Christopher Frederick Jones
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NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M² 01 Courtyard House for Fabprefab (NSW) by Chrofi with Fabprefab. Photograph: Clinton Weaver 02 Ruxton Rise Residence (Vic) by Studiofour. Photograph: Shannon McGrath
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03 Waratah Secondary House (NSW) by Anthrosite. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones 04 Yandina Sunrise (Qld) by Atelier Chen Hung. Photograph: James Hung
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C O M M E N D AT I O N S NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M²
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05 Casuarina House (NSW) by Vokes and Peters. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones 06 Glebe House (NSW) by Chenchow Little Architects. Photograph: Peter Bennetts 07 Kindred (Vic) by Panov Scott Architects. Photograph: Brett Boardman
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09 H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² 08 JJ House (NSW) by Bokey Grant Architects. Photograph: Javier Saiz 09 Ryde Street House (Tas) by Bence Mulcahy. Photograph: Adam Gibson
SEE MORE, VISIT H O U S E S A W A R D S. C O M.A U/G A L L E R Y
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M²
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10 Lindfield House (NSW) by Polly Harbison Design. Photograph: Anson Smart 11 Park Road (Qld) by Lineburg Wang. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones
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12 Bardolph Gardens (Vic) by Breathe Architecture. Photograph: Tom Ross
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13 Commercial Road (WA) by Vittino Ashe Architects. Photograph: Mathieu Cocho 14 Park Road (Qld) by Lineburg Wang with Boss Gardenscapes. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones
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15 Bardolph Gardens (Vic) by Breathe Architecture. Photograph: Tom Ross 16 Bismarck House (NSW) by Andrew Burges Architects. Photograph: Peter Bennetts 17 Courtyard House for Fabprefab (NSW) by Chrofi with Fabprefab. Photograph: Clinton Weaver 18 Edgar’s Creek House (Vic) by Breathe Architecture. Photograph: Tom Ross 19 Long House (Vic) by Clare Cousins Architects. Photograph: Tess Kelly
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HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T 20 Ruckers Hill House (Vic) by Studio Bright. Photograph: Rory Gardiner 21 Subiaco House (WA) by Vokes and Peters. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones 22 Symmons Plains (Tas) by Cumulus Studio. Photograph: Anjie Blair
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Subscribe today architecturemedia.com/digital Italianate House by Renato D’Ettorre Architects. Photography by Justin Alexander.
NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
Courtyard House for Fabprefab Chrofi with Fabprefab
Fitzroy North House 02 Rob Kennon Architects
Glebe Studio Proepper Architects with Angela Rheinlaender
Long House Clare Cousins Architects
North Perth House Nic Brunsdon
Paddington House 05 Nobbs Radford Architects
Ruxton Rise Residence Studiofour
Wallis Lake House Matthew Woodward Architecture
Waratah Secondary House Anthrosite
Welcome to the Jungle House C Plus C Architectural Workshop
Yandina Sunrise Atelier Chen Hung
Ballast Point House Fox Johnston
Bangalley Casey Brown Architecture
Basin Beach House Peter Stutchbury Architecture
Bendalong Beach House Madeleine Blanchfield Architects
Blackheath House James Stockwell Architect
Breezeway House David Boyle Architect
NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M2
Beaumaris House Clare Cousins Architects
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SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST
Casa X Branch Studio Architects
Casuarina House Vokes and Peters
Caulfield North Residence Travis Walton Architecture
Cliff House Auhaus Architecture
Eagle’s Nest Ian Bennett Design Studio
Edgar’s Creek House Breathe Architecture
Flinders House Sally Draper Architects
Glebe House Chenchow Little Architects
Kindred Panov Scott Architects
On the Promised Land Cox Architecture
Pandanus Sparks Architects
Point Nepean Residence B.E. Architecture
Silver Linings Rachcoff Vella Architecture
Sorrento Beach House Pandolfini Architects
Split Home Seidler Group
Subiaco House Vokes and Peters
The Reading Room Reddog Architects
The Stringybark Residence Jaws Architects
Tulipwood House Auhaus Architecture
Two Sheds Dreamer with Roger Nelson
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HOUSES AWARDS
103
NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M2
HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M²
CONTINUED
Union House Austin Maynard Architects
Upside Down Akubra House Alexander Symes Architect
Atop a Shop Tsai Design
Barton House Julie Firkin Architects
Bismarck House Andrew Burges Architects
Concert Hall House Pandolfini Architects
Darlinghurst House Brad Swartz Architects
Harry and Viv’s House Ha
House N Joyce Architects
JJ House Bokey Grant Architects
Melrose Terrace Dan Gayfer Design
North Bondi House James Garvan Architecture
North Melbourne Terrace Eldridge Anderson Architects
Northcote Residence III Project 12 Architecture
Park Life Architecture Architecture
Rose Eastop Architects
Ryde Street House Bence Mulcahy
Sorrento House Cera Stribley
HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² Split House FMD Architects
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Bonview House Phooey Architects
Workers Cottage Clayton Orszaczky
SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST
Butterfly House Pleysier Perkins
Cantala Avenue House ME
Cardigan Place Residence MA Architects
Castlecrag House Polly Harbison Design
Central Park Road Residence II Studiofour
Clinker Brick House Studio Bright
CLT House FMD Architects
Coiled House David Boyle Architect
Cooks River House Studio Plus Three
Courtyard House Joe Agius Architect
Customs House MHN Design Union / Lawless and Meyerson
Drill Hall House Tobias Partners
Elm Tree Place Eastop Architects
Elwood House AM Architecture
Gallery House Grove Architects
Grant Pirrie House Virginia Kerridge Architect
Henley Clays Benn and Penna Architecture
House RV Plus Minus Design
K&T’s Place Nielsen Jenkins
Lindfield House Polly Harbison Design
Malvern Garden House Taylor Knights
Marine Residence David Barr Architects
Northcote House Melanie Beynon Architecture and Design
Park House Phooey Architects
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HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² CONTINUED Park Road Lineburg Wang
Rae Rae House Austin Maynard Architects
Reed House Beth George, Architect
Richmond House Studio Bright
Ruckers Hill House Studio Bright
Runic Street Garden House Myers Ellyett
Symmons Plains Cumulus Studio
Three Stories North Splinter Society Architecture
Tree House Madeleine Blanchfield Architects
Wooloowin House Nielsen Jenkins
Wyoming Inarc Architects
537 Elizabeth Street Woods Bagot
Bardolph Gardens Breathe Architecture
A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT
Bourke Street Apartment Fowler and Ward
Clovelly Apartment James Garvan Architecture
Courtyard Apartment Brcar Morony Architecture
Cremorne Point Apartment Studio Plus Three
Glenwood Unit Studio Martin
King Residence David Barr Architects
Lawler Residence Andrew Donaldson Architecture and Design
Modo Pento Wowowa Architecture
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SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST
Napier Street for Milieu Freadman White
Perfect Storm Killing Matt Woods
Ruskin Elwood Hip V. Hype and Fieldwork
Thornbury Townhouse Fowler and Ward
Castlecrag Polly Harbison Design with Bates Landscape
Commercial Road Vittino Ashe Architects
Malvern Garden House Taylor Knights and Ben Scott Garden Design
GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
Park Road Lineburg Wang with Boss Gardenscapes
Vaucluse Garden Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture with Bates Landscape
Atop a Shop Tsai Design
Ballast Point House Fox Johnston
Bardolph Gardens Breathe Architecture
Bismarck House Andrew Burges Architects
Bonview House Phooey Architects
Breezeway House David Boyle Architect
Casa X Branch Studio Architects
Clovelly Apartment James Garvan Architecture
Courtyard House for Fabprefab Chrofi with Fabprefab
Edgar’s Creek House Breathe Architecture
Garden House BKK Architects
JJ House Bokey Grant Architects
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A House for all Seasons Poly Studio
HOUSES AWARDS
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y CONTINUED
Long House Clare Cousins Architects
Owl Woods Passive House Talina Edwards Architecture
Park Life Architecture Architecture
Ruckers Hill House Studio Bright
Ruskin Elwood Hip V. Hype and Fieldwork
Ryde Street House Bence Mulcahy
The Good Life House Mrtn Architects
Upside Down Akubra House Alexander Symes Architect
Vaucluse Garden Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture and Bates Landscape
Wallis Lake House Matthew Woodward Architecture
Waratah Secondary House Anthrosite
HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E CONTEXT
Warehouse/Greenhouse Breathe Architecture
Welcome to the Jungle House C Plus C Architectural Workshop
Cardigan Place Residence MA Architects
Clinker Brick House Studio Bright
Concert Hall House Pandolfini Architects
Darlinghurst House Brad Swartz Architects
Drill Hall House Tobias Partners
Elwood House AM Architecture
Fitzroy North House 02 Rob Kennon Architects
Gallery House Grove Architects
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Atop a Shop Tsai Design
SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST
Harry and Viv’s House Ha
Northcote Residence III Project 12 Architecture
Paddington House 05 Alison Nobbs and Sean Radford
Park Life Architecture Architecture
Rae Rae House Austin Maynard Architects
Ruckers Hill House Studio Bright
Sorrento House Cera Stribley
Split House FMD Architects
Subiaco House Vokes and Peters
Symmons Plains Cumulus Studio
Welcome to the Jungle House C Plus C Architectural Workshop
Fowler and Ward Pictured: Thornbury Townhouse
Lineburg Wang Pictured: Park Road
EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
Tsai Design Pictured: Atop a Shop
R E G I S T R AT I O N S F O R T H E 202 1 HOUSES AWARDS WILL OPEN IN JANUARY 2021. HOUSESAWARDS.COM. AU
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Prize for Unbuilt Work Experimentation, speculation, invention – celebrating the unbuilt Entries close 21 August architecturemedia.com/aaunbuilt
Prize $5,000 Jury Abbie Galvin, Government Architect NSW Carroll Go-Sam, University of Queensland Rory Hyde, Victoria and Albert Museum Alec Tzannes, Tzannes Katelin Butler, Architecture Media More information architecturemedia.com/aaunbuilt +61 3 8699 1000 aaunbuilt@archmedia.com.au
Image: Speed_Space: Architecture, Landscape and Perceptual Horizons by Stephen Neille (Honourable Mention, 2008 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work).
Durbach Block Jaggers
One of a select few practices to have driven a new Australian vernacular, Durbach Block Jaggers is known for its dynamic buildings that embody cheekiness, wit, nuance and surprise. Words by Katelin Butler Photography by Tom Ferguson
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There is a new Australian residential architecture that has evolved over the past decade that aptly responds to our climate, natural landscape and social context in playful, joyous and inventive ways. A select few highly influential Australian practices have driven this evolution of Australian design and Durbach Block Jaggers (DBJ) is one of them. DBJ was founded in 1987 by Neil Durbach, who was joined by Camilla Block as director in 1998 and by David Jaggers in 2007. There are subtle regional variations in this wave of residential architecture, but DBJ’s work stands apart from the clean straight lines seen in many contemporary Sydney houses. The practice’s pursuit of endless surprise results in complex geometries and overlapping spaces with highlights and deep shadows. DBJ aspires to create new pleasure in every space it designs. The influence of Le Corbusier on DBJ’s work is palpable, with the uncompromising ambition to create buildings with what Neil terms “roundness,” or complexity and richness at all scales. Closer to home, Neil cites the influence of architect Hugh f. The German-born, Sydneybased architect “tangled together modernism with the Australian environment. [Buhrich’s own house]
was a breakthrough in Australia,” explains Neil, who says Buhrich’s architecture was “surprising in a convincing way, always.” In DBJ’s houses, the spatial qualities imbue mundane daily routines with joy. The three practice directors are driven by a desire to redefine the architectural problem with every new project. Although the idea of a singular, central vision might at first be tempting, the notion, Neil says, eventually gets tiresome. This “newness” each time keeps the relatively consistent residential brief interesting. David explains, “The reality is that there is a sameness to residential briefs and the program is generally the same. Often, it’s about loosening up the client’s preconceptions of what their house might be.” Camilla adds, “The site is a physical thing with its own requirements – you can’t shoehorn every idea into every place. That’s part of an architect’s role – to see the place.” House Sixel Miller in Watsons Bay is a delightfully modest example of how the site has determined the building’s form. The new house is on a tight, south-facing site within a heritage conservation area and was designed as a reinterpretation of the original weatherboard cottage. A light scoop and entry skylight shed natural light deep into
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03 A light scoop drenches House Sixel Miller in warming sun. Photograph: John Gollings.
02 House Sixel Miller (2006) sits on a tight, south-facing site in a historic area of Sydney. Photograph: Margaret Sixel.
04 There is a strong connection between House Sixel Miller and its serene garden. Photograph: John Gollings.
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05 Slices have been carved from the plan at Tamarama House (2014) to allow for pockets of verdant green garden. 06 A sketch by Durbach Block Jaggers (DBJ) illustrates the relationship between Tamarama House and its coastal site. 07 As at Tamarama House, DBJ designs in pursuit of elegant and surprising geometries, and clever shifts in light and shade. Photograph: Andrew Cowen.
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the plan, while a strong connection is established with the serene garden. “We have a genuine interest in intimacy and the pleasure of connecting to garden, even if they are balconies or roof gardens. There is often a strange connection between a small place and the largeness of nature. I think that’s something we try to incorporate in all our work,” says Neil. Similarly, at the Tamarama House, slices have been carved from the plan to allow for pockets of verdant green garden. With undeniably spectacular views of the ocean to the south, a more intimate, sunny, north-facing courtyard forms the second face to the building. Many of DBJ’s houses are privy to impressive views but, as Neil explains, “The view can throttle you – because that’s the obsession.” To avoid saturation by a singular perspective, DBJ thoughtfully edits or curates how these vistas are experienced. Upon entry to Tamarama, tiny openings give small glimpses of what lies ahead, never giving too much away. The choreography of the relationship and movement between rooms is a strong spatial concept. Borrowing from Le Corbusier, DBJ commonly embraces the concept of the promenade as an infinite circuit that links and orders all areas of the home. Careful not to design “bossy” buildings
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08 Bold colour adds playful texture and depth to the open-plan space at Balmain Apartment (2013). Photograph: Anthony Browell. 09 The Omnia apartment building (2019) is a defining anchor for a major Kings Cross intersection. Photograph: Brett Boardman. 10 The spectacular ocean view has been thoughtfully edited at Holman House (2004). Photograph: Peter Bennetts. 11 A “steady background with high notes and balance,� Camilla Block says of Holman House. Photograph: Anthony Browell.
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with prescribed functions, DBJ’s intention is to subtly guide or suggest movement and activities. Camilla describes the Holman House as having a “steady background with high notes and balance. There are sudden moments of mirror or stone, column or texture. And the rest is even-handed. There is no system to how things are done.” This intuitive approach to design is akin to finding balance within a painting or sculpture. The poetry of overlapping spaces arises from pragmatic concerns. This is particularly evident in small spaces such as Balmain Apartment, an interior refurbishment of a 1980s apartment. Spaces are not insistent, but suggestive of a particular use. Where there was no option to physically create more space, DBJ has employed a dado line 900 millimetres above the floor to create contrast between light and dark, and thereby increase the perceived height of the apartment. Responding to the client’s work with Australian native birds, bold colour has playfully been applied to add texture and depth within the open-plan space. A fascination with mass and its sculptural qualities is clearly evident in DBJ’s work. For example, the concrete facade of House Taurus appears soft, as if it has melted and
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frozen in a moment in time. There is little uniformity; instead, the house is free-flowing and organic as you weave down the central stair to connect directly to the beachfront. It feels like the building was shaped exactly for this particular site. This idea has been scaled up in the design of Omnia, an apartment block that is now a defining anchor point at a prominent Kings Cross intersection. The dynamic of this trio is sophisticated yet playful – Neil, Camilla and David are astute thinkers with an admiration for and understanding of many art forms, and discussion unfolds naturally with ample wit and a touch of cheekiness. This description could also be used to describe many of the buildings that the practice has designed. The poetry of the sculptural built forms and carefully choreographed spatial sequences is mesmerizing, but every move has a pragmatic purpose or solves a problem. Non-uniform geometries bend and shift according to the physical properties of the sites, and walls push and pull to allow a genuine connection to the surrounding garden or to frame a horizon view. No matter what the project scale or budget, there is an unwavering commitment to creating something uniquely special every single time. durbachblockjaggers.com
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Envisaged in 1968 by Brisbane architect John Railton as a simple “box” for relaxed coastal getaways, Wilson Beach House on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast surpasses modest ambitions and instead offers an enduring example of elegant and expressive Australian design. Words by Jason Haigh Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
WILSON BEACH HOUSE
What kind of holiday house would make a suitable getaway if your main home had recently been awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Queensland chapter’s 1964 Residence of the Year? This was the challenging decision faced by Pam Wilson, an artist, and her husband Patrick, a soil engineer. The couple’s combination of technical and creative outlooks positioned them as natural architecture patrons. Prior to undertaking the design of their holiday house, they had worked with Michael Bryce on the engineering company’s premises, and had engaged John Dalton to design their main home near Brisbane’s Mount Coot-tha. Wilson Beach House was created in a context where the relaxed weekend lifestyle of a beach house typically offered a clear distinction from the formal character of a permanent home. Already possessing a great house in Brisbane, the Wilsons needed a weekender that offered something different, so were seeking a young architect whose approach was bold and unconventional. They sought the advice of the de Gruchys – Joy, who ran the pioneering interior design store Craftsman’s Market, and husband Graham, who was an architectural academic. They knew of John Railton and his approach seemed a natural fit for the project. John began his architectural studies in Brisbane, including an influential year working for then Brisbane City Council architect James Birrell. He completed his degree at the University of Melbourne, where he was exposed to Robin Boyd’s work, and returned to Brisbane to set up his practice only two years after graduating. The architect quickly gained a high profile, with numerous significant projects published in Architecture Australia (then Architecture in Australia), including his home and office at Spring Hill, also later revisited in Houses 89. John’s designs were characterized by raw materials, systematic geometries, spatial drama, and direct yet inventive construction methods. He was interested in the development of British brutalism, and the qualities above resonate with how those architects approached large concrete buildings. In John’s work, these themes instead appear at the domestic scale in timber, brick and fibre cement. When commissioned to design the Wilson Beach House, John was still in his early thirties and he would relocate to the USA for the main part of his career soon after its completion. The Wilsons purchased a site for their beach house abutting the scrubby dunes at Dicky Beach on the Sunshine Coast. John suggested that a suitable design approach was
01 The living spaces are edged by a deep, timber bench that subtly connects the interior to the gently undulating site.
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02 The material palette is restricted, adding to the sense of unity. Between the concrete slab and strawboard ceiling, almost everything else is timber. 03 A double-height space opens up towards the beach, while the bedroom wing sits above the kitchen, bathroom and garage.
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not unlike the modernist summer houses found in America’s north-eastern island communities like Cape Cod and Nantucket. The architect envisaged Wilson Beach House as a simple and robust timber box set amongst the dunes, where families would arrive on the weekend and open it up towards the beach, living one notch above camping. The house’s sectional arrangement is divided into a double-height space for casual occupation towards the beach, while bedrooms are placed at the street side above working spaces such as the kitchen, bathroom and garage. By using part-height walls around the bedrooms, the entire upper ceiling plane is visible, sheltering occupants within a singular volume. John envisaged the walkway that connects the bedrooms as an internal verandah, where people could survey the communal areas below or look out towards the ocean. The beachfront edge of the house offers memorable interactions between internal living areas and the site. An occupiable edge is created by a continuous bench seat whose top sits near the ground level outside. People can inhabit the position where there is spatial release to the sky and landscape. However, this moment is coupled with a contrasting sense of intimacy, due to the excavated floor tucking the interior into the site. Above the bench are oversized double-hung shutters, tall enough to walk through. In the closed position, glazed panels are above and plywood panels below, which is ideal for securing a weekender. Occupants on the upper level wake to see the sun coming up over the ocean. During the day, the plywood shutters are raised and the living area acts like a covered outdoor space edged by rhythmic timber mullions. Visual connections beyond the interior are restricted so the only unobstructed view is towards the ocean, creating a consolidated focus. The resulting feeling of enclosure at the sides and the extensive use of timber combine to create a feeling of intimate warmth. When combined with the openness of the beach-facing elevation,
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06 Wilson Beach House is a robust timber box set amongst the dunes, where families spend relaxed weekends, living one notch above camping. 07 A combination of timber and glass on the beach-facing elevation creates a dramatic play of reflection, dappled light and shadow.
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Wilson Beach House is approached from the street informally across undulating grass. Its weatherboardclad elevation is simple and restrained, and coupled with a smaller box that contains a drying court and beach shower. The front door is teamed with a lattice gate, which provides security while allowing glimpses and breeze to permeate. The compact plan has an identifiable underlying geometry that brings a sense of order and gathers the different elements into a unified whole. The floor plan is divided into six modules that order the spatial configuration, structural elements and shutters. Its material palette is restricted, adding to the sense of unity. Between the concrete slab and a strawboard ceiling, almost everything else is timber. These materials are assembled with elegant simplicity and highlighted by moments of inventive detailing. At many levels, this home is about setting a scene for a casual lifestyle where people can relax and enjoy the connections between each other and the site. Both physically and conceptually there is a robustness that is forgiving of people who don’t want to spend their holiday being neat and tidy. This casual attitude is symbiotic with the direct approach of the constructed elements. There is a poetic utilitarian quality to the making of the home – it is precise but not precious. John has described his approach of creating a box that could contain all the parts of a holiday house. The design of Wilson Beach House goes beyond this to create an outcome that packages together enduring ideas for Australian living, offering an elegant conceptual order, expressive building fabric, and a framework for memorable experiences. Section drawings – not to scale (1968)
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WILSON BEACH HOUSE
07
HOUSES 135
REVISITED
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08 During the day, the oversized doublehung shutters are left open, transforming the living area into a lofty outdoor room.
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WILSON BEACH HOUSE
Architect John Railton
HOUSES 135
REVISITED
Project team John Railton Builder Bill Tilden Engineer George Francie
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01
Out Driving EXHIBITION
Gathered during innumerable forays into Melbourne’s suburban streets, this collection of historical photographs by draftsman Peter Wille offers a candid portrait of mid-century Australian life and architecture. Words by Thomas Essex-Plath Photography by Peter Wille 02
The State Library Victoria’s South Rotunda is a kind of in-between space. The small gallery could easily be overlooked by a preoccupied visitor, yet it is precisely this quality that made it an appropriate setting for the unassuming character of the exhibition Out Driving. This selection of photographs by draftsman and amateur photographer Peter Wille is, however, worth far more than a passing glance. The exhibition comprised 50 enlarged reproductions of colour slides depicting Melbourne’s mid-century architecture, a tiny portion of more than 6,000 photographs in Wille’s collection (now held by the library). Wille accumulated these images as a result of innumerable forays “out driving” through the suburbs of Melbourne and beyond. The photographs, taken predominantly during the 1950s and ’60s, depict some of the city’s most familiar examples of Victorian modernism as well as some lesser-known buildings. Today’s public appetite for mid-century modern architecture continues and these images will appeal to many. The most significant feature captured by these images, however, is not any one particular building. It is, rather, the palpable excitement of their author. There is something in the hasty, amateurish composition of the photographs, the obviously new (and occasionally unfinished)
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state of the buildings and the sheer size of the collection that conveys Wille’s enthusiasm for experiencing and absorbing an emerging landscape of modern architecture. Communicating Wille’s active pursuit of architecture (his “drive,” perhaps) seems especially pertinent today. Our relationship to the built environment is increasingly being replaced by a passively received stream of images – one that is now, literally, at our fingertips. Making adventurous trips out to unfamiliar suburbs seems like an ever-more foreign idea. In spite of Wille’s tangible energy, there is a disheartening undertone to the exhibition – the implication that we have lost something in our contemporary circumstance. Taking some time out to make the journey to visit this small exhibition might be seen as a worthwhile step in reversing this seemingly inescapable situation. After the exhibition’s closure, more than 4,000 images from Wille’s collection remain available to view online via the library’s digitized collection. Their personal and understated character may mean that these photographs escape the digital stream of social media images, yet allow them to preserve a dwindling kind of architectural experience and the design that inspired it. Out Driving was held 1 December 2018 – 30 April 2020 at State Library Victoria. slv.vic.gov.au
POSTSCRIPT
01 Kevin Borland’s innovative Rice House (1953) in the outer Melbourne suburb of Eltham. 02 Construction underway at Walsh Street (1957), Robin Boyd’s own home in South Yarra.
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