Australian Residential Architecture and Design
AN OPEN I N V I TAT I O N Welcoming spaces that make you feel at home ISSUE 133 $12.95
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9 APRIL 2020
AWARD CATEGORIES
Shortlist announced housesawards.com.au
Australian House of the Year New House under 200 m² New House over 200 m² House Alteration and Addition under 200 m² House Alteration and Addition over 200 m² Apartment or Unit Garden or Landscape Sustainability House in a Heritage Context Emerging Architecture Practice
31 JULY 2020
Winners revealed at a gala presentation in Sydney
JURY Barrie Marshall James Russell Poppy Taylor Hannah Tribe Katelin Butler
Denton Corker Marshall James Russell Architect Taylor and Hinds Tribe Studio Architecture Media
MORE INFORMATION housesawards.com.au +61 3 8699 1000 housesawards@archmedia.com.au
SUPPORTERS
THE PINNACLE OF RESIDENTIAL DESIGN
CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA’S BEST
PRESENTED BY
ORGANIZED BY
At a Glance
From the Editor Musings
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Contributors
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Maison&Objet Products A selection of design highlights from the 2020 Maison&Objet fair in Paris.
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A decade of residential design Spotlight Celebrating ten years of the Houses Awards.
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Paddington House: 52 Meet the Owner Working with an Architect Builder Bobby Coulston explains why he used architects to give his rundown cottage in Paddington a new lease on life.
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Youssofzay and Hart One to Watch
Calen Knauf Studio
Ross Thompson Studio
Belqis Youssofzay and David Hart focus on smart solutions that champion sustainability and affordability.
Eclectic Canadian designer Calen Knauf produces objects that are finely resolved studies in colour and materiality.
Ross Thompson emphasizes craftsmanship and quality in his furniture, while also drawing on his musical side.
Bookshelf 57 Reading A history of collective living; a look at Australian-made furniture in contemporary houses; and a delectable work on edible art. Soothe the senses 62 Bathroom Products Luxurious surfaces, stylish drains and robust tapware offer the ultimate in relaxation. Designing a Legacy Postscript A live presentation of short films by comedian and modernism geek, Tim Ross.
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91 Benn + Penna In Profile Working mainly on small projects, Benn + Penna has mastered constrained conditions to make calm and considered spaces.
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Vincent Street House by Finn Pedersen First House
Way House by Darryl Way Revisited
Inspired by midcentury icons, Vincent Street House served as first project and home to architect Finn Pedersen.
Built in 1975, this home designed by an under-the-radar Perth architect is an exploation of order and rhythm.
AT A GLANCE
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With terraced gardens and thresholds that converse with the street, these homes are warm, welcoming and create a sense of neighbourhood. 28 Cantala Ave House by ME Alteration + addition Gold Coast, Qld
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Alteration + addition Melbourne, Vic
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Paddington House by Twohill & James
Ruckers Hill House by Studio Bright
Coastal House by O'Connor & Houle
Ballast Point House by Fox Johnston
Alteration + addition Brisbane, Qld
Alteration + addition Melbourne, Vic
New house Blairgowrie, Vic
New House Sydney, NSW
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36 Park Life by Architecture Architecture
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Beaumaris Residence by Studiofour
Reed House by Beth George
Cloud Cottage by Takt Studio
New house Melbourne, Vic
Alteration + addition Perth, WA
Alteration + addition Bowral, NSW
CONTENTS
Musings
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More and more in our cities – and online – individuals are getting together to share their collective voice. And although it is expressed in many ways, overwhelmingly, the shared sentiment is one of community and empathy. The homes in this issue show that architecture can play a part in supporting the things we truly value – whether it be a connection to neighbourhood, exemplified by the generous terraced streetfront at Cantala Ave House by ME (page 28); the desire to acknowledge culture and the historical complexities of a place, expressed by Studio Bright in its Ruckers Hill House (page 66); or the need to make flexible spaces that can support our ageing relatives, like those at Ballast Point House by Fox Johnston (cover, page 82). These are more than residential buildings; they are civic gestures that embody our desire to live in a connected, socially and environmentally responsible way. Homes like this show that small efforts designed with a shared ethos can transform our suburbs in a way that reflects our common ambitions. Gemma Savio, editor
01 Get your tickets to The Architecture Symposium in Brisbane, including tours of four of the city’s most outstanding architect-designed homes. Held on the weekend of 27–28 June, the symposium, curated by Anita Panov and Andrew Scott, presents a day of robust discussion focusing on projects that provide inspirational examples of smallscale architecture. To complement the theme, The Architecture Symposium includes intimate tours of La Scala by Richards and Spence (pictured), New Farm Cottage by Vokes and Peters, Terrarium House by John Ellway and Z House by Donovan Hill. Photograph: Yaseera Moosa designspeaks.com.au 02 The 2020 Houses Awards shortlist will be announced on 8 April at Cult in Melbourne. Head to the website on 9 April for the full shortlist and don’t forget to mark the details for the awards gala presentation night in your diary: Friday 31 July at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Tickets on sale later this month. housesawards.com.au
Write to us at houses@archmedia.com.au Subscribe at architecturemedia.com Find us @housesmagazine
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MUSINGS
03 Experience architecture in a new light at Rebecca Baumann: Radiant Flux. Spanning over 100 metres in length, this immersive, site-specific artwork sees Sydney’s iconic Carriageworks building transformed in technicolour. Vivid hues of blue, magenta, yellow, gold, green and blue bathe the space in an everchanging wash of colour. Rebecca Baumann: Radiant Flux is on at Carriageworks until 14 June 2020. Photograph: Zan Wimberley carriageworks.com.au
03 04 Enjoy the nostalgia of the 1950s and ‘60s through a photographic exhibition showcasing the work of Peter Wille, who amassed a collection of more than 6000 colour photographs of Melbourne’s architecture at the time. Peter Wille: Out Driving includes works by visionary architects Robin Boyd, Peter McIntyre, Kevin Borland, and John and Phyllis Murphy. The exhibition is showing at State Library Victoria until 30 April 2020. Photograph: Peter Wille slv.vic.gov.au
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AWSAUSTRALIA
TAKE YOUR IDEAS TO NEW HEIGHTS
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ELEVATEALUMINIUM.COM.AU Pictured — KV House. Photography: SRH. Architect: Turner.
ARCHITECTURAL WINDOWS AND DOORS BY
Contributors Editor Gemma Savio Editorial enquiries Gemma Savio T: +61 3 8699 1000 houses@archmedia.com.au
Michael Macleod Writer Michael Macleod is a director of architecture at Kennedy Nolan. He also teaches, is involved with the Australian Institute of Architects and has an interest in the social responsibilities of architects.
Linda Cheng Writer Linda Cheng is editor of ArchitectureAU.com. She is a contributor to a number of Australian architecture and design magazines including Houses, Artichoke and Architecture Australia.
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 Lana Golubinsky Victoria Hawthorne
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 New South Wales office Level 2, 3 Manning Street Potts Point NSW 2011 Australia T: +61 2 9380 7000 F: +61 2 9380 7600 Endorsed by The Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.
Advertising enquiries All states advertising@ archmedia.com.au +61 3 8699 1000
Genevieve Lilley Writer Genevieve Lilley is an architect practising in Tasmania and New South Wales. She also designs modern jewellery, and sits on the Tasmanian Heritage Council.
WA only OKeeffe Media WA Licia Salomone +61 412 080 600
Brett Mitchell Writer Brett Mitchell is a lecturer at Curtin University in the School of Design and the Built Environment. He is also a writer, works on exhibitions and pursues collaborative creative practice.
Print management DAI Print Distribution Australia: Ovato Australia (bookshops) and International: Eight Point Distribution
Cover: Ballast Point House by Fox Johnston. Photograph: Brett Boardman.
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CONTRIBUTORS
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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Favourites from Maison&Objet
A selection of the latest in homeware, lighting and furniture design from the 2020 Maison&Objet fair in Paris. Find more residential products: selector.com and productnews.com.au
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01 Silica ceramic basket Performing as both a decorative and a practical piece, the Silica ceramic basket from Barcelona brand Octaevo is made of delicately woven earthenware, typifying the southern European aesthetic of organic forms and geometric lines. It is available in four contemporary hues. octaevo.com
03 Assemble sofa Designed by Destroyers/Builders, the Assemble sofa encourages exactly what its name suggests: assembling your own sofa. Inspired by weathered pebbles, the sofa’s asymmetrical cushions can be arranged in various forms, from two-seaters to poufs. valerie-objects.com
02 Lola rug Pop Art style and geometry marry in Rug Society’s Lola, a hand-tufted rug full of personality. Made with New Zealand wool and linen, Lola rug’s straight lines play off its round shape and its bright colours serve to beautifully complement timber interiors. rugsociety.eu
04 Woody pouf Spanish brand Houtique has always been known for creating playful furniture that doesn’t take itself too seriously and the shaggy Woody pouf is no exception. Available in four colours, the Woody pouf is covered in hundreds of strands of neoprene. houtique.es
HOUSES 133
PRODUCTS
05 Frieze collection Exuberant and colourful, each item in the Frieze collection from Ex.t has a strong architectural form. The Italian brand has collaborated with design practice Marcante-Testa to create the modular collection, which includes washbasins and various other bathroom accessories. ex-t.com
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06 Level daybed Designed by MSDS Studio for Woud, the Level daybed was inspired by the simple form of sawhorses and appears as a sheet laid across two sets of legs. Its leather mattress is available in a range of earthy shades, including ‘Moss Green,’ ‘Cognac’ and ‘Nougat.’ woud.dk
08 Jessi chair Cross-disciplinary Antwerp-based designer Thomas Van Noten launched the Jessi chair at Maison&Objet. The chair showcases all of its joints, highlighting the designer’s interest in honest design and craftsmanship. Its curved structure gives it a timeless elegance. thomasvannoten.com
07 Junit light German studio Schneid uses natural materials, striking colours and bold shapes in the Junit light, a modular pendant lamp that consists of eight discrete elements. The units are turned from high-quality ash wood before being painted in a local workshop. schneid.org
09 Jug by Laureline Galliot One of six Maison&Objet Rising Talent Award winners, Laureline Galliot uses new technology to create objects that champion colour. Her 3D-printed Jug (pictured) empitomizes her design approach, which is inspired by the paintings of the Fauvism school. laurelinegalliot.com
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FAVOURITES FROM MAISON&OBJET
10 Cape sofa The minimalistic and sophisticated look of Softline’s Cape modular sofa is sure to add a modern touch to any space, and, with several modules to choose from, you can design it to fit your room perfectly. The slightly protruding seams are a soft, cosy accent. softline.dk
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11 Asmara sofa Designed by Bernard Govin for Ligne Roset, the Asmara modular sofa is characterized by wavy, almost-retro concave shapes that voluptuously embrace the human form. Ligne Roset’s products are exclusively available in Australia from Domo. domo.com.au
13 Carnival lamps Renowned for its hand-cut crystal objects and tableware, Reflections Copenhagen has collaborated with Design By Us to create a series of crystal ceiling lamps. True to its name, Carnival is a festive parade of crystal and colour that combines theatre and decadence. reflections-copenhagen.com
12 Soul Soft chair At Maison&Objet, Pedrali released Soul Soft, designed by Eugeni Quitllet. With a solid ash wood frame and polycarbonate shell padded and upholstered in leather, the new seating recalls the silhouette of the original Soul collection and refines the idea of comfort. pedrali.it
14 Blok shelf Darkroom’s influences, ranging from the Bauhaus to the Post Modernists to the ancient tribes of the world, are reflected in the Blok freestanding shelving units. Hand-built in the United Kingdom, the shelf is available in various heights for different uses. darkroomlondon.com
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FAVOURITES FROM MAISON&OBJET
15 Sandwich table collection Displaying a combination of textures and materials, the straight lines of the Sandwich collection, by Untaller Studio, give it a harmonious balance. The table top is available in an extensive range of finishes and the base is available in iron or wood-clad options. verges.design
KITCHEN / BATHROOM / LAUNDRY
DISCOVER THE OLIVERI BATHROOM COLLECTION Featured products / Stockholm wall mixer set in matte black: ST095516MB Naples counter top rectangle fine edge basin: NA3711 Oslo wall hung toilet suite with matte black flush plate: OS513SQPPBK Athens toilet roll holder in matte black: AT4686MB Athens hand towel rail in matte black: AT4680MB
With more than 220 products across toilets, basins, showers, tapware, baths and accessories, this fresh, premium range of contemporary bathroom products is on trend, backed by industry leading warranties and available now for your next project. View the full collection at oliveri.com.au
A decade of residential design SPOTLIGHT
Now in its tenth year, the Houses Awards has been instrumental in recognizing both the evolution and excellence of Australian residential architecture. Here, we reflect on the past decade of Australian House of the Year winners, offering an insight into the changing nature of design. Words by Marcus Baumgart
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2011 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
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SPOTLIGHT
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2012 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
The tenth year of the Houses Awards provides a golden opportunity to look in the rear-view mirror at a decade of Australian residential design. Through the specific lens of Australian House of the Year award winners, we are able to consider how architecture’s response to people and place has progressed in the last 10 years. Across the group of award winners, a number of themes emerge that, over time, represent the evolution of shared design aspirations. The first common thread that connects the winning houses is evident in the House in Country NSW by Virginia Kerridge Architect (2011 Australian House of the Year). The design is informed by the use of material in the existing stone house to propose a new architectural language in timber. The harmonization of the new build with the heritage remnants of the existing homestead connects the property to both local built history and the physical moment; the result is an enduring reinterpretation of the iconic verandah, and an Australian pastoral idyll. Similarly, Shearer’s Quarters by John Wardle Architects (2012 Australian House of the Year) presents a painstaking reinterpretation of a quintessentially
01 House in Country NSW by Virginia Kerridge Architect. Photograph: Marcel Aucar. 02 Shearer’s Quarters by John Wardle Architects. Photograph: Trevor Mein.
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SPOTLIGHT
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2013 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
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SPOTLIGHT
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2015 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
pastoral program. New, modern forms are fused to an 1840s cottage and a careful bleeding of architectural language between the two eras creates an entirely original whole. As at House in Country NSW, an earthy materiality, expressed predominantly in timber, unifies the design. The desire to engage and anchor design in cultural history is continued by architects Vokes and Peters, albeit in a city setting. Connecting a classic, elevated timber Queenslander with a thoroughly contemporary modernist extension, Auchenflower House (2017 Australian House of the Year) takes advantage of the delights of a subtropical climate. Using timber battens in a way that makes the new forms at the rear familiar and yet novel in their geometry, the house explores the vernacular of suburban Brisbane. In middle-ring suburbia, Bisley Place House by James Russell Architect (2013 Australian House of the Year) also embraces the local climate but does so in a manner that challenges the social setting of new housing developments. By instituting radical permeability – through the agency of oversized garage doors – this home harks back to a time I remember from my own Queensland childhood, when children roamed freely between neighbouring houses. The only apartment to have received the premier Houses Award, Darling Point Apartment by
03 Bisley Place House by James Russell Architect. Photograph: Toby Scott 04 Invisible House by Peter Stutchbury Architecture. Photograph: Michael Nicholson. 05 Planchonella House by Jesse Bennett Architect. Photograph: Sean Fennessy.
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SPOTLIGHT
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2016 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
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Chenchow Little (2016 Australian House of the Year) shares some of the sensibility of Bisley House, expressed as a nod to post-war modernism, combined with the aspect of a sweeping Sydney Harbour view. Primarily an interior project, the apartment is akin to a mid-century modernist house, with liberal use of timber on floors, walls and ceiling, and a spare but strategic use of colour in secondary rooms. Carefully balancing concrete, stone, timber, steel and glass, Peter Stutchbury Architecture’s Invisible House (2014 Australian House of the Year) reflects another tectonic of Australian residential architecture altogether. In common with Planchonella House by Jesse Bennett Architect (2015 Australian House of the Year), both designs employ seemingly endless planes of concrete. A contemporary engagement with climate and landscape, rather than built history, anchors these two projects in their sites.
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Cabbage Tree House, also by Peter Stutchbury Architecture (2018 Australian House of the Year), takes the notion of a connection to landscape to literal extremes, with massive masonry walls founded on a northern Sydney rock shelf. Materiality is the key here and the house is cave-like in parts. Relying on its massive masonry construction (brick and concrete, combined with timber and glass) to imbue living spaces with warmth, it is defined by gentle curves against the landscape. The Houses Awards winners provide a snapshot of the evolving nature of “home” and the most recent Australian House of the Year (2019), Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill, signifies a departure from the expected program of a home. A combined dwelling/ farm building/greenhouse/business premises, the house focuses actively on exploiting climate and microclimate. This home is an exciting experiment in living
SPOTLIGHT
06 Darling Point Apartment by Chenchow Little. Photograph: Peter Bennetts. 07 Auchenflower House by Vokes and Peters. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones.
2017 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
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9 Cabbage Tree House by Peter Stutchbury Architecture. Photograph: Michael Nicholson.
and working. It represents an evolution in hybrid housing that is entirely of the moment, almost akin to a rural or agricultural co-working hub. The simplicity of materials used, with timber and brick sub-buildings beneath the 110-metre-long shed roof, combine with a playful novelty of spatial exploration to create something that is both strangely familiar and yet radically different to anything we might have seen 10 years ago. These houses demonstrate shared design ideals, from a preoccupation with anchoring to place through a response to climate and context, to rich and grounded use of materials. And yet, the most recent project shows the emergence of a hybrid design that may have been unimaginable a mere decade before. Taken together, these projects describe a trajectory of increasing preoccupation with climate and the elements that ground and sustain us, and an increasing hybridization of program and brief. These are dwellings that have been conceived to endure, in terms of both physical fabric and the vicissitudes of fashion. They have all been shaped with a long-term view, intentionally side-stepping the fashion moment in favour of timelessness.
10 Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill. Photograph: Rory Gardiner.
housesawards.com.au The 2020 Houses Awards shortlist will be published online on Thursday 9 April. Join us as we celebrate Australian residential design and announce this year’s winners on Friday 31 July 2020 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.
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2019 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
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SPOTLIGHT
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C A N TA L A AV E HOUSE BY M E
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A nuanced understanding of the Gold Coast’s colourful heritage, as well as its local quirks and character, is embedded in this neighbourly family home.
Words by Sheona Thomson Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
This thoughtful reworking by ME of a 1970s split-level house in the Gold Coast suburb of Miami opens up an internalized floor plan to create a connected and contemporary home for a young family of four. Located in a quiet cul-de-sac, Cantala Cottage is within walking distance of the beach and other local amenities. The cul-de-sac has a relaxed and friendly feeling with deep front yards and low or no boundary walls. Architect Matthew Eagle has peeled back years of incremental additions – a patchwork of external and internal cladding types and a “tacked on” bay window and sunroom – in order to, in Matthew’s own words, “extract a specialness” from the old cottage. Matthew has preserved and reused a significant amount of the original fabric while also making targeted interventions to address the client’s requirements for their family. These range from a distinctive parents’ space to managing the specific problems of overlooking neighbours and poor drainage due to a cross fall in the topography. The cul-de-sac frontage, with its friendly “slow street” feel, was a clear opportunity that Matthew sought to celebrate. To keep the street character alive, Matthew shunned the typical connection-killing suburban combination of high fence and carport. Instead, a neat landscape of low brick walls and terraces set among low-planted pebble gardens formalizes the sequence from street to house beneath the spreading shade of an existing poinciana. The new landscape foregrounds the low-pitched gable form of the house, which Matthew has pared back to a simpler composition of clean lines and fewer materials, echoing a mid-century modern past without being imitative. A brick pathway steps up to a landing porch that leads to a small entry: a practical place for the family to drop bags and kick off shoes. Adjacent to the entry is the client’s study, which angles out beyond the original building envelope to catch a view over the entry terrace and street.
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CANTALA AVE HOUSE
Cantala Ave House is built on the land of the Kombumerri clan of the Yugambeh people
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Alteration + addition
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The floor plan of the existing cottage has been extended by 2.5 metres towards the eastern boundary and the kitchen and living spaces have been reconfigured to actively connect inside and outside. A portion of interior space at the centre of the plan has been converted into a sheltered outdoor room, allowing the interior living areas to open completely to this protected space. The brick-paved outdoor room extends to become a courtyard bounded by a low seating edge that is anchored by a fireplace. Beyond the courtyard, a tidy lawn looks across to a swimming pool, separated from it by a “ha-ha” ditch that mitigates the need for pool fencing. In the newly narrowed space between the outdoor room and the street-side porch is the dining area. Here, a wide window with a built-in seat offers fantastic prospect over the front terrace and cul-de-sac. “The kids spend much of their time in the street,” says Matthew. “Adults come around and sit on the ledges. It’s like a mini urban landscape.” This orchestration of the interface between dwelling and street to support everyday sociality is a great example of a “civic response” in a suburban setting, and it’s an approach that inspires Matthew. A new wing extends north along the eastern edge of the site to gain space for the parents’ bedroom and bathroom as well as additional utility areas. Matthew acknowledges that this move is counterintuitive because it creates an expanse of wall exposed to the heat of the western sun. Still, it serves to establish much-needed privacy to the garden, courtyard and pool as it joins a wraparound garden wall made of chamferboard that has been profiled to mimic the roofline of the house. Limited openings in the wall feature opaque shutters that exclude the western sun from the interior of the extension. Daylight enters the interior from above through two narrow garden voids, one between the living room and bedroom, the other between the bedroom and bathroom, and each just less than a metre wide. This tactic for introducing northern light and naturally ventilating the interior while shutting out the western sun springs from an idea first tried at the Burleigh Street House (see Houses 116). Even though the green voids are small interventions, they introduce a luxurious spaciousness and serenity to the experience of the interior. The Gold Coast is unquestionably a place of avid development, a place in which ordinary, neighbourly homes are sacrificed in favour of sky-high apartments that are disconnected from their settings. While many architects understandably strive to spare historically significant residential heritage from a formulaic demolish-and-develop mindset, at Cantala Cottage, Matthew demonstrates that modest buildings in their sociable neighbourhoods also deserve to be celebrated and sustained for at least another generation of family life.
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ALTERATION + ADDITION
2 Site 506 m² Floor 209 m²
Design 6 m Build 7 m
Products Roofing: Lysaght Trimdek in Colorbond ‘Surfmist’; Bradford Anticon insulation External walls: LOSP chamferboards; CSR fibre cement sheet Internal walls: CSR plasterboard and fibre cement sheet Windows and doors: Duce Timber Windows and Doors hardwood doors and windows in Dulux ‘Lexicon Quarter’ and ‘White Watsonia’; Brio hardware Flooring: Burnished concrete; spotted gum floorboards Lighting: Havit Tivah lights Kitchen: Bosch integrated dishwasher; Baumatic oven; Finestone Teltos Carrara benchtops Bathroom: Phoenix Tapware Vivid Slimline mixer; Posh Solus bath; Geberit Sigma toilet; custom mirror cabinet by Ivey Built External elements: Warwick Brick Works Rustic Buff-Face bricks
01 The home’s low-pitched gable form echoes its mid-century modern past without being imitative.
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02 The newly reconfigured kitchen celebrates the modest scale and detail of its predecessor. 03 Giving a portion of formerly interior space to the exterior created a sheltered outdoor room. Artwork: Joshua Parry. 04 Wide windows and built-in seating foster a sociable connection through the home to the front garden.
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Daylight enters the interior from above through two narrow garden voids, one between the living room and bedroom, the other between the bedroom and bathroom.
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05 Natural light penetrates the interiors of the new, west-facing parents’ wing via diminutive garden voids. 06 The paved outdoor room transitions to a courtyard, bounded by a low seating edge and anchored with a fireplace. 07 Beyond the court, a “ha-ha” ditch mitigates the need for pool fencing, enabling sight lines across the backyard.
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Architect ME office@mearchitect.com.au mearchitect.com.au
HOUSES 133
ALTERATION + ADDITION
Project team Matthew Eagle, Samara Hayes, Shane Collins Builder Ivey Built Engineers Rymark Engineers and Westera Partners Surveyor Alan Sullivan and Associates
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PAR K L I F E BY ARC H ITECTU RE ARC H ITECTU RE
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Fluid spaces and unexpected scale create a tranquil home for an artist and a curator on this slice of Melbourne suburbia – the legacy of a 1940s attempt to marry housing and countryside.
Words by Michael Macleod Photography by Tom Ross
Park Life is located on a corner in the Champion Road Estate Precinct, a largely intact pocket of 1940s Housing Commission duplexes beside the vast Newport railyards in the Melbourne bayside suburb of Williamstown. A cluster of compact houses set well back from curving streets with deep nature strips, the estate was designed using the Garden City principles popular in Australia at the time. The movement – an attempt to marry housing and countryside by combining the best of both worlds – was a response to often grim conditions in inner-city tenements and terraces. Architecture Architecture has recognized the opportunities and constraints of living on a prominent corner in this “park life” setting.There is a focus on the house’s interface with the public realm – vital when your backyard is also a front garden to a side street. A high fence was removed and, instead, the backyard/front garden is contained by an artists’ studio – an enigmatic suburban landmark with a single porthole window – and a concealed service yard. The privacy of the new courtyard created between the studio and the house can be moderated by a large, hinged screen; the yard can be either almost completely open to the street, with neighbours free to wander in, or secured behind a high wall of timber battens. The clients for this project, an artist and a curator, came with a good understanding of the site, an open brief and a large degree of trust. An initial sketch from Architecture Architecture captured their imagination: a bold
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PARK LIFE
01 Floor area has been carved out of the house wherever possible and given over to the courtyard.
Park Life is built on the land of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin
2 Melbourne, Vic
Alteration + addition
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diagonal line of circulation bisects the site and sets in train a series of manoeuvres to maximize space, light and connection. Modifications to the rooms of the existing brick cottage were minimized, its rational wartime austerity left to contrast with the fluid lines of the new addition. However, paths of travel were transformed by the creation of a wide central hallway space that might look inefficient on paper but makes perfect sense when experienced as a well used art gallery at the heart of the house. This space creates a moment of pause in the owners’ daily routines and recognizes the importance of art to their lives. Throughout the plan, Architecture Architecture has played with degrees of threshold and enclosure to define separate spaces while maintaining visibility. This “pinch points” approach to space-making becomes most evident when you step down into the new extension. Here, angles and curves have been successfully deployed to make the most of limited space. Floor area has been carved out of the house wherever possible and given over to the courtyard, following the rationale that a generous outlook is more effective in achieving a feeling of spaciousness than a few extra square metres inside. The addition is modest in scale: a calm grotto with walls of bagged, recycled brick pushed hard to the boundaries of the site, their natural variation and a faint green tint projecting aquatic calm. The wall to the courtyard is mostly glazed, maximizing light and outlook to the garden and the timber walls of the studio beyond, which is just a short commute across the crazy paving of the courtyard. Budget has been managed carefully throughout but the curved, double-glazed, steel-framed window is a strategic moment of extravagance. This central device takes on almost magical properties, expanding the view to the courtyard while controlling the connection between the living and dining spaces. Up close, it is akin to looking through deep water; distance is distorted while views are magnified, obscured or reflected. Conversely, the simple plywood kitchen doesn’t seek the limelight. Sitting sedately against the back wall, its recessed edge details work to reduce any apparent heaviness. Solid aluminium shelves float above, their silvery weightlessness contrasting with the brickwork. Architecture Architecture has long been careful not to sanitize or erase during the process of renovation. A former external window, now engulfed by the new addition, remains in place; the clear glass replaced with a mirror, it both maintains memories and creates unexpected new reflections. A brick expansion joint is celebrated, with curved corner bricks turning a structural necessity into a shadowy cleft that defines the kitchen. It can be easy to view a plan with real-estate preconceptions, to look for an efficient checklist of rooms that neatly encapsulates a standardized notion of living. Park Life doesn’t fit this viewpoint. Although modest in size, this house bulges and contracts in unexpected ways, creating a variety of spaces for living and working, all with a sense of generosity that reflects the particularities of its owners and this particular suburban setting.
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ALTERATION + ADDITION
1 Site Floor
480 m² 160 m²
Design 10 m Build 10 m
Products Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb in Zincalume; Silvertop ash shiplap from Radial Timber Sales in Loba Procolor ‘White’ External walls: Recycled bricks, bagged with coloured pigment; Silvertop ash shiplap from Radial Timber Sales in Cutek CD50 oil; timber battens in Cutek CD50 oil Windows: Atlite skylights; galvanized steel windows; timber windows in Cutek CD50 oil Doors: Timber-framed glazed door; Brio Single Run 180 sliding system Flooring: Concrete floor in Resene Concrete Wax Lighting: Masson for Light Astro Spotlight; Artemide Dioscuri wall light; linear strip light from Richmond Lighting; Rondo Opal Glass Ball pendant from Da Voluce Kitchen: Spotted gum veneer from Timberwood Panels; Maximum Aster Saturn benchtop; galvanized steel shelves; Fisher and Paykel oven, dishwasher and fridge; Artusi rangehood; Hafele Convoy Centro pull-out pantry; Index and Co J-Pull Jack handles; Auburn Woodturning Hira handles; Posh Solus MKII sink; Grohe Eurosmart mixer from Reece Bathroom: Maximum Aster Saturn benchtop; Laminex Parchment laminate; Spotted gum veneer from Timberwood Panels; Ceramica Vogue tiles in ‘Lilla’ and ‘Ghiaccio’; Viridian MirraEcho mirror; American Standard Heron toilet and Mizu Soothe extended mixer from Reece Heating and cooling: Electric in-slab heating by Amuheat Floor Heating External elements: Bamstone bluestone crazy paving Other: Built-in daybed with Unique Fabrics Carlucci two-tone fabric
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1 Studio 2 Service yard 3 Courtyard 4 Living 5 Dining 6 Kitchen 7 Gallery 8 Bedroom 9 Study
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02 The fluid angles and curves of the extension help to demarcate space while retaining a sense of openness. 03 A curved brick wall leads to a spacious gallery at the threshold between old and new. Artwork (L–R): Mike Parr, Ian Wells, Csongvay Blackwood.
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Although modest in size, the house bulges and contracts in unexpected ways, creating a variety of spaces for living and working, all with a sense of generosity.
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04 Bagged, recycled bricks with a faint green tint project a sense of aquatic calm in the addition. Artwork: Rebecca Monaghan. 05 The privacy of the courtyard can be moderated by opening or closing a hinged timber screen. 06 Facing the street is an artists’ studio – an enigmatic landmark with a porthole window.
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PARK LIFE
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Architect Architecture Architecture +61 3 9417 0995 office@archarch.com.au archarch.com.au
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ALTERATION + ADDITION
Project team Michael Roper, Nick James, Daria Selleck Builder JTR Construct Engineer Meyer Consulting Surveyor The Good Men Building Surveyors ESD Filter ESD
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PA D D I N G T O N HOUSE BY T WOH I LL & JAMES
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PADDINGTON HOUSE
The artisanal sensibility of an owner-builder, a steeply sloping site and a desire for a tactile material palette set the direction for this refreshing addition to a humble Brisbane worker’s cottage.
Words by Michelle Bailey Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
On the treacherously steep streets of Paddington, Brisbane, the city’s vernacular architecture and distinctive topography converge. The rise and fall of pyramid roofs measure the steepness of the terrain and the scale and rhythm of the street plays out to the beat of timber pavilions strung across the landscape. With elevation comes opportunity for prospect, sunlight and breeze, and with depth comes refuge, found in the cool, cellar-like spaces of the cottage undercroft. For architects David Twohill and Emma James of local practice Twohill and James, it was the steep terrain, among many distinguishing conditions, that set the direction for Paddington House. The speculative project designed for and constructed by owner and builder Bobby Clouston restores an early-twentiethcentury cottage, raises and repositions it on a 10-metrewide site and connects it to a contemporary pavilion accommodating private, social and service spaces over four stepped levels. From the rear of the property, a view of the city is now captured from the upper floor, foregrounded by tree canopies unfurling like carpet across the ubiquitous roofscapes of the neighbourhood. As the project was designed to optimize return on investment, the brief was largely guided by the demands of the real-estate market. This was unusual for Twohill and James, who rarely work in isolation from
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the occupier. Bobby’s predilection for working with concrete combined with his appreciation for the value of a design-led product set the objective of challenging the material and spatial potential of architecture within the confines of budget and planning controls. The ambition to use concrete as both structure and finish is announced by a planted concrete roof that shelters the front door, located at the intersection of lightweight cottage and heavyweight pavilion. Interaction with the historic cottage is deliberately delayed, with focus instead drawn to the contemporary rooms that hinge up and down from the entry level and extend towards the rear of the site. In the sunlit, concrete-walled volume of the entry vestibule, the spatial intelligence of the architect and the craftsmanship of the builder come together, setting the tone for the intersection of these disciplines to forge a complementary relationship that continues through the whole. The primary staircase cleverly distributes vertical movement while managing the complexities of steep terrain and dispersed occupation. A fine steel balustrade guides ascent to the primary social level, held below a raking ceiling that continues outside over the rear terrace. The kitchen occupies more than half of this suspended concrete floor, with a central bench establishing the heart. Above the kitchen cupboards,
ALTERATION + ADDITION
01 A planted concrete roof shelters the entry, announcing the owner’s ambition to use concrete as both structure and finish. 02 Orchestrated flights of stairs manage the complexities of the sloping site. 03 The new pavilion addition to the century-old cottage houses private, social and service spaces over four stepped levels.
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Paddington House is built on the land of the Turrbal and Yuggera nations
2 Brisbane, Qld
Alteration + addition
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splayed walls conceal light scoops that deliver diffuse light to the interior. Subtle variations in luminosity reflect the time of day and season of year. Like the kitchen, the dining room looks east towards the city over the terrace. Windows looking west over a courtyard below activate opposing walls, drawing air inside to ventilate the whole floor. A half flight of stairs connects the dining room to a modest living room overlooking the entry. A tall window returns the view to the planted rooftop hovering above the front door. The primary floor of the worker’s cottage extends directly from this living room. The robe, bathroom and sleeping chambers are contained by the original weatherboard skin – a contemporary spatial footprint cleverly laid over a modest historic floor plan. More bedrooms are housed in the contemporary spaces of the ground floor. In the descent towards natural ground, atmospheric conditions shift and the coolth held by the thermal mass of the concrete walls and floors brings cellar-like conditions. What appeared from above as a disruption in the continuity of the floor plan reveals itself as a delightful garden courtyard, designed by landscape architect Dan Young. With consideration for the layering of species and the emphasis on a central, solitary flame tree, the courtyard brings a cooling microclimate and a sense of sanctuary to nearby rooms. In the cool, quiet spaces of the grounded living room, the many clever moves of architect and builder reveal their collective charm. The commitment to a rich and tactile material palette – the muted greys of concrete, the rough, biscuity masonry and the warm hues of timber windows and doors – brings visual calm and thermal comfort. The careful and considered ways in which a landscape experience is embedded in the interior amplifies the sense of refuge from urbanity. And, through the presence of tall vertical volumes bookended by openings and views to the outside world, the modest interior volume exudes a spatial generosity that belies its modest footprint. Paddington House demonstrates Twohill and James’s deep understanding of the Brisbane condition: its steep terrain, intense sunlight, hot and humid climate and subtropical landscape. The challenging slope is traversed with ease thanks to a winding concrete staircase and fluid handrail. Sun scoops, light wells and carefully placed openings enable sunlight and breeze to coalesce. By prioritizing open space and by making architecture a framework for landscape, this building finds roots in the place from which it has sprung.
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2 Site Floor
405 m² 350 m²
Design 6 m Build 1y
Products Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb roof sheeting in Colorbond ‘Dune’ External walls: Austral Masonry Bowral Bricks in ‘Simmental Silver’; James Hardie fibre cement sheeting Internal walls: CSR plasterboard; concrete Windows and doors: Custom windows and doors by North Coast Joinery; Viridian Low E glazing Flooring: Polished concrete; site-poured terrazzo floors Lighting: Flos Mini Glo-Ball from Euroluce; Brightgreen downlights; Beacon lighting LEDlux downlights Kitchen: Site-poured terrazzo benchtops; stained American oak cabinetry by City Joinery; Miele Pureline oven and microwave; Miele cooktop, rangehood and semi-integrated dishwasher; Fisher and Paykel French door fridge; Franke undermount bowl sink and Sussex Taps Scala sink mixer from Reece Bathroom: National Tiles Aria Snow Gloss wall tiles; site-poured terrazzo floors Heating and cooling: Ducted airconditioning
04 Above the kitchen cupboards, splayed walls conceal light scoops that soften and diffuse Brisbane’s often intense sunlight.
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05 A garden courtyard by landscape architect Dan Young gives the grounded living room a sense of sanctuary. Artwork: Ray Crooke. 06 In the descent towards natural ground, the thermal qualities of the concrete walls and floors bring cool, cellar-like conditions to the sleeping quarters. Artwork: Fergus Reid. 07 The original cottage was raised to make the most of opportunities for light and prospect, respite and retreat, posed by the steep terrain.
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PADDINGTON HOUSE
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Architect Twohill and James +61 7 3257 0700 mail@twohillandjames.com twohillandjames.com
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Project team David Twohill, Emma James, Matthew Hawke, Hannah Byrne, Cleo Ganis, Sophie Benn, Billy McQueenie Builder Evolution Builders Engineer Vector Structural Engineering Landscape Architect Dan Young Landscape Architect
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PA D D I N GTO N HOUSE MEET THE OWNER WORKING WITH AN ARCHITECT
Looking to make the most of his new property, builder Bobby Coulston sought the expertise of architects Twohill and James, who gave the formerly rundown cottage in Paddington a new lease on life. Here, he chats with Michelle Bailey about how working with an architect brought value to the home. Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
Michelle Bailey What were your early ambitions for this project? Bobby Coulston My idea was to find a “renovator”– a side project that would challenge me and that I could sell when it was finished. Because of this, I was looking for the most rundown house on the best possible street in Paddington, with city views. These types of houses are typically very hard to come by, so I was lucky to find one. This block had a lot of building constraints: a steep street, a sloping block and no side access, which turned a lot of buyers off and enabled me to purchase the site before auction. MB You work in the building industry and you know a lot about design and construction. Why did you decide to use an architect? BC My experience is in the commercial and multiresidential sectors; my knowledge of single dwelling design is limited. I knew the market I would be selling to would expect the highest quality product, so I wanted to get a good architect on board to add value to the project.
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01 One of the owner’s favourite aspects of the design of Paddington House is that it pays homage to the old cottage yet has a modern feel. 02 The home’s offform concrete walls and in-situ terrazzo floors are a source of pride for the owners.
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MB How did you connect with Twohill and James? BC My cousins and business partner had previously done work for them on Harvey’s Bar and Bistro and we had also worked with David Twohill on renovations to his own home. I was familiar with the practice’s ethos and process, and I liked that they were emerging architects. I thought, if this project was a success, we could forge a long-term partnership. MB What was it about your first meeting with Twohill and James that reassured you that you would work well together? BC Our first meeting went really well. We caught up for a coffee and talked about the house and what I wanted to build. I had some budget requirements and certain design parameters I wanted to work with. I was reassured because David and Emma took my comments on board
PADDINGTON HOUSE
and were very relaxed about my requirements. I felt like we were on the same page and they were happy to collaborate with me. MB What delights you most about the design? BC The design pays homage to the old cottage, yet the extension has a modern feel. The house flows well and is really livable and well-suited to the Queensland climate. I love the high ceilings, the honed concrete and the beautifully understated finishes. David gave me some good advice in the beginning: to build something to my taste and trust that someone else would appreciate it for what it is. I love concrete and understand the value in it as a material. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but people immediately recognize that it feels special. MB What are you most proud of? BC I am proud of the whole house, to be honest: the off-form concrete, the big timber windows and doors, the in-situ terrazzo floors, the heritage component of the old cottage and even the grasscrete in the driveway! I’ve learned a lot from this project. MB What elements of the design would you never have imagined had you not worked with an architect? BC I would never have imagined doing the pitched roof with the exposed rafters, which are about twenty metres long, nor the garden room. MB How did the design challenge you as a builder? BC The design drawings were good to build from. It was the limited site access that made building the project so challenging. I had to dig four hundred cubic metres of dirt with a threetonne excavator. We had to shift and raise the existing house by five metres and then tie back into it with the new concrete structure. The roof sheets for the pitched roof, which were about twenty metres long, had to be carried in by hand by about twelve men because I couldn’t
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use a mobile crane. It was challenging but achievable; we did it in less than six months. MB Do you think working with an architect has improved the value of the end product? BC Definitely. The architectural input has dramatically improved the real value of the project. The house has a real point of difference; you won’t find another one like it in Paddington, certainly not one that works so well to resolve so many site challenges. We’ve had a lot of interest and will likely have a contract signed in the next week. MB Would you work with an architect again? How did Twohill and James improve the experience for you as an owner and builder? BC I would love to. I’m hoping it will be on my own house so that I can design and build exactly what I want and not have to cater for the sales market! What impressed me with Twohill and James was that if I thought something wasn’t working, they would find the solution. They thought not just about the artistic side of the building but also the practicalities.
WORKING WITH AN ARCHITECT
David gave me some good advice in the beginning: to build something to my taste and trust that someone else would appreciate it for what it was.
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Youssofzay and Hart O N E T O W AT C H
In response to the urgency around the health of our natural environment, Belqis Youssofzay and David Hart, of emerging architecture studio Youssofzay and Hart, focus on smart solutions that champion sustainable materials, density and affordability. Words by Linda Cheng
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In the spring and summer of 2019–2020, Australia’s bushfire crisis dominated the headlines domestically and internationally, putting climate and the environment at the forefront of everyone's minds. Many architects and designers have found themselves contemplating the impact of this crisis on their profession, including Belqis Youssofzay and David Hart, who consider themselves part of the “next generation.” Their practice, Youssofzay and Hart, is informed by a seismic shift in thinking towards urgent consideration for the environment and architecture’s impact on it. “I read on the BBC that we have 12 years to respond in order to mitigate the worst of global warming. For architects, that means your next commission. Your next job has to be the one where you address all of those things urgently,” David says. “Internationally, the Australian house is typified by aspirational, pristine work in a bucolic landscape, but that’s becoming increasingly problematic.” Belqis adds, “These kinds of commissions are very rare. Our predecessors often had beautiful sites to play with but, for our generation, we have a lot of challenges that are staring us in the face. As we speak, Sydney is suffering from bushfires and there’s so much smoke around us already. Ideas about environmental response, density and affordability are more urgent than ever and while it’s something that we weren’t familiar with through our education, now, as practitioners, we feel it is more urgent and more needed as a response to site and to place.” Youssofzay and Hart was formed in 2017, following the New South Wales government’s Missing Middle Design Competition for medium-density housing, in which the practice won the dual-occupancy category. Fortuitously, the competition was announced just as the couple returned from Belqis’s Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship tour, where she had been researching contemporary architecture and exhibition design practices of art galleries and museums. “The Missing Middle competition was something that we were both quite interested in. Both David and I are migrants to Australia. For a really long time we had
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been discussing the issues of density and affordability in the suburbs," Belqis says. "We've often discussed how architects can contribute something that is smaller in scale and quite modest in budget; something that is for everyone. So, the competition was a good opportunity for us to test those ideas.” Their winning proposal was for an additional dwelling that could be “sleeved beside” an existing house, enabling multiple generations to live together on the block. “A lot of those Missing Middle competition entries probably proposed new dwellings, whereas ours was an alteration and addition,” David says. This approach is evident in the practice’s subsequent commissioned work. “We try to demolish as little as possible, use recycled materials and return to an intimate experience of living in the landscape," Belqis explains. In Courtyard House, for example, located in a Sydney suburb and surrounded by project homes, a new two-storey addition made from recycled brick is inserted at the rear of an existing brick cottage. For a terrace house extension in Darlington, the practice proposed a series of blocks interspersed with moments of landscape. These projects are also representative of the practice’s broader philosophy of designing “housing as well as houses.” David explains, “With a unique client and commission, there’s obviously an individual component that comes from listening to that client. But in terms of spatial strategies, we look beyond the boundary of our site and think about the implications for the greater suburb.” Access to good design for all is also a motivating force for the practice, which seeks to provide solutions that can be applied to a number of similar sites and in similar conditions. Belqis says, “As lovely as a waterfront or a bucolic forest commission would be, it’s very important that we try to communicate smart solutions for people. We’re happy for the neighbours to copy our approach. Our challenge is to provide something that can be replicated and so create better suburban or urban outcomes.” youssofzayhart.com.au
YOUSSOFZAY AND HART
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In terms of spatial strategies, we look beyond the boundary of our site and think about the implications for the greater suburb.
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01 For Belqis Youssofzay and David Hart, responding to environmental issues through design is key.
03 Designs by Youssofzay and Hart minimize demolition and focus instead on modest additions.
02 At Courtyard House, recycled brick extends and expands an existing cottage. Photograph: Benjamin Hosking.
04 Periscope House is a prototype design based on the firm's entry into the 2017 Missing Middle Design Competition.
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ONE TO WATCH
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Bookshelf
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01 Design Lives Here: Australian Interiors, Furniture and Lighting by Penny Craswell (Thames and Hudson, 2020) From Sydney design writer Penny Craswell, this new book on Australian residential architecture highlights individual pieces of furniture and lighting, and explores how these objects are integral to the interior design of the spaces they occupy. In line with Gestalt psychology (“a theory of perception that says that the particular cannot be understood except in relation to the whole”), Craswell seeks to look at design objects not just as products to be sold, but as pivotal characters in the narrative of a home. In Allen Key House by Studio Prineas, for instance, a table from Sydney studio Koskela inspired by the HB pencil is a key design piece for the living and dining space; but it is also a memento of the owners’ new appreciation for Australian design. At Noble Hughes House by David Boyle, Grant Featherston's iconic Wing Contour armchair is a testament to the clients' passion for the cultural touchstones of the 1950s (architecture, furniture, swing dancing). Featuring houses and apartments big and small, Design Lives Here tells a valuable story about Australian design and the interaction between furniture, lighting and the home.
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02 Le Corbuffet: Edible Art and Design Classics by Esther Choi (Prestel, 2019) In 2014, Esther Choi was “searching for clues” for her doctoral thesis in architectural history when she came across an elaborate menu designed by Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy. Featuring turtle soup and Aylesbury duckling, the 1937 menu was for a dinner in honour of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. The discovery was the impetus for a culinary experiment: Choi dreamt up a series of pun-inspired dishes named after canonical architects and artists, and cooked them for her friends. Her recipes are lovingly presented in this deliciously silly book, which is sure to get design and art lovers cooking. Indeed, the copy of Le Corbuffet received by Houses magazine for review is now full of post-it notes, with members of the editorial team laying claim to recipes they intend to try. One editor has chosen the Frei Otto Frittata, a breakfast dish that adopts the German architect’s interest in the ethereal. Another plans to cook the Vladimir Tarte Tatlin, a tomato tart that applauds the Soviet architect Vladimir Tatlin’s “courageous and utopian aspirations.” And a third editor fancies the Rem Brûlée, which combines two desserts – crème brûlée and citrus tart – for a result as unexpected as the work of Rem Koolhaas.
03 A History of Collective Living: Forms of Shared Housing edited by Susanne Schmid, Dietmar Eberle, Margrit Hugentobler (Birkhäuser, 2019) This thoroughly researched book tells the story of communal living in Europe (particularly Germany) from around 1850 until today. The history is organized according to three factors that drive shared housing: the economic, the political and the social. Clearly, these categories often overlap. The section on the economic drive, for instance, begins with a history of the Large Housing Complexes inspired by utopian socialist thinkers such as Charles Fourier. These projects, which cropped up in a number of countries across Europe, sought to cushion widespread housing shortages by creating affordable living spaces for the working class; cramped tenement housing was to be replaced with collective properties in which key functions were centralized. These projects were not just a response to economic factors; they also represented an idealistic (if paternalistic) political vision of a more humane society whose influence can still be felt today. Drawing on diverse sources and expertly interrogating the economic, political and social, this book presents a compelling historical analysis of shared housing in modern Europe.
READING
04 The Home Upgrade: New Homes in Remodeled Buildings edited by Robert Klanten, Andrea Servert, Tessa Pearson (Gestalten, 2019) Home upgrades, the editors of this book tell us, “tend to unravel how an ideology is built into the floor plans.” For example, as the role of women in society changed in the twentieth century, internal walls were knocked down to open up kitchens. While today, in the face of the climate crisis, open plans are divided up to improve efficiency, and insulation and renewable energy are introduced. These are lofty notions with which to introduce a book on house renovations. But the publication offers only a light analysis of these issues, largely ignoring the uneven nature of such changes, and the tension between discourses of sustainability and the realities of architectural excess. Nonetheless, it's a handsome coffee table book, with some spectacular architecture presented through photographs, sketches and floor plans. Highlights include: Plywood House by SMS Arquitectos, where an unexpected contemporary interior has been inserted into a 1920s Mallorcan home in Palma, Spain; and Ceiba House by Jorge Ramírez (Mexico), which borrows a construction technique from ancient Egypt to preserve a historic structure.
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01 Expando T furniture fitting Blum’s Expando T fitting is a thin-front solution for cupboard doors and drawers, allowing for a plethora of finishes to be used in bathroom furniture, from laminate to concrete, stone to ceramics. Expando T is suitable for fronts as thin as eight millimetres. blum.com
03 Axia tapware The new ultra-thin Axia collection from Phoenix Tapware is a beautifully crafted and modern twist on tradition. The full range of tapware products includes an innovative wall basin/bath mixer (pictured), its form inspired by the elegant way a single sheet of metal folds. phoenixtapware.com.au
05 Balnea marble bathroom collection The sensuous and sculptural qualities of Carrara marble are celebrated in this collection of monolithic baths, basins and accessories, designed by Elisa Ossino for Salvatori. The Balnea range is available in Australia exclusively through Boffi’s Sydney and Melbourne studios. boffi.com
02 Blade drain Sleek, shallow and stylish, the Blade drain from Aquabocci can be installed in myriad bathroom designs, thanks to its specially designed fittings and attachments. The channel is available in four colours, can be cut to any length and can be adjusted to suit any tile or stone thickness. aquabocci.com.au
04 Matt white finish Vola’s latest colour finish is crisp, pure and unmistakably matt. Inspired by tactile, matt surfaces that occur in nature, ‘Colour 28 – Matt White’ is a versatile, sophisticated addition to Vola’s extensive range of finishes for tapware and accessories. vola.com
06 Handcrafted concrete basins From its studio on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, New Form Concreting creates bespoke, handcrafted concrete basins, with natural hues and an authentic, industrial-style patina. New Form’s basins are available in custom colours to suit any design scheme. newformconcreting.com.au
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BATHROOM PRODUCTS
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07 Elba stone Coveted for its cool grey tones and soft brown markings, Elba stone is available exclusively through Artedomus. Its sophisticated colour palette and low porosity make it a resilient and beautiful material for the bathroom, as seen at Balwyn House by Fiona Lynch (pictured). artedomus.com
09 Raindance Select S shower range Drawing inspiration from the warm, misty droplets that occur in rainforests, Hansgrohe has created the Raindance Select S shower range with PowderRain technology. The new shower spray mode produces micro-fine water droplets that land softly on the skin. hansgrohe.com.au
08 RAL colour range Victoria and Albert has launched a new colour service, allowing you to personalize the exterior of its freestanding baths and basins to imbue your bathroom with vibrancy. Almost 200 tones are available, from ‘Moss Green’ (pictured) to ‘Salmon Pink,’ in either matt or gloss finishes. vandabaths.com/aus/australasia
10 Black linear channels Stormtech’s new Black drainage channels integrate seamlessly with stainless steel, metallic and powdercoated grates. The black channels add definition and contrast to uniformly light schemes and meld with darker ones in a contemporary aesthetic. stormtech.com.au
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PRODUCTS
11 Loom bathroom furniture Handcrafted and inspired by the art of weaving cloth, the invitingly tactile Loom bathroom furniture collection from Parisi comprises vanities, mirrors and a side cabinet. The cabinetry is made from marine-strength wood and finished in an American walnut veneer. parisi.com.au
P H O E N I X TA P W A R E S H O W C A S E
Immerse yourself in a new era of luxurious bathing
Cutting-edge technology and style combine to stunning effect in the new NX Showers Iko and Orli collections by Phoenix Tapware.
Phoenix Tapware’s NX Showers range has expanded to include two new collections that take luxurious bathing to the next level. Building on its reputation for impeccable design and innovation, Phoenix has created the Iko and Orli collections, both of which are beautifully designed and technology-driven. Iko and Orli feature the new, revolutionary HydroSense Spray technology by the Phoenix design and engineering team. HydroSense is a unique shower technology that delivers a spray that feels more relaxing and immersive. It features curved sheets that disperse mid-fall into dense, cascading droplets, transforming the way water falls by reimagining the shower’s internal structure and water flow design.This cutting-edge, patentpending technology accelerates water flow, resulting in more even coverage and improved performance in low-pressure environments. Phoenix is one of the first Australian companies to develop a shower spray technology, demonstrating its strong commitment to innovation. As a testament to their design and engineering quality, all showers in the NX Showers range are backed by a lifetime warranty. NX Iko Born from a design process that involved the removal of any extraneous details, NX Iko is pared back, with a clean and light, rounded profile. It is slender and elegant, with concealed hose connectors and wall fixings, as well as ribbed detailing on the face of the overhead shower rose, inspired by water ripples and retro vinyl records. NX Orli Robust yet refined, NX Orli features a softened square design motif and a unique, 50-millimetre-wide rail, akin to a floating ribbon. The result is a slim, low-profile look, with a sense of luxury. Orli’s family resemblance to Iko is evident in its distinctive ribbed detailing atop the shower rose.
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02 01 The NX Orli (pictured) and NX Iko collections feature Phoenix Tapware’s revolutionary HydroSense Spray technology. 02 NX Iko’s design is pared back and elegant, with concealed fixings.
For more information: phoenixtapware.com.au
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PHOENIX TAPWARE SHOWCASE
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12 Dekton Slim XGloss surfaces Cosentino’s Dekton Slim, one of the thinnest compact surfaces at just four millimetres, is now available in four polished XGloss finishes – ‘Natura,’ ‘Halo,’ ‘Arga’ and ‘Bergen’ (pictured). Stylish and robust, the new Dekton Slim XGloss range is ideally suited to bathroom applications. cosentino.com/en-au
14 Knurled brass basin mixer Crafted from solid brass and knurled to a fine pitch, this new basin mixer from Faucet Strommen has a beautifully minimalist form. Designed and built in Australia, it is available in a raft of organic, patina-encouraging finishes, including ‘Antique Brass Light’ (pictured). faucetstrommen.com.au
13 Brushed Nickel finish A warm metallic colour, ‘Brushed Nickel’ is a timeless addition to Oliveri’s range of finishes. Rather than being painted on, the metal takes on the colour itself, making it highly durable for daily use. It can be paired with Oliveri’s full range of tapware and accessories. oliveri.com.au
15 In-Wash Inspira toilet Roca’s In-Wash Inspira is an innovative toilet, equipped with technology for personal hygiene that provides total cleaning, comfort and care. Among the toilet’s many features are adjustable water and air pressure, an LED night light and an integrated automatic cleaning nozzle. roca.com.au
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PRODUCTS
16 Contemporary Tubular tapware Available in both basin and bath configurations, with crosshead or lever handles, Contemporary Tubular tapware by Perrin and Rowe revels in the beauty of simplicity. The lever handles are machined from solid brass and the sleek, cylindrical spout rotates through a 90-degree arc. englishtapware.com.au
STORMTECH SHOWCASE
A lustrous finish for the bathroom
Stormtech’s linear drainage systems, in a new range of iridescent metallic colours, add a sense of luxury to any interior, from the minimalist to the rustic chic.
When it comes to building or renovating a bathroom or laundry, luxurious finishes and a creative use of colour don’t have to be limited to tiles and tap fittings. Stormtech’s range of coloured grates, in marine grade stainless steel, serve as a designer feature for wet areas, including bathrooms where linear drainage is often used in open shower concepts. Stormtech has released new metallic colours to provide homeowners with more decorative solutions for rooms that might be predominantly white or neutral. Inspired by emerging global colour trends, and a growing interest in metallic finishes, the warm, lustrous colours of ‘Satin Black,’ ‘Bronze,’ ‘Brass’ and ‘Copper’ can add a unique architectural finish to any bathroom design, beautifully complementing tapware, lighting and other accessories. As durable and seamless drainage options, with an iridescent quality, the new metallic designer grates and drains are designed to suit a variety of interior styles, from minimalist through to rustic chic and industrial. Stormtech’s full range of architectural grates and drains are designed and manufactured in Australia and can be produced to custom lengths. All Stormtech products are Watermark certified and, with a proud commitment to eco-friendly design, Stormtech offers the only linear drainage product in the world with Global Greentag certification.
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About Stormtech: Established in 1989, Stormtech is an award-winning Australian company that designs and manufactures high-quality architectural grates and drains. Providing solutions for residential and commercial projects, as well as for specialty facilities, Stormtech products are adaptable and suitable for both new construction and retrofitting during renovation. 01 Stormtech’s drainage systems are now available in a selection of metallic colours to complement tapware and other bathroom accessories.
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02 Seamlessly integrated and durable, Stormtech’s grates and drains are manufactured in Australia from marine grade aluminium.
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For more information: stormtech.com.au
STORMTECH SHOWCASE
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Calen Knauf
Eclectic in style and irreverent in approach, Canadian designer Calen Knauf produces objects that are finely resolved studies in colour and materiality, with a distinct element of fun thrown in for good measure.
STUDIO
Words by Leanne Amodeo
There are many phrases that come to mind when describing Calen Knauf’s work: eclectic, dynamic and just downright cool. The Vancouver-based designer established Knauf and Brown with Conrad Brown in 2013 following their graduation from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. In late 2019, Conrad left to focus on photography and Calen is now a sole operator of Calen Knauf Studio, where he continues to exemplify everything that’s right with contemporary Canadian design. For someone who has received a lot of attention in the international design press of late, he doesn’t spend much time looking at it. “I don’t use a smartphone and I don’t use headphones unless I’m watching a movie on a plane,” Calen reflects. “I just try to take in as much direct stimulation as possible, whether I like what I’m seeing and hearing or not.” This low-tech approach pervades his prodigious portfolio, which comprises industrial and product designs as well as retail fitouts for global streetwear brand Stüssy. It also functions as a creative reality check of sorts, ensuring his work doesn’t end up a mere derivative of any number of other objects already in existence. As a result, Calen’s lighting, furniture and accessories possess a fine-art sensibility resounding with intellectual rigour and a genuine desire to offer the end user something unique. “I’m trying to shape my objects in the
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most logical way to achieve a silhouette or form that brings something new to the table,” he explains. From the spindly minimalism of the P.O. Light to the bristly tactility of the Keefer Credenza, each one of Calen's works is a finely resolved study in colour and materiality, with a distinct element of fun thrown in for good measure. However, his most exciting product to date is arguably the Sponge Table, a simple design constructed from carbonated aluminium panel. It appeals for its graphic shape and the way in which the porous material is completely unrecognizable as metal, once finished in either bright yellow or beige. By deliberately exposing the aluminium’s inherent qualities, Calen reveals his commitment to producing work that is as aesthetically organic as possible. Unsurprisingly, he isn’t a fan of narrative in design and finds the process of ascribing a story to his products a little forced. He’d rather they engage for the silliness of a concept, a disjointed visual reference or an obscure source of inspiration. Calen doesn’t subscribe to a particular style either, although his works are easily identifiable by their sense of urban energy that is very much of the moment. He’s currently working on new objects and revisiting past ideas, all of which will be well worth the wait. calenknauf.com
CALEN KNAUF
01 Calen Knauf heads an eponymous studio designing furniture, lighting and objects. 02 The P.O. Light is designed to peep out from behind furniture or stand alone as a minimal floor lamp. 03 Made of blended paper pulp, the Overcast Light shade mimics the effect of the sun shining through a cloud.
04 The Sponge Table exposes aluminium’s inherent qualities while also making the material unrecognizable. 05 A bamboobeaded skirt around the Keefer Credenza slightly obscures the identity of the objects within.
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RUCKERS HILL HOUSE BY ST U D I O BRIGHT
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With civic ambition and a highly personal attention to detail, this ‘house of many rooms’ is a considered new layer in the cultural palimpsest of inner Melbourne.
Words by Gemma Savio Photography by Rory Gardiner
Marking the threshold between old and new in this lyrical family home, on the crest of Melbourne’s Ruckers Hill, is a vivid story of place etched in stained glass. At the base of the scene, depicted in section, murrnong sprout from the earth, their sinewy stems topped with bright yellow flowers. Arching above them are glazed lemon tree branches, hanging heavy with fruit and abuzz with fat native bees. These emblems foreground an image of the city skyline as it exists today, serving as a signature of time. This stained glass window by artist Nadine Keegan, newly commissioned by the owners of Ruckers Hill House, marks the point of transition from the existing red brick Edwardian house to the sculptural rear addition. Its inclusion and placement reflects how Studio Bright approaches every new project. The glass artwork is a small gesture that acknowledges the cultures that have been supported by this place throughout history – from the Wurundjeri people, who are the traditional custodians of the land here, to the Greek and Italian families, who have palpably shaped the surrounding suburb since the mid-twentieth century. “More and more, when working with heritage houses, we want to recognise the deeper heritage of a place,” explains Mel Bright, director of Studio Bright. That acute awareness of context – both the built and natural environments, and the cultural palimpsest that isn’t so immediately apparent – is legible at Ruckers Hill House. Taking advantage of the opportunity to engage with the neighbourhood via its corner site, the home’s long western boundary has been considered as a key interface with the street. The new concrete wall that runs the length of the boundary is punctured by a secondary entrance
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RUCKERS HILL HOUSE
01 Located in the sculptural rear addition, the living spaces at Ruckers Hill House give material form to family customs.
Ruckers Hill House is built on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Eastern Kulin nation
5 Melbourne, Vic
Alteration + addition
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gate, which opens onto a walled garden, inviting a less formal introduction to the home. The wall’s fluted texture echoes the corrugated iron fences typical of the area and, topped with elevated planters, it will vegetate an otherwise hardscaped street corner. Along with the plantings, a bronze mesh veil to the dining space allows the visual rhythm and audible hum of activity from within the home to filter through to the street with subtlety. There is a sense of civic generosity in the treatment of this edge – “beyond the individual project brief, there’s always a larger client, and that’s the city or community,” says Mel. This ethos of making smaller projects do big things translates into a home that displays the material and spatial nuance normally reserved for civic and cultural buildings. Described by Mel as “a house of many rooms,” Ruckers Hill House comprises two distinct masonry buildings joined by a cloistered colonnade. Composed of inverted brick arches, the colonnade serves as a wall to the courtyard garden – the most public “room” of the house. It also frames the edge of a swimming pool that is more akin to a Roman bathhouse than a suburban backyard. Mel remarks that “it’s a house with civic ambitions,” although it doesn’t beget unnecessarily oversized spaces. Instead, each room is appropriately scaled for family life: layered, hardworking and fit for purpose, and edged with nooks and benches for idleness or gathering. Just as a public building may be designed to support the expression of culture, this house celebrates and supports the culture of the family who lives there. Every room of the house is imprinted with the delightful character of the owners and their three children. In the existing house, the bedrooms have been newly painted in an array of colours – blue, green, and “Richmond Tigers” yellow – to reflect personality. The main bedroom is awash with pattern, pinks and plush crimson carpet. A deep teal wardrobe and linen drapery create texture and delight that is in no way generic. The same approach is taken in the bathrooms, where Studio Bright has designed colourful freestanding vanities that are sturdy enough to absorb the jostling of the family’s morning routines. In the family bathroom, the sink is a singular oversized trough, with three faucets for the children to use, shoulder-to-shoulder in synchrony. Such details give material form to family customs – an approach that is continued in the addition, where the home’s main living spaces are now located. In the kitchen, an operable mesh screen shuts down the galley, officiating the evening’s announcement that the “kitchen is closed.” The lounge room, equipped with a wall of joinery housing a record player and vinyls, is a dedication to a shared love of music. Here, a stage-like timber plinth caters to the unbridled theatricality of the family’s small performers, who make use of the heavy, wool curtain and suspended steel stair to heighten the drama. On the upper floor, overlooking the pool, is a north-facing reading room; it provides for a love of books befitting the owner’s librarian vocation. At the home’s topmost point, a small bar services twin balconies bordered by rooftop gardens, offering places from which to contemplate views to the city and over the Northcote roofscape. These views contextualize Ruckers Hill House as a part of something larger and serve as a reminder that every small project has a role to play in the wider suburb or city.
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ALTERATION + ADDITION
3 Site Floor
519 m² 331 m²
Design 1 y Build 1 y 6 m
Products Roofing: Lysaght Klip-lok roof decking in Colorbond ‘Surfmist’ External walls: LOHAS Nilo Rustic bricks; off-form concrete, corrugated Internal walls: Australian Sustainable Hardwoods Goodwood lining boards Windows and doors: Capral 900 aluminium sliding doors in dark bronze Flooring: Perini honed bluestone internal tiles; Australian Sustainable Hardwoods Goodwood Victorian ash floorboards Lighting: Artemide Yanzi suspension pendant in brass; Criteria Collection Circuit light in blackened brass; Havit Tivah external wall light from Richmond Lighting; Brightgreen D900 ceiling lights from ECC Lighting; Crisp frosted wall lights by Rich Brilliant Willing from Living Edge; Oty Light POP P04 downlights; vintage Stilnovo wall light from Nicholas and Alistair Kitchen: Fibonacci Stone Pavlova terrazzo benchtop and splashback; Australian Sustainable Hardwoods Goodwood Victorian ash joinery; Wolf freestanding oven; Qasair rangehood; Armando Vicario Luz Gooseneck pull-out mixer from Abey Bathroom: Artedomus Antilia tiles; Inax Sugie Hanten mosaic tiles in ‘Grey’ Heating and cooling: Hydronic slab and wall heating; evaporative cooling Other: Schiavello Toro table and stools; KFive and Kinnarps Walsh Street dining table; Thonet No. 18 dining chairs; Grazia and Co Harvey curved-arm sofa and swivel armchair; Willie Weston cushions; Grazia and Co Ivy coffee table; Instyle Feel curtains in ‘Splendid’
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Entry Bedroom Laundry Linkway Pool Living Dining Kitchen
9 Pantry 10 Lounge/ music 11 Garage 12 Library/study 13 Multipurpose/ guest room 14 Roof deck
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02 Each room is scaled for family life: hardworking, fit for purpose and edged with nooks and benches.
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ALTERATION + ADDITION
03 A raised timber plinth, wool curtain and suspended steel stair lend a sense of theatre to the lounge. 04 Victorian ash lining boards used throughout the addition bring a sense of intimacy to the kitchen space.
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05 In the existing house, the main bedroom is awash with pattern, pinks and plush crimson carpet. 06 In the main bathroom, the sink is an oversized trough, with three faucets for the children to use, shoulder-to-shoulder.
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07 Distinctive inverted brick arches frame the edge of a swimming pool that is reminiscent of a Roman bathhouse. 08 The fluted texture of a new concrete wall echoes the corrugated iron fences typical of the neighbourhood.
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Architect Studio Bright +61 3 9853 4730 info@studiobright.com.au studiobright.com.au
Project team Melissa Bright, Robert McIntyre, Todd de Hoog, Emily Watson, Pei She Lee, Maia Close, Rachel Freeman Builder 4AD Construction Engineer Meyer Consulting Landscape design Tim Nicholas Landscape Architect and Studio Bright Landscape installation MJR Landscapes
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C O A S TA L HOUSE BY O’C O N N O R & HOULE
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COASTAL HOUSE
Amid the windswept landscape of the Mornington Peninsula’s southern edge, this house meets ecological and bushfire concerns without compromising on enjoyment.
Words by Judith Abell Photography by Earl Carter
The Mornington Peninsula narrows as you head toward Sorrento, with the relative calm of Port Phillip Bay to the north and the wilds of Bass Strait to the south. Residents of this area tend to define themselves by living on either side of this thin strip of land – turn right for yachting, left for surf. Coastal House by O’Connor and Houle is tucked behind the primary dune on the southern edge, surrounded by a dense landscape of wind-sculpted moonah, ti-tree and coastal beard-heath. The clients found O’Connor and Houle, a Melbourne-based practice established in 1996 by Annick Houle and Stephen O’Connor, by wandering through the couple’s own Pirates Bay holiday home when it was up for sale. Having rented a house nearby for years, the clients had purchased a large, wooded block beside the national park and saw a match between their ideas and the feel of O’Connor and Houle’s elegant timber and blockwork house. Unusually, they presented the designers with a material brief from the outset. Rather than timber, they were interested in a focus on concrete. Following this, Stephen and the clients exchanged a number of fine concrete buildings over email. They agreed that the house would be an exploration of concrete and timber, with a limited palette to give the occupants the opportunity to really enjoy each material’s properties. To place anything on the site created a challenging tussle between the requirements of the environmental overlay and the need for wildfire management, with one recommending conservation, the other clearing. Ultimately, a variation on a courtyard
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home, with a heavier outer edge, seemed to serve both conditions by containing the human or built impact within the walls, while relying on a hard shell to protect against ember attack. The solution offered opportunities for openness and porosity within. The programmatic brief for the home was adjusted a little when a new baby joined the family, but it remained a building in three parts or pavilions – one for living, one for guests and the third for family sleeping. The living pavilion is where the architects have focused their exploration of concrete. The walls, floor and ceiling were all poured in-situ, with smooth external walls countered by a textured, timber-formed ceiling and a washy, mechanically trowelled floor. A series of in-situ concrete elements rise from the floor, including a large island benchtop and a cantilevering plinth for a fireplace. A refined concrete kitchen bench is formed with an integral sink. The natural irregularities of concrete and the artefacts of its casting process – particularly the grid of circular indentations – bring pleasurable textures to these living spaces, with the art-loving clients amused that, as a result, they keep choosing to leave the walls clear. Solid and veneered timber joinery, cladding and doors are spliced precisely between the concrete elements, their scale chosen to match the monumentality of the primary material. The steel frames of custom full-height glazing are painted grey, so that they key into the concrete surrounds. The concrete of the living spaces extends into the outdoor space to form a contemporary verandah and walled courtyard. The clients love this protective
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01 Coastal House is an exploration of concrete and timber, with each material playing off the other throughout. 02 The timber will grey over time, becoming closer to the concrete in colour but remaining distinct in character.
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Coastal House is built on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation
3+ Blairgowrie, Vic
New house
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shell as it generates a microclimate for the home. My visit falls on a particularly stormy day, with wind and rain driving in from the south-west, but the northeast-facing court is utterly calm, with the hinged glass doors onto the verandah remaining open. Completing the court’s “wall,” the second pavilion – a simple timber block containing two guest suites – is carefully located to create privacy from the overlook of a neighbouring house. While the main house is oriented entirely for the weather, the family sleeping pavilion is angled to capture a view to Bass Strait over a dip in the surrounding forest. A luxury bathing and sleeping retreat occupies the upper level of this timber pavilion, defined by a large window that captures the ocean view as though it were a changing work of art. On this day, Bass Strait almost boils with swell and the tight forest canopy ripples continuously. Tucked underneath the cantilevered overhang of this level is a bedroom for the clients’ son, its private deck looking into the secretive understorey of the moonah forest. Within a dramatic environment like this, a different kind of alchemy between designer and client could have led to a tall building set to capture the ocean view from most rooms, like so many other houses along the coast. Instead, Stephen and the clients have achieved a quieter, weightier resolution that sits down into the site, allowing just one small piece of the structure to rise up for the view. Ultimately, this is the more livable solution, with the house held in the lee of the forested dunes. Drawing down does not limit views, but instead expands them to include the twisting limbs of the surrounding forest, its canopy and the house itself. Beyond views, the qualities of the materials, the movement of light and the rigorous level of craft throughout the home offer considerable enjoyment. And there is something about the unfolding nature of the spaces – from the austere entry wall through to that ocean picture window – that provides an experience similar to walking within the surrounding forest, where the whole is never fully visible and a twist or turn can have you suddenly open to the sky or gazing out to a distant view.
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4 Site Floor
5,500 m² 300 m²
Design 6 m Build 12 m
Products Roofing: Suspended concrete slab External walls: Off-form concrete; white mahogany timber Internal walls: Off-form concrete; American oak veneer Windows and doors: Custom steel and timber frame F ooring: Concrete flooring Flooring: Lighting: Lighting from Inlite Kitchen: Concrete benchtops; American oak veneer joinery; Aga cooktop and oven; Qasair rangehood; Franke sinks Bathroom: Astra Walker tapware; Laufen Kartell basins Heating eat ng and cooling: coo ng Parsons Hydronic Heating system External elements: Tallowwood decking Other: B&B Italia and PP Møbler furniture; Bang and Olufsen speakers
03 A luxury bathing and sleeping retreat is angled to capture a view to Bass Strait over a dip in the surrounding forest. 04 The bedroom of the clients’ son has its own private deck looking into the moonah forest understorey.
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Architect O’Connor and Houle +61 3 9686 7022 mail@oconnorandhoule.com oconnorandhoule.com
COASTAL HOUSE
First floor 1:500
Project team Stephen O’Connor, Annick Houle, Amy Ware Builder Pitman Builds Engineer Mark Hodkinson Landscape design O’Connor and Houle
PRODUCT: BOWRAL50 BOWRAL BLUE / ARCHITECT: MOUNTFORD ARCHITECTS / PHOTOGRAPHY: DION ROBERTSON
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bowralbricks.com.au | 13 2742
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BALLAST POINT HOUSE BY F O X J O H N S TO N
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Punctuated with courtyards, balconies and gardens, this multigenerational Sydney home cleverly accommodates flexible spaces set across a steep sandstone ridge.
Words by David Welsh Photography by Anson Smart
The Sydney harbourside suburb of Birchgrove is one of those places that has a kind of forced perspective about it. As you travel deeper into the peninsula, the streets get narrower and the houses feel like they start to lean towards you. Taken and occupied in the late 1700s, the area’s first few residences were moderated with civilized distances between them. However, the subsequent occupation, division and subdivision of land into smaller and smaller parcels, as industry established itself on valuable harbour land, saw space – particularly outdoor space – become a premium. Now, the industry is long gone and a lot of the harbourside land has been renewed as public parkland. The housing stock continues to evolve as houses that had once turned their backs on the industrial infrastructure are modified to reconnect with their locale. There has been a house on this site, perched on a ridge overlooking Mort Bay, since the late 1800s. The original cottage had undergone three significant renovations (1920s, 1970s and 1990s) that had completely changed the footprint, glazing and external facade. Architect Emili Fox, director at Sydney-based practice Fox Johnston, and her husband Reiner, lived with their young family in the house for six years before
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they began the process of transforming it into a contemporary home that responded effectively and poetically to its context. During the family’s six-year purgatory – living with black mould, possums and the tenants of a one-bedroom flat slung below the main house – they began to formulate a strategy for a new house based around a walled garden courtyard concept. Emili talks of an “idea that the house could be opened up from front to back, allowing the view to extend from the north-east walled garden through the central courtyard to the Mort Bay garden view.” They were also keen to utilize the double-fronted site to create space for a garage to store Reiner’s camera equipment, and a separate one-bedroom/studio apartment, which could be used by Emili’s parents or be rented out to obtain an income. The apartment needed separate access away from the entry to the main house, something the dual-fronted site enabled. Perched up on the sandstone ridge, Ballast Point House is not just a courtyard house. Its main courtyard, off the primary street frontage, acts as both an entry vestibule and an outdoor parlour – a place to sit and talk, and to shelter when the wind picks up from
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01 The house’s modest entrance conceals an elegant transformation that ascends and descends over four levels. Photograph: Brett Boardman. 02 A unified colour palette of gentle beige hues echoes the house’s vantage on a sandstone ridge. Artwork: Belinda Fox. Photograph: Brett Boardman.
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Ballast Point House is built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation
4 Sydney, NSW
New house
Family
the south. The main living spaces flow from the courtyard, set across two levels of a folded concrete floor. The concrete ceiling above slides through at a constant so that, as you walk through the house from north to south, the ceiling height effectively rises as the floor level drops down three steps past an internal courtyard, through the dining and kitchen areas and out to the balcony overlooking the water. Overall, the house is set across four levels, like a series of cliff ledges or outcrops. Above the main living spaces are the private bedroom spaces, protected by a shifting shroud of bleached western red cedar battens that serves as both rainscreen and heat shield. The gentle folds of the upper level facades pull the built form away just a little from the neighbours, ensuring the top floor doesn’t feel like it’s crammed up against the side boundary. The form also shifts out and over the front door to provide shelter, while up on top, the roof is covered in photovoltaic cells that service 92 percent of the household’s electricity needs. That figure will increase once battery storage is installed in the near future. The shifting geometry of the house’s form lends it a vaguely geological feel. Elements and levels are laid down over each other, shifting as required to generate calibrated spatial arrangements through the house. Windows, doors and joinery in Accoya wood are set to a particular datum that meanders from door-head height to ceiling height. Where the walls extend up past the datum, the walls, and sometimes also the ceiling, are painted in a darker colour that nods to the colours of the harbour and the trees that lie just to the south. On the same floor as the discrete one-bedroom apartment, there is an additional living area that can easily be converted into guest space if required, further adding to the home’s functional flexibility. Nested on the bottom floor, the garage – containing water storage and a workshop space – is yet another facet to the consonance of this home. Borne from a house once referred to by Emili and Reiner as “the tip,” this flexible and multigenerational family home has been created on a site of less than 260 square metres. It is an inspiring demonstration of how a house can be sustainable without compromising on space and creativity.
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03 The glazed central courtyard offers sight lines across multiple levels, from the entry to the dining and kitchen spaces. 04 At the front of the home, a family area is flanked by leafy courtyards.
BALLAST POINT HOUSE
Site Floor
260 m² 245 m²
Design 4 m Build 1 y 3 m
Products Roofing: Lysaght Klip-lok decking External walls: Insulated cavity bricks, recycled and new with spackle finish; western red cedar boards in Cutek ‘Grey Mist’; V-groove lining boards Internal walls: Birch ply veneer panelling in white wash; insulated cavity brick, bagged and painted; V-groove lining boards; plasterboard Windows and doors: Accoya timber batten sliding screens and frames in Woca exterior oil; low-e glazing; ADH Studio brass door hardware Flooring: Australian Sustainable Hardwoods Victorian ash boards; concrete (light grind/polish) Lighting: Rakumba Highline pendant; Marset Aura light, wall lights, recessed lights and external lights from Est Lighting Kitchen: Hermes marble island benchtop from Euro Marble; Corian benchtop and integrated sink in white; birch plywood joinery in white wash; Made Measure handles; Astra Walker tapware; Miele fridge, freezer, dishwasher and microwave; Pitt cooktop; Ilve oven Bathroom: Artedomus Elba stone; Astra Walker tapware and fittings Heating and cooling: Big Ass Fans fans; hydronic heating External elements: White sandstone and recycled brick Other: Window seat and outdoor seat upholstery by Atelier Furniture; entry door handle and street number by Simon Bethune
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05 Bordered by a white brick wall, the entrance courtyard presents a sheltered, sunlit space for sitting and entertaining. 06 Sunlight bounces off the interior’s muted surfaces, creating a contemplative atmosphere. Artwork (L–R): Stefan Gevers, Jon Cattapan. 07 On the upper level, a bedroom with an adjoining terrace takes in views over the surrounding suburbs.
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Architect Fox Johnston +61 2 9211 2700 contact@foxjohnston.com.au foxjohnston.com.au
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Project team Conrad Johnston, Emili Fox Builder SQ Projects Engineer SDA Structures Landscape design Dangar Barin Smith
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Brilliant ideas for Kitchens & Bathrooms
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Bathroom: Richards Stanisich Photography: Felix Forest
Benn + Penna
Since Andrew Benn established Benn and Penna in 2012, the Sydney practice has completed an impressive array of houses. Working mainly on small alternations and additions projects, the practice has mastered constrained conditions to make calm and considered spaces.
IN PROFILE
Words by Genevieve Lilley Photography by Tom Ferguson
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In small alterations and additions projects, it takes an exceptional level of skill to make calm and considered spaces. Benn and Penna’s work, of a modest scale thus far, is well known for consistently minimizing unnecessary trickiness and maximizing craft. Usually, each project is characterized by one or two materials, used thoroughly and creatively to create a memorable sense of “home.” Director Andrew Benn’s preoccupation with a restrained use of materials has developed over 20 years. After graduating from UNSW Sydney in 2001 with first-class honours, he worked for UN Studio in Amsterdam, which set a suitably high bar in terms of ambition. Andrew was heavily involved in the documentation of UN Studio’s Villa NM, a rich but restrained project in upstate New York (which unfortunately burnt down only months after completion). The early 2000s in the Netherlands were influential years, as OMA founder Rem Koolhaas and MVRDV inspired a generation of architects with their tectonic restraint and inventiveness. When Andrew returned to Australia, he worked for Engelen Moore (continuing with Ian Moore Architects after that firm split), before moving to BVN. Benn and Penna was then launched in 2012. When describing his
practice, Andrew explains that he hopes to always have a small practice “to express my creativity.” An early project, Balmain Pair (2013) (see Houses 95) had a decade-long gestation period. Andrew’s mother had bought a pair of semi-detached houses in the Sydney suburb of Balmain while Andrew was working overseas, and every Christmas, the extended family would sit around and tease out ideas for the project. The semi-detached pair of single-storey houses had a layout of two rooms plus a lean-to. The original shell was carefully retained and judiciously, yet boldly, added to. The corner dwelling now has a bedroom to the street and a large study tucked into the rear of the roof upstairs, looking north-east to the harbour. The sibling dwelling has a clever layout, including a separate studio to the street and another – larger – apartment, accessed down a side path. In this apartment, which overlooks a private rear garden, an elegant stair rises through a void and past a large study to the rear bedroom. All of the original materials have been cleaned and, where reconfigured, reused, and the new insertions are almost all finely clad with timber that complements the colour of the raw brick. Slatted screens cover windows, and form balustrades and louvred
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01 Andrew Benn, director of Benn and Penna Architects. Photograph: Katherine Lu.
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02 The Benn and Penna team at work in their Pyrmont office. Photograph: Katherine Lu. 03 The original shell of Balmain Pair (2013) was carefully retained and judiciously, but boldly, added to. 04 A warm palette of timber and slate defines the kitchen of the Balmain Pair corner dwelling.
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panels, affording an elegant consistency to the diverse accommodation. Parallel to this project, Benn and Penna was working on a tiny guest house in New South Wales’s Southern Highlands, the studio’s first independent commission. The brief was for a small additional building to a well-known project by Beverley Garlick Architect, built in 1993 while Andrew was a student in her office. The original two pavilions have barrel-vaulted roof forms constructed of corrugated iron, as does Benn and Penna’s small addition. The small lozenge-shaped new structure is separate from the other two forms but linked to them by a covered walkway. It is, in fact, two concentric lozenges in plan – one a roof form that covers the whole footprint, the other a smaller half-lozenge form that contains a curved, book-lined room with glass doors to the covered verandah. Like its neighbours, this gem is also clad in corrugated iron, but laid horizontally rather than vertically. The site is relatively isolated and the play of architectural forms against the background of rolling hills is exceptionally evocative. It was a perfect first project. Balmain Rock (2018) (see Houses 131) was the next significant project tackled by the practice and is now justifiably well known. The project encompassed a complex restoration of a tiny, two-room stone cottage (now one large room with walls of exposed sandstone) and the design of a new off-form concrete addition behind it. The build was as complicated as realizing two completely separate projects on the same tiny site. The steeply pitched roof form of the historic (but, remarkably, not heritage-listed) cottage has been retained, while the new ceiling follows the inside of
05 In 2013, Benn and Penna completed a building for a Southern Highlands retreat: a quiet, curvaceous book-lined room. 06 The remote guest house addition features a barrel-vaulted roof form constructed from corrugated iron.
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08 07 In Balmain Rock (2018), a concrete lintel above the doorway signals a material transition between old and new. 08 Balmain Rock’s mixture of sandstone, paving, impeccable concrete and brick makes for a rich, tactile experience.
09 Two stained cedar pavilions hover above the open ground level at Naremburn Twin Peaks (2018).
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the pitch, with a large skylight to the rear. In the addition, crazy-paving flooring continues from the bridge connecting the old with the new across a courtyard and into the open dining room and kitchen. A stair, top-lit by a void, rises to two bedrooms and a bathroom. The main bedroom looks out over a rear garden that is higher than the ground floor. The mixture of sandstone, paving, impeccable concrete and brick makes for a rich tactile experience. Balmain Rock fuelled Andrew’s growing preoccupation with the intensity of materials, and a subsequent project in the Sydney suburb of Naremburn furthered this ideation. In Naremburn Twin Peaks (2018) (see Houses 126), a new, two-storey rear extension adopts the form of the original bungalow’s pitched roof with a pair of steeper twin peaks. The new addition, all black-stained cedar externally, houses three bedrooms on either side of a narrow, top-lit corridor also clad internally in blackened timber. Inside each of the generous bedrooms the palette is all white, a pointed contrast to the hallway space. Here, Benn and Penna was inspired by Kengo Kuma’s work, and the result is reminiscent of its muse. Henley Clays (2019) continued to stretch the architectural possibilities of an alterations and additions commission. This project – on a slightly less hemmed-in site, with more garden than building – marked the first time that Benn and Penna had a sense of space in the garden and landscape to work with. From the garden, higher than the house and with an in-ground pool tucked into one side, one
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can clearly identify the three interlocking pavilion forms clustered around a central space that is part-courtyard, part-house. The new part of the house is separate from the existing house and towers above it, with a “stair chimney” that draws cool air up through the stair void to a secluded main-bedroom eyrie. The two tonnes of cementitious baked brick used throughout the house make up the walls, stairs and floors. The living-room pavilion faces the eastern courtyard and the western garden, and is marked by a smooth concrete floor. The western garden elevation is shielded from the sun by a loggia, supported by fine white columns. The project shows finesse in its very restrained use of rich materials. Benn and Penna’s work to date has showed a masterful manipulation of incredibly constrained conditions to produce exceptional outcomes. The resulting dwellings convey a comfortable and honest occupancy. The team will complete a larger, more elaborate new Palm Beach house in the coming months. Given their skill working in very constrained situations, their work will no doubt continue to develop as the confines of tight sites and budgets are released. info@bennandpenna.com
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10 The use of cementitious baked brick throughout the Henley Clays house (2019) is typical of Benn and Penna’s restrained handling of materials. 11 Henley Clays’ western garden elevation is shielded from the sun by a loggia, supported by fine white columns.
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Vincent Street House by Finn Pedersen
The first house designed by Perth architect Finn Pedersen remained home to him and his wife Rhoda for more than a decade. As their family grew, the couple reconfigured the Le Corbusier-inspired structure, adding a third storey and internal walls.
FIRST HOUSE
Words by Finn Pedersen Photography by Peter Bennetts
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In 1997, my wife Rhoda and I moved back to Perth after spending five years living in Broome and working in the Kimberley. For some time, we rented an apartment in Sunny Meed, the iconic block on Mount Street designed by mid-century architects Krantz and Sheldon. But before long, prompted by a significant rise in rent, we started to look for a house to purchase and renovate. We found a 250-square-metre north-facing battleaxe block on Vincent Street in Leederville, a short walk from our favourite haunts of Oxford Street and the Luna Cinemas. Inspired by the flexibility of French architect Le Corbusier’s 1914 Dom-Ino House and the iconic 1949 home of American architects Ray and Charles Eames, with great bravado, I decided I could build a $100,000 home on this lot. On a napkin in CafÊ 1.30, I sketched up the taut dimensions on the 12-by-19-metre block. Constrained by a deep sewer at the rear and a 2.4-metre-wide driveway, I used parapet walls built to the boundary on both sides to provide the space we needed. Soon, a simple Dom-Ino had emerged, with the potential for future expansion as funds became available or the need arose. The first stage was a one-bedroom, two-storey home, with a generous double volume and walls only to the bathroom and ground-floor toilet. The ceiling was from Zincalume corrugated steel and the floor from an experimental screed of raw cement on the concrete slab, finished with beeswax. Passive solar design shaped the roof overhang, allowing winter sun to penetrate deep into the house to warm the slabs, while excluding the spring, summer and
FIRST HOUSE
01 Hidden behind a heritage cottage, the house presents a dramatic glass facade to the northfacing courtyard. 02 Shaped by passive solar design, the roof overhang allows winter sun to penetrate deep into the house.
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early autumn heat. Mid- and high-level aluminium louvres allowed for night cooling, using the stack effect of the high volumes. We planted local Darling Range ghost gum seedlings and two Japanese elms to provide additional deciduous shading and to combat the very naughty 100-percent north-facing glass (the rule was no more than 50 percent). Hidden behind a heritage cottage on a strata title, the house presented a dramatic glass facade to the north-facing courtyard. The home worked well for us and our hound, Lucy. We enjoyed the spacious volumes – the ability to speak with someone, wherever they were in the house – and the feeling of almost being outside. But when we found ourselves pregnant with our first child, we knew that modifications were required. After Kaj was born, we felt we needed walls to our bedroom, more play space (this was added by closing the void with a plywood floor) and another bedroom (on the garage roof deck). These additions were effective, but after a few years and the arrival of our second son, Hugo, we found ourselves needing more space again. We added a third storey: a parents’ retreat, bedroom and ensuite, constructed from timber, lined with salvaged tuart timber and roofed with refrigeration panels and solar cells. With the new storey, the staircases required reconfiguration. The ground to first-floor staircase was rebuilt outside the original building envelope and clad in Danpalon multicell polycarbonate, with treads from blacked galvanized steel plate. From the first floor to the top of the house, the staircase became open-tread glue-laminated tuart with brass handrails, and the old void was filled with aluminium grating. The “hood” of the staircase was expressed as a timber wedge between the top rooms. While Rhoda was employed as a lawyer, I worked as a builder’s labourer for six months to realize the project, sharing an office with my future business partner, Adrian Iredale. Sixteen years later, the trees have grown tall and the home has become an oasis behind Vincent Street, whose profile has changed from single- and two-storey houses and villas to six-storey apartments. Our boys grew older and larger, gradually filling the rooms with Lego and toys, riding skateboards down the driveway and climbing the trees and the columns to the balconies with their friends. When the time came for them to go to high school, we decided that the travel distance was too far, so we moved to be closer to the school. This year, we have sold Vincent Street House and are starting a new project to renovate an old cottage. The key ideas of sustainable design, simple light-filled spaces, modest materials used well and cost-effective, flexible design are embodied by our first house and remain a continuing theme of our work.
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04 Local Darling Range ghost gums and two Japanese elms have grown tall in the house’s lifetime.
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Architect Finn Pedersen +61 8 9322 9750 email@iredalepedersenhook.com iredalepedersenhook.com
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FIRST HOUSE
Project team Finn Pedersen Builders Linkpin Constructions, Cambuild, Hugo Homes Engineer Bill Butler
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Ross Thompson
Whether he’s referencing the simplicity of mid-century modernism or the glamour of Art Deco styling, Ross Thompson emphasizes craftsmanship and quality in his furniture, while also drawing on his musical side.
STUDIO
Words by Leanne Amodeo
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Growing up, Ross Thompson could most likely be found in the back shed of his family’s home in Ballarat, Victoria, helping his dad repair stuff and build things. Little wonder, then, that he decided to undertake a furniture apprenticeship at a local Daylesford business straight out of high school. In late 2016, he established his own furniture studio in South Geelong, where he’s currently based. The only surprise in all of this is that he left his apprenticeship halfway through to study contemporary music for three years. “I needed to take a break and rediscover what it really meant to me to be able to practise woodwork,” says Ross, reflecting on that seminal time. “My music degree gave me so much insight into how people express their art and I finally understood that it doesn’t matter how you do it, just that you have the conviction to do it.” This thoughtful, sensitive approach underpins the emerging designer-maker’s portfolio, which boasts exquisite timber pieces that are all the more resplendent for their fine form and detailing. The clean lines of the Tambour Door Unit and the Easy Chair reflect Ross’s love of mid-century modernism, while his Liquor Cabinet’s patterned sensibilities are a clever interpretation of classic Art Deco styling. But it’s the Gentleman’s Robe that best exemplifies his respect and feel for timber, evident in the synergy between the geometric cabinet’s blackheart sassafras doors and ebonized tapered legs. A strong sense of harmony pervades the configurations and compositions of Ross’s furniture and he’s the first to concede that there are undeniable similarities between music and woodwork as practices. “I always thought design could just be like someone pressed pause on a piece of music and built the physical form. The contrast between quiet and loud or the way musical notes connect with rhythm to create melody is exactly the same as the way materials relate to each other in furniture making,” he explains. The creation of each of his furniture pieces may very well require a considerable amount of uninterrupted concentration and attention, yet nothing feels forced. Ross’s focus on producing works that are well-proportioned and visually balanced ensures the hand of the maker is always apparent and that outstanding craftsmanship is the priority. He’s currently completing an ambitious commission for a writing desk and, in his free time, reading David Pye’s The Nature and Art of Workmanship. “It’s my bible,” says Ross. “As well as an incredible source of clarity when you’re wondering why you might spend a whole day cutting and chiselling dovetails.” rossthompson.com.au
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01 Ross Thompson established his furniture studio in Geelong in 2016. 02 Available as a oneor two-seater, the Easy Chair reflects Ross’s love of midcentury modernism. 03 Ross’s liquor cabinet reinterprets Art Deco stylings with its patterned sensibilities. 04 Tasmanian myrtle, American walnut, Huon pine and ebony inlay feature in the Liquor Cabinet.
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05 Exemplifying Ross’s respect and feel for timber, the Gentleman’s Robe juxtaposes light and dark timber.
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B E AU M AR IS RESIDENCE B Y ST U D I O F O U R
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Encapsulating minimalism as a holistic way of living, this house provides a counterpoint to its context and embodies a myriad of simple measures that make a healthy home.
Words by Ella Leoncio Photography by Shannon McGrath
Sarah Henry embarked on the design of her own home after almost 10 years of running architecture practice Studiofour with co-director Annabelle Berryman. Sarah’s home, Beaumaris Residence, belongs neatly within Studiofour’s body of work. Yet at the same time, the project was approached as a testing ground for new ideas and bubbling design urges; an opportunity for the practice to push ideas to extremes. The house is located in the Melbourne suburb of Beaumaris. Sited on a sloping block, it is surrounded by bulky and uninspiring project homes and in close proximity to a busy road. In order to shut out the noise, the house is inward-looking, its spaces organized around a central atrium. The house gently steps down the site to follow the topography, but the entry and front bedroom are significantly sunken in the landscape so that visitors descend through deep site cuts. This approach marks a distinct gateway that separates the chaos of the outside world from the serene home that awaits beyond the entry. Inside, the house is a demonstration of what Studiofour knows and does well. The simple forms, controlled material palette and rigorous architectural detailing have been executed with a sense of familiar ease. Throughout, there are satisfying moments of aligning geometries and neat, uncluttered detail. The house also illustrates Studiofour’s interest in creating healthy homes. Going beyond the usual design measures of seeking daylight, natural ventilation and outlook, the design team has also looked closely at the services. All water goes through a filtration system, with drinking water twice cycled through. Electromagnetic fields have been carefully controlled to ensure separation from key living and sleeping zones.
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BEAUMARIS RESIDENCE
01 The family tend to leave the courtyard doors open even in winter, creating a true indoor–outdoor home.
Beaumaris Residence is built on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation
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Many Studiofour clients have been drawn to the practice’s minimalist aesthetic, but at Beaumaris Residence minimalism is taken to a new level. Rather than pursuing minimalism as merely an aesthetic, Sarah and her team have used the project as a platform for a minimalist way of life. The house is decidedly compact: only the essential spaces have been allowed for, and generosity is given only where needed. Keeping the plan efficient allowed the team to pour more energy into both the design and the build – it’s a case of build little and build well. Bedrooms are intentionally small to encourage the family to interact in communal living spaces. Shared spaces are arranged along the two lengths of the courtyard to keep circulation space to a minimum. The primary outdoor space – the courtyard – is central to the plan so that it operates as a proper “room” rather than merely providing outlook. The kids are just as likely to drag their toys into the courtyard as the family room. The family finds that they leave the courtyard doors open most of the time, even in winter, meaning the courtyard is also used as a circulation path on a daily basis. Considering Melbourne’s inclement weather, it’s a rare example of a true indoor–outdoor home. Internally, the house is similarly permeable. All doors are designed as discreet pivots and are generally left open. The laundry has no door at all and is simply an extension of the hallway. The use of pivots throughout may seem to be a minor detail, but it’s a valuable one that impacts the feel of the home. The sense of permeability it achieves enables each room to borrow from adjacent spaces. It’s a design tool that allows the house to gain more with less. Sarah intentionally avoided excessive storage, which has forced the family to be mindful about what possessions are collected. There is no scullery, there are no overhead cupboards in the kitchen and there is no garage. Living in this house makes living minimally a necessity and a lifestyle – not just an aesthetic. Studiofour has long held an impulse to design an all-grey house – an idea that is typically met with resistance from clients. Here, that itch has been scratched. The grey is continuous and uncompromising – the walls are grey concrete block, the floors and benchtops are concrete, the bathrooms are grey tadelakt and even the ceilings are painted a soft, pale grey. The greyness isn’t aggressively apparent but, rather, gently recedes and allows other things to shift into focus: the scent of the sea breeze, the gentle shadow-play of light and the drama of the swaying greenery in the central courtyard. The seamless grey palette, paired with the inward-looking courtyard, provide reprieve from the overstimulation of the outside world. It creates a calming environment that invites meditative engagement with one’s surrounds. It’s always fascinating to examine what architects design for themselves. Although not necessarily an overly experimental project, this house shows the architect’s commitment to design intent. Studiofour has not shied away from austerity in the house’s material palette nor its detailing and, perhaps more notably, has not taken the concept of minimalism lightly. This house embraces minimalism wholeheartedly, not just as an aesthetic device but also as a holistic way of life.
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Design 6 m Build 10 m
Per m² $4,500
Products Roofing: Butynol roofing membrane External walls: Boral Smooth Face Designer Blocks in ‘Ash Grey’; sand and cement render Internal walls: Boral Smooth Face Designer Blocks in ‘Ash Grey’ Windows: Capral 325 Series aluminium-framed double-glazed windows; Viridian Evantage thermotic double glazing Doors: Capral 900 Series sliding doors; Viridian Evantage thermotic double glazing; Frits Jurgens System M pivot system; Designer Doorware Quad cabinet handles and escutcheons Flooring: Polished concrete slab Lighting: Topos Single Line wall light from Hub Furniture; Darkon Deep Down downlight Kitchen: Astra Walker Icon spout and mixer in ‘Brushed Platinum’; Smeg Classic Thermoseal Pyrolytic oven, Compact Combi steam oven and Linea gas cooktop; Qasair Thermidor rangehood; Fisher and Paykel dishwasher and French door fridge/freezer; Oregon timber island bench and dining table by Mark Tuckey; Purestream reverse osmosis water filter Bathroom: Tadelakt wall finish from Render it Oz; Omvivo CDesign basins; Brodware Minim tapware in ‘Brushed Nickel PVD’; Astra Walker Icon shower arm and rose in ‘Brushed Platinum’; custom stainless steel towel rails and shelves by Hi-Tech Stainless Fabrications; Kado Lux toilet from Reece Heating and cooling: In-slab hydronic heating by Parsons Hydronic Heating External elements: Boral blockwork paving in ‘Ash Grey’; Mentone Pre Mix exposed driveway aggregate in ‘Winston’ Other: Oregon timber bench, dining table and coffee table by Mark Tuckey; custom steps by Hi-Tech Stainless Fabrications
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02 The house is permeable throughout, with the doors designed as discreet pivots and generally left open. 03 Storage space has been kept to a minimum, encouraging the family to be mindful about collecting possessions. 04 The all-grey materials palette gently recedes into the background, allowing other things to come into focus.
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The house is decidedly compact: only the essential spaces have been allowed for, and generosity is given only where needed.
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05 The house demonstrates Studiofour’s mastery of simple forms, minimal palettes and rigorous detailing. 06 Bedrooms have been kept intentionally small to encourage the family to interact in communal spaces. 07 The entry is sunken in the landscape, creating a “gateway” between the chaotic outside world and the serene internal home.
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Architect Studiofour +61 3 9822 3222 info@studiofour.net.au studiofour.net.au
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Project team Sarah Henry, Annabelle Berryman Builder Uwood Projects Engineer Webb Consult Landscaping Studiofour
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REED HOUSE BY B E TH GEORGE
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Edged by swathes of native garden, this addition to a historic home in Perth brings to life a series of stories, instilled with childhood memories of the past and in the making.
Words by Brett Mitchell Photography by Benjamin Hosking
Reed House is an architecture of intimate collaboration. It is intertwined with the life story of the architect Beth George and her clients: her sister Fran (an archaeologist), brother-in-law Mark (whom she has known since their teenage years) and their four daughters. The project involved the collective pursuit of ideas and aspirations via material construction – but also a shared understanding that architecture is a means for accommodating and celebrating the life that goes on within it. The resulting architectural outcome is an armature of experiences: past, present and future. The decision to remediate the original and unlisted 1908 home retains a fragment of the heritage precinct streetscape; and, more importantly, it means the interior spaces, where memories have been formed, have been preserved. A nostalgic response is resisted, however, with the careful reconfiguration of old and new to the rear. At this critical juncture, a new kitchen-dining space and its adjacent planted courtyard mark the gathering of family, building and garden. Excavating the ground below the existing floor level allowed a new, generous volume to be formed, becoming “something of a dig site within the old cottage.” Embedded fragments of the original limestone footings are purposefully made visible in the face of a new concrete plinth, which is the beginning of a continuum of concrete throughout
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the home. Connections are formed directly and indirectly, with the outside now being registered inside as new views and light illuminate the home. The old hallway appears to extend into the garden, aligning with an external pathway now enclosed by a native garden spilling over the upper-storey cantilevered concrete planter. Beth says the design “entailed reactions to site, zoning of the house program and all of the usual stuff, but it is also built from memory.” Both she and her sister recall time spent together on a lawn adjacent to their childhood bedrooms and the delight of a garden tended by their mother that foregrounded their home at the edge of a national park in the Perth hills. This shared memory of garden spaces plays a key role in Reed House, where each new internal space is defined through a distinct association with a unique garden condition: a plant-filled courtyard defines the diningkitchen space; the living space opens out to a lawned play space and pool; a walled garden wraps the main bedroom; zenithal light filters through neighbouring trees into the bathing spaces; the upper-storey hallway is bookended by framed views of a blooming jacaranda and a public park beyond; and, finally, the wall-to-wall concrete planter box and its native plants screen the distant city skyline from the children’s bedrooms on the upper level. Conceptually, the garden spaces become a
REED HOUSE
01 Reed House demonstrates a harmonious blend of new and old. 02 A cantilevered concrete planter overflowing with native plants shelters the concrete pathway that skirts the edge of the house.
Reed House is built on the land of the Whadjuk people of the Nyoongar nation
6 Perth, WA
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generational link to a shared spatial history; as the gardens grow, they will also register the passage of time against the presence and permanence of the home. Formally and pragmatically, the new concrete structure undertakes multiple roles: it is floor and wall, ceiling and cantilever, inside and outside all at once. Externally, its folds capture and deliver water to the native gardens below. Internally, the exposed concrete structure defines, connects and becomes informally occupied space, such as steps, plinths and window seats. There is a purposeful ambiguity to the resulting living and circulation spaces. The generous dimensions can accommodate impromptu ballet and gymnastic performances when the curtains are left open; when the curtains are drawn a collection of individual zones is created. Elsewhere, private spaces are made distinct with refined details and unique material combinations of ceramic tile, face brick and stained plywood. In this way, the interior is defined not by a set of traditionally named rooms but, as Fran says, by “a series of short stories.” One such “story” is found in the faceted plywood-lined reading nook on the upper level, where a soft pink glow, refracted through the painted skylight ceiling, washes down the adjacent wall to the floor level below at various times and intensities. It is a background to life: orchestrated but always elusive, memorable but ever-changing. The skill of the architect is therefore not in imposing but instead in registering, evoking and amplifying experiences. The clients acknowledge this as a key contribution, along with the skill and care of the builder and tradies throughout the process. “Trying to translate what you feel into something that then gives you what you want – that’s a tricky thing,” Mark says. This kind of architecture is not measured in square-metre rates or by rooms and features to be listed in a real-estate pitch. This is a home. One that binds sentiments of past experience with new memories and fleeting moments from daily life. It is designed to generate a much longer-term value – one that is deeply felt, shared and recalled.
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Products Roofing: Lysaght Klip-lok; Custom Orb in Colorbond ‘Shale Grey’ Externa walls: External wa s: Midland Brick Kalbarri bricks; Dulux ‘Terrace White’ and ‘Lexicon’ half Internal walls: Exposed concrete in Lithofin sealer; Dulux ‘Lexicon’ half and Acratex Acrasand in ‘Lexicon Half’ Windows: Custom steel frames in matt black powdercoat by Ozsteel Design; Viridian Lightbridge double glazing; Silent Gliss curtain tracks in matt black powdercoat Doors: Custom jarrah frames in Dulux ‘Lexicon’ half by Cockburn Joinery; Hume Solicore ply-faced doors in Feast Watson liming white; Manital brass round knobs; Tradco Baltimore levers in matt black Flooring: Subiaco Restoration wormy chestnut boards; polished concrete slabs in Lithofin sealer Lighting: Xlight Verop Pinhole and Relux 110, Light Industry Barro spotlights and Slik 150 pendants, Hunza Twin Wall Spots and Pagoda Pagoda Lite, all from Alti Lighting; vintage mid-century lights sought by client
ALTERATION + ADDITION
Design 3y Build 1 y 6 m
Kitchen: Custom plywood cabinets by Shepherd Craft Furniture; Inax Yohen Border mosaic tiles; Ilve rangehood; Halliday and Baillie continuous drawer pulls; Tech 100 sink from The Sink Warehouse; Dorf Vixen retractable mixer; Miele oven, speed oven, cooktop and dishwasher Bathroom: Inax Yohen Border mosaic tiles; Dotti ivory and matt white tiles from Original Ceramics; Rogerseller Amélie baths, Arq mixer, Gas bath outlet and Strap towel rails; Caroma Leda and Teo basins; Concrete Colour Systems polished screed flooring in ‘Kelp’ and ‘Flamingo’; Mizu mixer from Reece External elements: Eco Outdoor split stone porch paving; reclaimed Toodyay stone crazy paving; reclaimed brick paving; driveway cobblestone laid by Premier Constructed Other: Custom dining table designed by Guy Eddington; custom display unit by Shepherd Craft Furniture; Ethnicraft Spindle bed; couch from Öopenspace; pool by Reflections Pools
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03 A courtyard erupting with billowing grasses draws in light and offers views through the living room to the dining area. 04 The line of an old hallway continues into the garden, reinterpreting the original footprint of the house.
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05 Red-hued brick, stained plywood and floor-to-ceiling drapes lend warmth and texture to the sleeping areas. 06 A logic of concrete flows across the site, defining a material aesthetic that extends throughout. 07 The defined geometry and minimal colour palette of the architecture contrasts with the joyful unruliness of the plantings.
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Architect Beth George b@beth-george.com beth-george.com
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Project team Beth George Builder Alan Pope and Associates Engineer Atelier JV Landscape architect Banksia and Lime Concrete formwork Bregma
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C LO U D C O T TA G E B Y TA K T STUDIO
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In the Southern Highlands town of Bowral, a new cottage shirks polite defensiveness for porosity, contributing generously to its streetscape while also enabling quiet repose.
Words by Genevieve Lilley Photography by Ingvar Kenne
As you weave through the flat residential grid of streets in Bowral, a town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, a pattern emerges. Front gardens are populated with hedges, picket fences, decorative gates, garage doors and, generally, a flowering European tree centred in a very green lawn. These gardens seem to be a polite layer of defence that offers no clues about the private spaces that lie beyond the curtains of the house facades. Cloud Cottage by Takt Studio is therefore a little disarming on first approach. In place of a front fence, there is instead an array of native plants among several raised white-brick planters. The garden is strewn with damp hay and one or both of the owners can often be found tending to it. The largest of the low brick planters has a flat eave hovering over it and, on approach, is revealed as a porch. Beyond it, a room bathed in light is glimpsed through timber screens. Timber cabinetry is visible, as is the movement of people. From the footpath, it seems as if you can see right into the most domestic of situations. This permeability is just how the owners like it. The street-facing porch and the front room behind it are semi-public rooms in which gathering, cooking and eating are done. The success of the design lies in how it balances these open and welcoming areas with discrete private zones. The front of the house faces north and, in the sometimes-cool climate of Bowral, it makes sense to orient the living areas of this house towards the street. The effective detail of the louvres to the front porch – angled pieces of fibre cement sheet – allows winter sunlight to bathe the deck while the summer sun is precluded. Takt Studio’s design was initially developed around an existing cottage on the site. However, it became clear in early site stages that the remaining parts of the old house were structurally damaged, and the clients bravely
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CLOUD COTTAGE
Cloud Cottage is built on the land of the Gundungurra nation
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agreed it was sensible to raze the remnants and start the new build from scratch. Externally, only the pitched roof of the new house matches that of the modest former bungalow. But, as the rebuild was agreed to after the contract had commenced on site, the design couldn’t be completely refigured. As a result, the scale of the ancillary rooms and bedrooms has a modesty that echoes the scale of the older cottage. The main entry to the house is from the side, though many people simply wander in via the front porch. The main living space is exceptionally generous and tactile. The ceiling is luminous and is clad in panels of stretched art canvas. These make the whole surface a diffusing layer that tempers daylight from skylights above and, in the evenings, gently spreads the warm glow cast by LED lights. A full-width angled skylight draws light down into the blackbutt timber kitchen. The same timber species has been used for a long bookshelf on the western wall, which displays objects collected by the owners during their travels. In the dining area, two sliding doors – one glazed, the other a timber screen – connect to the front porch, while a raised sill height in the living area admits sunlight but provides privacy for a reclining resident. The house is effectively only two rooms deep, with an eastern wing that extends to the rear. A private rear courtyard is framed by this wing, with a storage structure of fibre cement sheet on the western side and an arbour on the southern boundary. The eastern wing has a series of useful yet utterly charming spaces – a small study facing the street, a sunny bathroom with tiles that match exactly the white brick of the internal structure, and a laundry concealed in timber cabinetry. In their detailing, these spaces celebrate the practical tasks of life. A long and thin ambiguous open room, with a clerestory window in reeded glass, is entirely glazed to the rear courtyard and is therefore only a slightly more enclosed version of the adjacent verandah. The timberframed glass doors slide back, as does the separate layer of timber-framed brass mesh screens. This space is used variously for exercise, as a dormitory for visiting family, for games or simply as a contemplative space, enhanced by the garden of eucalypts. Beyond this sunroom, a few steps lead to a room that has almost the quality of a temple. Off-white brick columns frame the corners of the space and a long desk positioned against the brick wall allows a number of different activities to be left and resumed. Clerestory windows distribute toplight evenly. A low window allows another narrow native garden to be contemplated. For owners who have moved from the open and private freedom of a remote mountaintop eyrie, “town life” could have been an unpleasant shock. Yet this gentle house with a modest footprint uses the entire site and offers a range of public and private spaces. It allows its owners to work separately and to rest as needed, but also to come together for meals, family time and community events. The layers of planters and screens between the front footpath and the main room, and the careful organization of increasingly private and quiet spaces within the house, has created a marvellous place to be.
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828 m² 162 m²
Design 7 m Build 1 y 2 m
Products Roofing: Lysaght Spandek in Colorbond ‘Basalt’ matt; LG 320W Neon solar panels External walls: Coach House Timbers external timber cladding; Cemintel Barestone fascia; Austral Masonry GB Honed bricks; Murobond Pure Acrylic paint in ‘White’ Internal walls: Murobond Pure Acrylic paint in ‘Just White’ Windows and doors: Recycled hardwood windows and doors by Architectural Hardwood Joinery; Made Measure leather handles Floor ng: Blackbutt floorboards Flooring: in Whittle Waxes Hardwax oil Lighting: Nightworks Studio Saturn pendants; Astro Lighting bathroom wall lights; custom brass island bench strip light by Takt and Bricon Projects Kitchen: Astrawalker tapware in ‘Aged Brass’; Asko cooktop, oven, integrated dishwasher and warming drawer Bathroom: Inigo Jones Bianco Piccolo terrazzo floor tiles and Spanish wall tiles in matt white Heating and cooling: Water Furnace Geothermal heating and cooling; custom blackbutt geothermal air vents by Takt and Bricon Projects External elements: Blackbutt decking Other: Custom blackbutt joinery by Forest Furniture; custom canvas ceiling by the Sydney Canvas Company
01 Sensually rich in its material palette, the main living space is illuminated by a fullwidth, angled skylight.
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02 The home’s primary entry point is at its side, positioned, with rural modesty, adjacent to the driveway. 03 A series of timber battened screens mediates between the home’s interior and exterior zones. 04 The core of the house is essentially two rooms deep, with a north-eastern wing that frames a eucalyptplanted courtyard. 05 Various private and public activities are catered for, thanks to a clever plan that makes efficient use of the entire site.
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06 A place for quiet tasks, the garden room’s off-white bricks and clerestory windows evoke a monastic quality. 07 The garden room offers a contemplative view of a narrow native garden through a low picture window. 08 Permeable and ethereally lit, the home’s public rooms for gathering, cooking and dining face the street. 06
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Architect Takt Studio +61 2 4268 4324 studio@takt.net.au takt.net.au
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Project team Brent Dunn, Katharina Hendel, Tom Gray, Adam Hogan Builder Bricon Projects Engineer GP Design
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Way House by Darryl Way REVISITED
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This rare home by an influential but “under the radar� Perth architect is an exploration of order and rhythm. Almost entirely intact, the 1970s house interrogates environmental consciousness, passive design, social dynamics and the relationships between landscape, building, materials and art. Words by Katherine Ashe and Marco Vittino Photography by Rob Frith
WAY HOUSE
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Can we ever really establish where ideas come from? The unlikeliness of this humble house, built in 1975 by architect Darryl Way for his family in the Perth western suburb of Claremont, remains intriguing, even after intimate conversations with the late architect’s family members and colleagues, countless visits to the site and close inspections of originals drawings, notes, files and photographs. Born in Hong Kong in 1937 and with a transient childhood that took him through the Himalayas to Singapore, Darryl came to Western Australia as a young boarding student at Guildford Grammar School before embarking on his architectural studies at the Perth Technical School. Like many of his fellow graduates, Darryl drifted away from traditional architecture and moved to London, where he was strongly influenced by the ideas of modernism and the Bauhaus. While still living in London, Darryl was recruited by Perth-based Geoffrey Summerhayes (senior) and returned to Perth, later setting up a practice with Geoffrey’s son Geoff Summerhayes (junior), a well-versed, highly regarded residential architect. Summerhayes Associates became Summerhayes Way and Associates, a thriving practice employing up to 70 staff. Both of Darryl’s daughters, Mischa and Siobhan, remember the office as a vivacious place full of architects and drawing boards, and fondly recall the distinct smells of ammonia copiers and cigarettes. Despite his leading role in the firm, Darryl always chose to work in the drawing office with all the architects. Summerhayes Way produced some superb and ambitious buildings, including the CBH office building in West Perth (1968), still regarded as an exemplar piece of Western Australian architecture. During the Whitlam years, the practice fell on hard times and retracted considerably in scale, transitioning to Darryl Way and Associates in 1991 and DWA after the passing of Darryl in 2016. DWA still operates today and is largely known for public commissions, which makes the Way House a rare insight into the private realm of this remarkable and somewhat “under the radar” practitioner. Darry’s final student thesis had explored how order might stem from rhythmic structure, and if order through rhythm was the primary structural quality that he set out to achieve in the design of his own home, then, without a doubt,
01 Exposed brick floors continue seamlessly from inside to outside, blurring the threshold between spaces. Artwork: William Scott.
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it stands accomplished. But there are many more stories, people and ideas behind this project that help to contextualize it beyond this theoretical approach. The house reveals ideas that interrogate environmental consciousness, passive design, social dynamics and the relationships between landscape, building, materials and art, and these considerations together are what render the project so intriguing. Let us start unconventionally, with the only alteration, made by the architect himself three decades after the house was complete. A two-storey volumetric void made of battened white-painted timber has been proudly attached, like a veil, to the entire front facade of the original Way House – a gesture that both obscures and redefines the threshold from outside to inside on the front elevation of the modest home. Darryl often described the structure as a lanai – a Hawaiian word for a covered, open-sided verandah or porch. It replaced the original, more horizontal timber pergola, and now acts as a mediating element, an area of transition from the garden to the house that invites family life alfresco. Once inside the house, there is a radical shift in the quantity and quality of light. The deep material palette envelopes you in a richness of textures and finishes that are achieved with minimal means and amplified by carefully placed paintings and treasured belongings. The house sits unusually deep on the site, creating a courtyard-scale backyard that is defined by large mulberry trees that predate the house. This yard is remembered by all as a visceral space, a place of gathering and socializing,where the person wearing the white would always end up stained purple by falling fruit. The obscured siting of the house is
Floor plans 1:250 (1975)
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02 The house sits unusually deep on the site, with visitors entering along a pergola link past a series of courtyards. 03 The large white timber structure that replaced the original pergola mediates between garden and house.
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telling of the private nature of the architect but, ironically, the small rear yard came to be known as a wonderful space for social gatherings. It is in conversations about the gardens that Margaret Way’s unique and substantial influence on the home is brought to life. Her affinity with the Western Australian landscape and endemic plantings, and her interest in local artworks, were a perfect fit for Darryl’s experimentations in the use of local (often rejected) materials – moves that were all highly uncharacteristic and progressive for their time. Almost office-tower-like in nature, the plan is rational and extremely efficient. A three-by-three bay grid organizes and articulates all the main spaces in a logical sequence, placing all the service functions in the central bays and primary living areas to the north and south. The bedrooms and bathrooms are located upstairs, tucked neatly into the grid formation with the same organizational order. On the ground floor, the living areas establish strong relationships with the gardens to the north and south. These elevations have extensive glass and the exposed brick floors with face brick walls continue seamlessly from outside to inside and vice versa, blurring the threshold between spaces. The use of jarrah for windows, doors, structure, cabinetwork and ceiling lining produces a singular tonal foundation. Everywhere one looks, the exquisite furniture and artworks further unify the series of spaces. Although the house is small, grandness is achieved through generosity
04
04 The deep material palette has a richness of texture and colour, amplified by treasured paintings and belongings. Artwork (L–R): Marissa Purcell, Brian Blanchflower. 05 On the ground floor, the living areas establish strong relationships with the gardens to the north and south. Artwork: Marissa Purcell.
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06 A spiral staircase sits at the centre of the plan, which is organized around a central spine of service spaces. Artwork (L–R): A.B Webb, Mary Moore, Guy Grey Smith, Imants Tillers. 07 The house remains almost entirely intact, with original finishes and furnishings largely retained by the family. 08 The use of jarrah for windows, doors, structure, cabinetwork and ceiling lining produces a singular tonal foundation. Artwork (L–R): Mary Dudin, Howard Taylor.
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in volume, intimacy, warmth and beautiful moments of architectural simplicity that indirectly recall works by the great modernists. Way House is also an exemplar in achieving familial closeness. It seems that the immersive sensibility of the house has acted as a rich backdrop and encouraged a connectedness of experiences, binding together narratives across the decades that are fondly remembered by family and friends. Largely due to Darryl’s reluctance to undertake any maintenance of the house over the course of his occupancy, as attested by his daughters, who lovingly reminisce on his repair work (“he was really good with black gaffer tape”), we are very fortunate that it remains almost entirely intact. It is a wonderful example of an architecture that pioneered modern design in Australia and influenced many young architects in Perth. It is a place that remains in many people’s minds long after spending time there, as it sits apart from the everyday composition many understand as “home.” Darryl and Margaret Way lived in the house for the remainder of their lives and it remains in the family. It will undergo a renovation and addition in 2020 befitting the next generation of Ways.
WAY HOUSE
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Architect Summerhayes and Associates
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Project team: Darryl Way Builder J & I Plucis
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Designing a Legacy
Comedian and modernism geek, Tim Ross, delves into the heart of some rare architect-designed houses through a live presentation of original short films, offering a delicate insight into the stories and memories linked to these homes.
LIVE SHOW
Words by Peter Salhani
There is no lofty architectural discourse and there are no grand designs in this film night. Far from it. Thank God. Building on his popular ABC TV series Streets of Your Town, Tim Ross’s latest show is a live presentation of short films that delve into the living histories of a handful of vintage homes designed by architects. Each film includes archival footage, unpublished photography and conversations with the people who have lived there about what it was like, and what it means to them. The houses aren’t monuments to ego, but to ingenuity, passion and perseverance – love stories from long ago. On stage, Tim interweaves the various stories with trademark witty anecdotes, personal asides and obscure details that help ground the houses not just to their place, but also to their time. You’ll hear, for instance, how, in the early 1970s Wrest Point Hotel Casino in Hobart saved Tasmania’s economy after Britain stopped buying the island’s apples, and how its (Melbourne) architect Roy Grounds caused a scandal (and two divorces) by falling in love with his client on a house at Ranelagh Beach in Victoria. Their daughter Victoria Grounds (also an architect) recalls to Ross summers spent in the idyllic 1937 weekender – the family’s happiest times together. In another of the films, 91-year-old Bill Lyons reads to camera his letter from five decades ago to architect Robin Boyd, to whom he wrote: “I am seeking
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an architect who will attempt to find an answer to my definition of how I wish to live.” The Lyons House in Sutherland Shire was Boyd’s only Sydney commission, and Bill candidly shares his concerns about its future. His dilemma is the central tenet in Designing a Legacy. To paraphrase Ross, letting go of any family home is hard enough, but imagine if it’s an architectural gem. Could you let it go? How could you uphold that legacy? The films were previewed in February at Australia’s most famous house of all – the Sydney Opera House, giving larrikin Ross license to frame architecture and its legacy as not only personal, but also political. “This is the one building in Australia that most expresses our modernity and tells the world ‘we are a progressive people, even if our leaders are not.’” Designing a Legacy is beautifully filmed by Streets of Your Town cinematographer Rod Pollard, and directed by Andrew Garrick. It isn’t the definitive list of Australian architectural masterpieces. It doesn’t need to be. It’s a thoughtfully crafted collection of stories offering delicate insight into how architecture and memories bind us to a place. Not through our heads, but through our hearts. themanaboutthehouse.net Designing a Legacy premiers in March at Melbourne Design Week 2020, before touring nationally.
POSTSCRIPT
01 Tim Ross’s latest show is a live presentation of thoughtfully crafted short films. Photograph: Alex Mayes. 02 Designing a Legacy reveals the living histories of classic houses, including the Butterfly House by Chancellor and Patrick, built in 1955. Photograph courtesy State Library of Victoria.
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