Today’s consumers want more than just a refrigerator – they want whole walls transformed into elegant, practical, brilliantly integrated refrigeration facilities. MasterCool meets all those demands and more, providing state-of-the-art products designed to exceed the expectations of discerning consumers. Crafted using only the highest quality materials, the range boasts five integrated models, from refrigerators, freezers with ice and water options, fridge/ freezer combinations and wine conditioners. It’s the new standard in large capacity refrigeration and wine storage.
Anyone serious about refrigeration will demand the uncompromised superiority of Miele MasterCool.
The baThroom showrooms
aT alexandria and auburn feaTure beauTiful, modern concepT baThrooms wiTh The laTesT in european designs, including mono by flaminia. here, their inspirational bathroom-ware collections are showcased, allowing you to choose individual bathroom elements – taps, bathroom furniture, baths and toilets –or make an entire designer bathroom yours. The sensory experience that makes shopping at domayne unique is never more evident than in the extraordinary bathroom showrooms.
WELCOME TO A WORLD WHERE DESIGN CAN INSPIRE YOU TO DO EVERYDAY THINGS IN NEW WAYS, RECALL MEMORIES OF TIMES GONE BY & PROVIDE DELIGHT AND HUMOUR.
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DESIGN NEWS
Products crafted with colour and creativity. Don’t miss our product in ‘Focus’, where we get up close and personal with the Habitus Pick.
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r E-SHOOT
Barbecues, grills and braziers that invite social interaction and gastronomic satisfaction.
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IN camE ra
Bring light into your life with lamps of all description, whether tall, short, practical or beautiful.
EXPLORING THE MINDS, SPACES AND WORK OF CREATIVES AROUND THE REGION – AN ARRAY OF FASCINATING IMAGES AND IDEAS TO ENJOY.
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ON LO caTION
Iconic Australian fasion duo, Easton Pearson, show Margie Fraser their favourite things and places around their hometown of Brisbane.
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a L c HE mIST
Maddie Tumkur meets Chris Lee, a Singapore creative crossing design boundaries and firing up a new generation of design renegades.
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c LOSE up The architecture of Kanika Ratanapidakul seamlessly combines relationships, context and culture. Tonkao Panin reports.
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SLOW DISSOLVE
How does a tropical climate inspire a unique way of living? Tempe Macgowan talks to landscape architect, Andrew Prowse, in Cairns.
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INSpI r ED
Kath Dolan meets Adelaide illustrator, Dan McPharlin and discovers his inspiration – 1970s design collective, Hipgnosis, who created groundbreaking album covers for Pink Floyd.
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aT HOmE
Inside the home of Anton Assaad in Melbourne, Stephen Crafti finds a treasure trove of Danish moderns.
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c r E aTION
What happens when young designers from Singapore, Argentina and Spain get a taste of each other’s creative personalities? They bind together to form international design collective, Outofstock.
IMPRESSIVE AND INTUITIVE, ON THE CITY AND THE COAST, HABITUS HOMES ACROSS THE REGION EXPLORE THE WAYS IN WHICH LIFE CAN BE ENRICHED BY THE SPACES WE CREATE FOR OURSELVES.
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S cENar IO: BL a I r rOa D Residential architecture
The traditional front of this Singapore shophouse belies a sleek and contemporary interior designed by Ong & Ong. Darlene Smyth visits a home that shows you can’t judge a home by its façade.
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S cENar IO: Ba NGKOK HOuSE
Residential architecture
Communal and private living are combined in this four-storey house by Kanoon Studio in Bangkok. Tonkao Panin discovers spaces that adapt to changing needs.
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crOSS Fa DE: WaGSTa FFE HOuSE
Alterations and additions
Architect, Michael Dysart, has retained the charm of this 1950s compact holiday cottage on the NSW Central Coast. Peter Salhani explores the sensitive addition that frames a bygone era along with the picture-perfect water view.
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S cENar IO: K r I mmE r HOuSE
Residential architecture
Margie Fraser visits a home on the Sunshine Coast by Sparks Architects, with a nautical theme inspired by a love of Japanese minimalism.
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S cENar IO: ONTar IO HOuSE
Residential architecture
Ministry of Design, renowned for pushing the boundaries, subvert the typology of a Singapore bungalow to create a private, yet spacious home in a somewhat uninspiring urban landscape. Patricia Nelson reports.
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DI r E c TOr’S cu T: WISTON Gar DENS
Alterations and additions
A Leslie Wilkinson-designed house in Sydney’s Double Bay benefits from an addition by Luigi Rosselli, complementing the original vision and evoking a journey through a Mediterranean hillside town.
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DI r E c TOr’S cu T: mI m HOuSE
Architects and designers designing for themselves
Alice Blackwood visits the home of interior designer, Miriam Fanning, in Melbourne, which combines a passion for art with a practical approach to family living.
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DI r E c TOr’S cu T: N85
Architects and designers designing for themselves
Pivotal to the burgeoning Indian creative scene, the couple behind Morphogenesis architecture studio invite Jagan Shah into their own home, which exemplifies their approach to living in contemporary Indian society.
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DI r E c TOr’S cu T: GESua LDI HOuSE
Architects and designers designing for themselves
An austere 1930s drill hall in Melbourne becomes an impressive, living shrine to art in the hands of architect, fashion importer and restaurateur, Piero Gesualdi. Stephen Crafti reports.
4. HABITUS SIGN-OFF WE DISCOVER THE RICH ART, ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE OF SICILY, AND SPARK A CREATIVE DEBATE.
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SNapSHOT: SIc ILY
Jane Burton-Taylor takes us through the history of Sicily while traipsing through Palermo and surrounding towns, meeting some colourful characters and, of course, sampling local fare along the way.
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mONTaGE
Some recent books on styling and decorating makes Nicky Lobo question whether they, like design and architecture, have a place in intellectual discussions of culture and creativity.
correction
In Habitus 07 in the article on K2LD’s Cambridge Terrace house we failed to credit Patrick Bingham-Hall for the use of his images on pages 114, 116 and 119. We apologise for this oversight.
Gas Chair + Zero Table Design by Jesús Gasca
“The sTone They imporT has been selecTed deep wiThin The quarry. oTher suppliers will Tend To source The cheaper surface quarried sTone ThaT will have The same look buT wiTh inferior Technical properTies.”
The featured stone: Calacatta Classico
I recently came across Japanese novelist, Junichiro Tanizaki’s enchanting essay, In Praise of Shadows – a reverie on the Japanese sense of beauty. The eminent American architectural historian, Charles Moore has written a brief introduction to the book in which he says:
“One of the basic human requirements is the need to dwell, and one of the central human acts is the act of inhabiting, of connecting ourselves, however temporarily with a place on the planet which belongs to us, and to which we belong.”
Moore goes on to say that we need ‘allies’ in this quest because the modern world is a constant threat to our sense of inhabitation. Our greatest ally, he says, is light and he quotes Louis Kahn as saying:
“The sun never knew how wonderful it was until it fell on the wall of a building.” But Tanizaki reminds us that light is defined by its opposite –darkness – and that our appreciation of space is shaped by the way light is modulated by shadow, or the way light is obstructed, deflected and filtered by what stands between us and the sun.
Given Habitus’ agenda of context and connection, it should be no surprise that the treatment of light is a constant in the homes we visit. So, from that point of view, this issue of Habitus is no different from the first seven. But I encourage you to read this issue with a special eye – as it were. First, check out our In Camera focus on lighting for ideas on how to be creative with light in the home. But also look at how our featured architects deal with light and how they use it to create and shape space, how they use it to moderate our relationship with the world outside, and how they manipulate it to temper our sense of well-being, of feeling at home.
There is the rare and precious occasion when I can sit at home on my deck which faces due north and where I can easily sit for an entire day simply watching the changing light in the rain forest opposite. The day has a rhythm to which our bodies are naturally attuned – except that modern urban living is largely oblivious to it. In a similar way, the play of light and shadow on and inside a building creates a rhythm which both complements its formal composition and helps connect us to our internal rhythms.
In other words, there is a meditative quality to the play of light in and around a building which helps us re-discover who we are. We are used to thinking about how form creates space, but our perception of space is really shaped by light. The effects of light on our well-being are often under-estimated – just compare how you feel in a dark room compared to one filled with light. But it is never just light and dark – it is equally about the play of light and the tonal shifts which can have the same effect as music as it shapes our moods.
paul mcGillick, Editor
...our appreciation of space is shaped by the way light is modulated by shadow...
a
Photographer
Amit is an architectural and social documentary photographer who comes from a family of photographers. He lives in New Delhi with his wife Bharati, a travel writer, and two children, Mehr and Josh. His work has been exhibited in India, London and New York, and his latest book, The Spiritual India and mughal architecture, goes to print at the end of this year.
Christopher moved from England to Australia 12 years ago, and later left the drawing boards of architecture to work behind the lens. He lives on acreage in Clear Mountain, northwest of Brisbane, with his wife Carla. Their favourite piece at home is their Noguchi coffee table which “offers a great resting place for many glasses of red wine”.
Dar
Canadian-born writer and designer, Darlene teaches architectural design courses at the National University of Singapore and runs architectural design practice, D Lab. Darlene is married to Singaporean architect, Warren Liu, and together they have two children, Erin and Breannan. One of her favourite design pieces is a series of ‘instinct’ drawings that Erin drew with her eyes closed, which “epitomise the innocence and unwavering faith that all children are born with,” she says.
JaGa N S H a H Writer
Jagan is an architect, historian, teacher and writer based in New Delhi. His career has spanned architecture, planning, film, theatre and television, and he is presently Chief Executive of a start-up consultancy, Urban Space Consultants. He lives in a 1980s apartment complex that “predates the invasion of television and the automobile” with his wife, a sociologist, and their two daughters, and plans to write a book in 2010 about Indian architecture and the green ethos.
Photographer
A friendship struck up over 25 years ago with Timothy Hill (of Donovan Hill Architects) put Jon on the path to architectural photography. After living at the back of an art gallery in an inner city warehouse for 12 years, home is now a Queenslander on a quarter acre block in Brisbane’s inner north. “The space between the houses lets me indulge my passion for listening to my collection of vinyl records on an all valve stereo rig,” he says.
Maddie is a Singapore-based design and architecture writer. She has served as the managing editor for a leading architecture publication in Hong Kong and firmly believes that many of the world’s problems can be solved by design. Her childhood copy of Alice in Wonderland is her most invaluable possession, treasured for its vivid illustrations – she hopes her son will love it as much as she does.
Patricia was born in New Zealand and brought up between Africa and Hong Kong, before moving to Australia to study. After completing a degree in History and Languages she lived in Spain and China, before she began writing for architecture and design magazines in Hong Kong and South-East Asia. She currently lives in Sydney but works between Hong Kong and Australia. Her favourite design object is an antique hand mirror from her grandmother.
Photographer
Peter has been photographing architecture and interiors for 15 years, and is also partner in brand agency Latitude, who create identities for architectural practices throughout Melbourne. He lives in Melbourne with his wife, Julia, and their two children, Max and Ella. Peter recently visited Hawaii, where he completed a series on Haleakala National Park.
Writer
Peter is editor of Architecture Bulletin, the journal of the Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter, former editor of monument and a regular contributor to design magazines. His passion for design stems from a childhood spent on family building sites. He lives in an old part of Darlinghurst in Sydney, with a garden planted outside the living room for privacy saying, “It gives the flat a beautiful outlook. Watching it grow over the years has been deeply satisfying”.
Photographer
Born in the agricultural area of Udon Thani province in Thailand. Pongpon moved to Bangkok in 1999 to study architecture at Silpakorn University (where his Master’s advisor was another Habitus contributor, Tonkao Panin). He currently lives in Nonthaburi province, near Bangkok, in a “little white house with a small garden and a cat”, and his favourite design object is a Ngob – a farmer’s hat made from bamboo and palm leaves.
rIc
Photographer
Richard moved to Sydney from the UK in 2005 with his homesick Australian wife, Virginia. He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering, but while teaching English in Japan, decided to pursue his creative instincts and enrolled to study photography. He started his photography career in fashion but his design eye was steadily drawn towards interiors. He lives in Five Dock with his wife and two daughters, Claudia and Matilda.
Writer
Tempe studied Landscape Architecture at Canberra University, and after working on the re-development of Hyde Park in Sydney in the early 1990s, studied Urban Design at Harvard. She lives in what she describes as “the worst house on a block not far from the beach with breathtaking views of the ocean and cool sea breezes”.
For more stories on diverse ways o F living across the r egion, explore the h abitus website, updated regularly to satis F y your ongoing search F or meaning F ul design.
+ r ead more about stories featured in this issue, like c olin s eah of m inistry of d esign
+ i mmerse yourself in exclusive online stories from across the r egion
+ d iscover how you can live , desire , play, travel , move & connect in design on habitusliving.com
EDITOrIaL DIrEcTOr
Paul McGillick habitus@indesign.com.au
aSSISTaNT EDITOr
Nicky Lobo nicky@indesign.com.au
cONTrIBuTING EDITOr
Andrea Millar habitus@indesign.com.au
EDITOrIaL aSSISTaNT Mandi Keighran mandi@indesign.com.au
DEpuTY arT DIrEcTOr Bronwyn Aalders bronwyn@indesign.com.au
DESIGNErS
Lauren Mickan lauren@indesign.com.au
Eunice Ku eunice@indesign.com.au
cONTrIBuTING WrITErS
Alice Blackwood, Stephen Crafti, Kath Dolan, Margie Fraser, Tempe Macgowan, Patricia Nelson, Tonkao Panin, Peter Salhani, Jagan Shah, Darlene Smyth, Madhavi Tumkur
cONTrIBuTING pHOTOGrapHErS
Justin Alexander, Pirak
Anurakyawachon, Richard Birch, David Campbell, Peter Clarke, Christopher Frederick Jones, Jared Fowler, James Geer, Edward Hendricks, Dan McPharlin, Amit Mehra, Trevor Mein, Amit Pasricha, Richard Powers, Eric Sierins, Skyline Studios, Edmund Sumner, Derek Swalwell, Dieu Tan, Pongpon Yuttharat
cONTrIBuTING STYLISTS
Alice Blackwood, Paul Hopper, Emma Lucas, Ashleigh Megan, Kimberley Wiedermann
cONTrIBuTING SuB-EDITOrS
Michelle Bateman, Carolin Wun
cOVEr ImaGE
piero Gesualdi House, melbourne photography: Derek Swalwell
INDESIGN puBLISHING
Level 1, 50 Marshall St Surry Hills NSW 2010 (61 2) 9368 0150 (61 2) 9368 0289 (fax) indesignlive.com
Printed in Singapore
puBLISHEr/ maNaGING DIrEcTOr
Raj Nandan raj@indesign.com.au
OpEraTIONS maNaGEr Adele Troeger adele@indesign.com.au
prODucTION cOOrDINaTOr – prINT
Sarah Djemal sarah@indesign.com.au
prODucTION cOOrDINaTOr – EVENTS
Grace Hall grace@indesign.com.au
aDVErTISING TraFFIc/ OFFIcE aDmINISTraTOr
Hannah Kurzke hannah@indesign.com.au
FINaNcIaL DIrEcTOr Kavita Lala kavita@indesign.com.au
accOuNTS
Gabrielle Regan gabrielle@indesign.com.au
Darya Churilina darya@indesign.com.au
ONLINE
cOmmuNIcaTIONS maNaGEr Rish Raghu rish@indesign.com.au
ONLINE
cOmmuNIcaTIONS aSSISTaNT Simon Layfield
ONLINE EDITOr Ben Morgan ben@indesign.com.au
EVENTS aND marKETING
Kylie Turner kylie@indesign.com.au
Angela Raven angela@indesign.com.au
aDVErTISING ENquIrIES
Ali Festa ali@indesign.com.au
(61) 401 641 757
Marie Jakubowicz marie@indesign.com.au
(61) 431 226 077
OrIGINaL DESIGN TEmpLaTE Wishart Design wishartdesign.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication, the publishers assume no responsibility for errors or omissions or any consequences of reliance on this publication. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the publisher or the publication. Contributions are submitted at the sender’s risk, and Indesign Publishing cannot accept any loss or damage. Please retain duplicates of text and images. Habitus magazine is a wholly owned Australian publication, which is designed and published in Australia. Habitus is published quarterly and is available through subscription, at major newsagencies and bookshops throughout Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia and the United States of America. This issue of Habitus magazine may contain offers or surveys which may require you to provide information about yourself. If you provide such information to us we may use the information to provide you with products or services we have. We may also provide this information to parties who provide the products or services on our behalf (such as fulfilment organisations). We do not sell your information to third parties under any circumstances, however, these parties may retain the information we provide for future activities of their own, including direct marketing. We may retain your information and use it to inform you of other promotions and publications from time to time. If you would like to know what information Indesign Group holds about you please contact Nilesh Nandan (61 2) 9368 0150, (61 2) 9368 0289 (fax), subscriptions@indesign.com.au, indesignlive.com Habitus magazine is published under licence by Indesign Group. ISSN 1836-0556
With an impressive range of technologies and features setting new standards. Interiors made of high-grade stainless steel for levels of hygiene previously only found in professional kitchens. Select and combine Vario cooling, freezing or wine - everything is stored exactly how it should be. The difference is
“design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a particular purpose.”
–
Charles eames
newstyle The Newstyle range of shutters from Luxaflex are now available in basswood. The smooth grain ensures superior finishing, luxaflex.com.au
cage Diesel has teamed up with Italian lighting company Foscarini to produce the Successful Living collection. The bold shapes, bright colours and industrial aesthetic of the Cage light are a reference to 1960s and 70s rock and roll culture. Switched on, the profile of the shade glows through the grille, diesel.com / foscarini.com / spacefurniture.com.au
corro bowl A simple fruit bowl inspired by corrugated iron that celebrates the beauty of the iconic Australian material, designbythem.com
quill With improved colourfastness and increased resistance to fading, Quill is inspired by leaves and available in five colourways, wovenimage.com.au
gymnasium A series of sideboards and storage systems designed by Søren Rose Studio for Mater and launched at Milan Design Week 2010. Made from old gymnasium floors and other sustainably sourced timbers, a percentage of the revenue generated by sales is donated to Indian sports communities, materdesign.com / corporateculture.com.au
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gooDbye Detergent! This environmentally friendly range of cleaning products made from recycled corn cobs, peach pits and walnut shells makes it easy to clean without chemicals, goodbyedetergent.com
faro A cast iron bathtub finished in enamel, and available with optional acrylic panels to assist in integrating into any modern bathroom, roca.com
large macramé pot hanging Macramé is rescued from the Sixties and brought into the present by Melbournebased designers Smalltown. This 2.5 metre, hand-knotted pot hanging is made from double-braid polyester and is available in black, white or custom colours, smalltown.net.au
rotor The upper and lower parts of this Italiandesigned table are fixed, with three central surfaces that rotate 360 o for various configurations, fanuli.com.au
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flask set An sophisticated glass flask set on a timber base by d.lab, a design research facility at the Department of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, designincubationcentre.com
reichenbeispiel Endless storage opportunities are presented with this hanging system from Nils Holger Moormann, new to Australia through SMOW. Along with coats and hats, practical units, such as keyholder, mirror and memo board, can also be hung from the magnetically fixed, individually removable hooks, smow.com.au
ferro e fuoco A hand-forged fireplace set designed by Milan-based architect and designer, Marco Ferreri, for Dimensione Disegno, kfive.com.au
nimbus Sophie, the latest range of wallpaper from Tres Tintas is inspired by German aristocrat and traveller Sophie von Fürstenberg, testintas.com / funkis.com
Drop A contemporary interpretation of a transformable seat. With a simple movement, Drop transforms from a seat to a day-bed, with the drop-like shape of the head pillow working to hold the seat into position without need for a locking device. The outdoor version is perfect for lounging around the pool, cerrutibaleri.com
corona Japanese design team Nendo reduce the world to black and white, creating a striking globe that gives clarity to the earth’s forms, nendo.jp/en/
secret An elegant, fuss-free desk that takes inspiration from the familiar form of old school desks, and offers hidden compartments with cable exits at the back of the workspace of instead of traditional drawers. The desk was designed by Markus Schmidt for Zeitraum, and is available in a range of timbers and sizes, zeitraum-moebel.de
frescobol Hand-crafted from scrap Brazilian timbers that are left over from furniture production, each of these luxury beach bat-and-ball sets have their own unique look, fbcollection.com
chipperfiel D w102 A brass and rubber task light that offers a fresh take on the familiar, designed by architect David Chipperfield for Swedish lighting brand Wästberg, www.wastberg.com
tracks Inspired by iconic Walkman headphones, Tracks’ on-ear headphones are designed by Aiaiai in collaboration with Kilo Design. Available in peach, cream, black and blue, aiaiai.dk / kilodesign.dk
iiamo go Designed by Danish duo, Iiamo, with Karim Rashid, this self-warming feeding bottle allows milk to be heated on the run. A disposable capsule generates heat by hydrating salt, iiamo.com
ma XintheboX With a series of interlocking tabs and slide joins, MAXintheBOX gives kids endless options to arrange a set of Birch plywood panels into whatever they dream. Available in light and dark blue, red, white, pink, yellow or neutral, the panels can be interconnected to create stools, storage boxes, a baby cubby or a stage, perludi.com
fence Magazines, toys and accessories can be hung and stored on this Birch plywood room divider, which comes complete with a hole for peeking, adensen.com
kokeshi Dolls Scrap wood is transformed into hand-painted, limited edition wooden dolls by Californian designer Mark Giglio. The dolls are contemporary interpretations of Japanese Kokeshi dolls, and their beautiful modern design blurs the line between plaything and design object, penpencilstencil.com
airplane 3D wallpaper
Part of a dynamic and sculptural range of three-dimensional porcelain creations arranged on a solid backdrop, created by Czech designer Daniel Pirsc at Studio Pirsc Porcelain. Prior to opening his own design studio in 2005 in the Czech town of Mikulov, Pirsc taught at the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design Prague. He now works exclusively with porcelain, creating pieces such at the 3D Wallpaper and celebrating the pure porcelain colour made from the traditional mixture of kaolin, feldspar and quartz. Each porcelain piece on the wallpaper is handmade in a process that involves the creation of a plaster model and mould, casting, retouching, firing, glazing and decorating. Pirsc instills a quirky essence into his forms, which range from aeroplanes to crosses, raindrops, birds and roses, pirsc.com
01
l anggrill
d esigned by Christian kusenbach and Martin sessler Möbel-liebschaften
moebel-liebschaften.de rrp €540
02
t hor brasier d esigned by g ordon tait tait tait.biz
rrp $660 inc. gst
02 Okay, so it’s not a real barbecue, but this contemporary version of ye olde campfire would still be perfect to roast the marshmallows over. The steel dish is designed to weather in the elements to create a textured, rustic finish, so it’s best placed on gravel, sand or dirt, as tiles are likely to stain.
01 Bringing together the ancient form of a fire vessel and the contemporary culinary convenience of a grill, LANGGRILL was a recipient of a Red Dot Award in Product Design in 2009. Resting on a base of three unfinished basalt stones, the fireplace and barbecue work simultaneously and symbiotically, with a sliding grill for allowing heat adjustment.
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o nfalós d esigned by atelier Bellini studio onfalos.com.au / parterre.com.au rrp from $9,849 inc. gst
03 The sociable circular form and chromium-coated steel hotplate of ONFALÓS ensures even heat distribution and delicate cooking, while the cylindrical base cleverly conceals the gas bottle. Corian petals are a colourful feature of this professional barbecue, providing functional shelves on which to rest cooking implements and dishes.
We put hotplates in the hot seat, looking at barbecues and grills that are as tasteful and innovative as the food they produce.
Floor lamp America by Metalarte, $2,790, from Space Furniture.
Side table/lamp vintage, courtesy Junktique. Books vintage, courtesy Edit.
Sofa Confluences by Ligne Roset three-piece modular, $9,509, from Domo Collections. Round pendant light UFO SO by Studio Italia Design, $3,990, from Special Lights. Long pendant light Anemone by Artecnica, $150, from Dedece Plus. Horizontal pendant light UFO by Italians Lika for Artificia, $1,165, from Mondo Luce. Ceiling lamp Bloom by Ligne Roset available in white or black, $342, from Domo Collections. Table lamp Dalu by Vico Magistretti, $175, from Artemide. Books vintage, courtesy Edit.
Desk Apta Elios by Maxalto, $12,405, from Space Furniture. Side tables Books of Limited Knowedge, $495 each, from Edit. Back row, Table lamp Falling In Love by Tobias-Grau in polished aluminium, $579, from ECC. Table lamp Pizza Kobra by Ron Arad for iGuzzini, $1,499, from ECC. Table lamp Itis by Naoto Fukasawa $759, from Artemide. Front, Table lamp AX20 by Axo, $1,915, from Mondo Luce. Telephones vintage, courtesy Junktique. Stool
Teo by Sandro Bianco for BPA International in white, $545, from Fanuli Furniture. Desk lamp Pinto
Anglepoise by SCE Lighting, $1,595, from Domo Collections.
For revered Australian fashion design duo, Lydia Pearson and Pamela Easton, a busy schedule means airports and international fashion shows are commonplace. But it’s in Brisbane that the two women work, live and play. Here Margie Fraser learns what these two locals find so captivating about their home town.
Donning an Easton Pearson garment is as much about the experience as the look. More, perhaps. The designs are born of a process of careful attention to hand-cutting, stitching and embroidering, informed by historical understanding and artful originality. The finest of details in buttoning, clippings and fastenings all pay homage to vintage forms and make for a delicate and graceful gesture of embrace. Art is often an inspirational source for fabric design, taken from friends’ works or favourite historical periods. Fabrics are ethically sourced, fibres are natural and organic.
Despite their hectic schedule and peripatetic lifestyle, Pamela and Lydia seem to manage their empire with an unruffled grace and humility. It is not surprising that their favourite things are on the whole, not things at all, but experiences and rituals which enrich everyday life. In their hometown of Brisbane, the two find some joyous places for both mind and body.
A curvaceous teapot, hand-painted in St Petersburg and purchased in Paris, is a well-used and much-loved object in Pamela and Lydia’s private studio. The voluptuously bulbous piece has the capacity to water them throughout the day. “We drink gallons of tea,” says Pamela. “We’re constantly boiling the kettle.” Their favourite brew, also retrieved during regular jaunts to Paris, is Thè des Mandarins, a white jasmine concoction. But it is the beautiful, Klimt-like patterns on the teapot’s surface that they rejoice in. Stylised horses and riders gallop around the belly of the pot, interspersed with decorative panels rendered in bright gold and crimson. “We love the figurative work,” says Lydia. “The gold is so gold, and there’s a 70’s look to the design.”
For those in the know, Paladar Fumior Salon is a hole-in-the-wall bar for coffee drinkers and Cuban cigar smokers, if you’re that way inclined. Lydia and Pamela are not (inclined
to puff on cigars that is) but love the way the place evokes “a little Cuban world in the middle of West End”. The eccentrically decorated space sits on the corner of historic Fish Lane, in a precinct which bridges the tourist strip of South Bank and the state’s art institutions with the ethnically diverse and laid back suburb of West End. Art and eccentricity both find a home in Paladar’s décor, where the walls are festooned with postcards sent from South America by loyal clientele. Sofas, raw timbers and pot plants make the miniscule courtyard homely, while a rooftop terrace with bench seats and deck chairs gives views into laneway happenings. When the mood takes him, owner Filip Pilioras, who knows most his patron’s names, will break into a bit of Cuban jazz.
Early morning walks around the city streets and riverside boardwalks reveal some surprising and rewarding vistas for the pair, who are conversant in Brisbane’s architectural
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...their favourite things are, on the whole, not things at all, but experiences and rituals which enrich everyday life.01 Pamela Easton and Lydia Pearson in Brisbane, Queensland. 02 Hole-in-the-wall coffee and cigar bar, Paladar Fumior Salon. The hand-painted teapot has travelled from Russia to Paris, and is now used daily in their Brisbane studio.
history. “There’s a fantastic view of St John’s Cathedral that’s recently appeared,” explains Pamela, whose quotidian strolls take her near the old stone church. “It’s like nothing else in Brisbane. A high-rise had blocked the view into the cathedral’s eastern end for years, but since that disappeared about 12 months ago you have this lovely image of it from the street below.” She would like to see a permanent park installed where the missing building was to retain the view. “There are so few long views left in the city,” she says, owing to the proliferation of highrise, the hilly topography and the haphazard street plans. The Cathedral has recently been restored and indeed completed after many years of existing without its western facade. Now, by virtue of a demolition, the less familiar “back” of the building can also be contemplated and enjoyed. “With a bit of forward thinking, this could become a real gathering place.”
Several large Moreton Bay Fig trees in Davies Park, West End, provide Saturday market-goers with splendid deep shade. One of Lydia’s favourite experiences is to sit under the trees and look at the Brisbane River beyond. “It feels like a long way out of the city,” she comments, but of course West End is just a bridge walk over the river from the CBD. On market day a cellist often sits near the trees, clad in his pyjamas, playing on blithely. “I like the way it’s a very mixed market with a broad crosssection of people,” says Lydia. A chai stall puts out a few milk crates and cushions for patrons to sit on, and sets itself up with a couple of Bunsen burners. “It’s all quite feral, but very convivial.”
The importance of large trees and the river loom large in the Easton Pearson duo’s estimation of their hometown. The distinctively “curly” nature of the Brisbane River, they note, affords village-like pockets, which nestle into its bends, each creating their own identities and points of reference. Catching the City Cats [the public catamaran ferries] up and down the river at night is a special treat which offers different
...city streets and riverside boardwalks reveal some surprising and rewarding vistas...05 Musicians under the Fig trees at the markets in Davies Park, West End.
06 The Talking Circle at the State Library of Queensland.
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Pieces from the Autum/Winter 2010 collection.
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Story Bridge, crossing the Brisbane River, is a favourite landmark.
perspectives of the city and the treasured Story Bridge. On foot, the river can be enjoyed via some amazing boardwalks. As for trees, the pair bemoan that not enough really major ones are being planted around the city.
The Talking Circle at the State Library of Queensland is a captivating outdoor space designed to accommodate gatherings of indigenous peoples. Pamela and Lydia appreciate the way it offers “lots of vistas” and also small, enclosed areas isolated from exterior noise and distractions. Which is exactly how architects Donovan Hill intended the space to be, after painstaking consultation with local aboriginal custodians. Again, a beautiful Fig tree is a feature and a soaring roof lifts to the stars. A fire pit sits in the middle of a cluster of timber benches and a lookout deck suspends above a lawn dedicated to ceremonial dancing.
By declaring a war on all things ordinary, Singapore designer Chris Lee is a bit of an anarchist. But this didn’t stop him winning the 2009 President’s Design Award. Madhavi Tumkur got him to stand still long enough for this conversation.
Chris Lee, the founder of ‘ideas company’, Asylum, has crossed many frontiers in design. he has developed brand identities, packaging, interactive media, book design and experimental music, designed interiors, set up the Chocolate Research Facility (CRF) retail store and, more recently, formed a non-profit design collective called The Design Society (TDS). Not surprisingly, he is now an icon in Singapore. But there is more to Chris Lee than meets the eye.
“TDS is an effort to elevate graphic design as a form of art, culture, profession, inspiration and discipline,” said Chris at the inauguration. To do this, workshops, forums and mentoring programmes will be initiated by TDS to engage, educate, and enlighten the design aspirants.
Design tends not to be associated with Singapore and this makes Chris uncomfortable. “Singapore creativity is very international, as our sensibility arises from a multi-ethnic environment and, therefore, can communicate across cultures,” he says defiantly. “The last 15 years have witnessed a lot of change on the design scene. having said that, there is still a lot of room for it to grow and achieve a strong identity for Singapore design.” The road for
design in Singapore has been long and bumpy and Chris has savoured its many bends and discovered the abundant possibilities of what his ideas can achieve, refusing to be dictated to or defined by a single nomenclature.
“ideas are limitless. At the same time, they are also the main assets in a creative industry,” he believes. “i n 1999, when i started Asylum, people viewed graphic design as visual porn. There was no understanding of the rigour that goes into the work. it was something you see in a magazine. And with one flip of the page, it is erased from the mind of the reader.”
Worse still, the clients were unadventurous and designers responded with work that was very corporate and safe. This inspired him to work on his own, challenge the pre-conceptions and bring fun back into design. “Some of my heroes in the u K and Japan worked to fulfil their creative expression and produced work that was true to their heart. There, design is an art. But in Singapore, you can’t sustain yourself by purely expressing your creativity – i therefore took a pragmatic approach. While i serviced corporate clients, i also looked for those i wanted to work for, such as museums and theatres, that didn’t have much money at that time and charged them according to their budgets. During the course of a few years we built a portfolio of work which we were proud of. This gave the clients a visual impression of what we could achieve, after which they started coming to us because they knew the kind of work which we can deliver.”
Asylum is no safe-house. it is for renegades from mediocrity, who wish to push the boundaries of visual design and seek a fresh approach in communicating their message. “often, i play the part of the designer. But i also play the part of the client in order to understand what he wants. u ltimately, the work has to be great. i f you compromise in design, the work is only mediocre.”
Passion, the old-fashioned essence of creativity, is something that Chris doesn’t ever shy away from. “You must want to change the world,” he says. “Sometimes when i’m teaching the students at the university and ask them what kind of designers they aspire to be, who their icons are in this field, they have no idea. it upsets me to see that they are lacking passion. i often tell them that they are better off being in any other field than design. i n design, there is short pay for a long time. it may be clichéd, but it is important to have that fighting spirit – the desire to change, the raw energy to rebel.”
When Chris started Asylum retail store in 1999, it was a step into rebelling. “There were no conceptual stores before we started. You could
Asylum is no safe-house. it is for renegades from mediocrity, those wishing to push the boundaries...
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At an exhibition to celebrate Asylum’s first anniversary, visitors were given a DiY T-shirt.
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Creating a customised T-shirt allowed visitors to create an individual experience.
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The packaged T-shirts.
hear neighbours playing mahjong. i think every city needs a street or two to meander through and discover something different, something that is its own,” he says.
The rebelling didn’t stop there. i n 2009, Chris started Chocolate Research Facility (CRF), a drugstore for chocolate addicts. With over 100 flavours and more added with new research, the Facility is like being inside Willy Wonka’s laboratory with stacks of chocolate in labelled boxes resembling cartons of chemicals. even the packaging is a result of some serious ‘research’. o ne side of the packet consists of ‘scientific information’ about the content, and the other has cues that hint at the chocolate’s flavour. “Chocolate is definitely my passion. But underlying this is my passion to change the retail landscape of Singapore,” says Chris. “i hate shopping malls. i hate the sameness in all the shops. CRF was an effort to be inside a shopping environment, but be something entirely different.”
i n 2009, CRF garnered the Design for Asia Award (DFA) in hong Kong where Chris was a speaker at the annual Business of Design Week. The DFA is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last, award that Chris will win. “We were, in fact, winning awards from the very beginning, 07
“Chocolate is definitely my passion. But underlying this is my passion to change the retail landscape of singapore. i hate shopping malls. i hate the sameness in all the shops.”
even before the design festivals were initiated. however, the promotion of design in recent times gives importance to such awards. So now when the clients call us, we are able to build a different kind of relationship,” he says. “i believe this was the best thing that came out of festivals such as Design Singapore. Whether or not it encourages younger designers to be successful, i am not sure. it needs a different platform to encourage them in the direction of design.”
This led Chris to start TDS and encourage the interaction between young designers and the veterans in the field. it was also an effort to form a collective of ‘Singapore design’ that binds all Singaporean designers by a common thread.
“The problem with Singapore is that we became international before we became national. So, the work doesn’t have a common Singapore thread,” he says. “But the one thing about Singapore is our ‘can-do’ attitude. We come from a small country, but stand shoulderto-shoulder with other international designers. it is not easy to ignore us.
“in my world, all communication is driven by ideas and an original idea must produce groundbreaking work. Good is the enemy of great.” The Asylum,
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Melbourne-based furniture retailer Anton Assaad has created a classic and inspired look in his re-designed Victorian period home with his favourite Danish designer pieces, uncovered while sifting through Denmark’s design royalty.
This Victorian timber home in Prahran, Melbourne, could be filled with chandeliers and traditional English-style furniture. But past the front door and decorative architraves, the house reveals a contemporary wing. Furnished with Danish designer classics from the 1950s and 60s, it could only be the home of Anton Assaad, owner of Great Dane. Anton started importing Danish post-war furniture seven years ago, initially to his garage at home. He now has three stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, bringing furniture from some of the most distinguished designers from this period to Australian shores. “My father reckons that everyone in Denmark is standing up because Anton’s bought all the chairs,” says his partner in both life and business, Emma.
The couple and their two-year-old daughter, Persia, might not have all the chairs in Denmark, but they certainly have a fine collection of Danish
furniture from the post-war period. While most children settle into an old beanbag for story time, Persia enjoys the comfort of a Pelican chair designed by Finn Juhl. “It’s one of the privileges of owning a furniture business. Persia loves the chair’s felt wool covering. It reminds her of a furry creature,” says Anton.
When the Assaads moved into the house, they knew they had found what they were looking for. With three bedrooms and a study forming the original part of the home, and a large open plan kitchen and living areas at the rear, it was the perfect backdrop for their large furniture collection. “We wanted a place where we could just move straight in,” says Anton. The home is continually evolving. “I try not to get attached to anything. I’m used to pieces arriving and then being moved back to the showroom. Nothing is permanent,” says Emma, except the gold Buddha in the courtyard – “Anton bought it
for me for our first wedding anniversary. It’s not going anywhere!”
Apart from arranging furniture, little, if anything, was done to this house. Renovated a few years before the Assaads moved in, everything had been considered. “We’d like to replace a few light fittings, but that’s about all,” says Anton.
An open plan kitchen and living areas form the hub of the house. The kitchen features white laminate cupboards and reconstituted stone benchtops. Filtered light from a bamboofilled courtyard creates a gentle glow in the preparation areas. One of Anton’s favourite spots in the house is standing at the moveable bench in the kitchen. “For Persia’s second birthday we had a lamb on the spit. We had 45 people over. Cooking and entertaining in this house is just a pleasure,” says Anton, who accommodated many of their dinner guests in the garden.
“I’m used to pieces arriving and then being moved back to the showroom. Nothing is permanent .”
anton assaad — VIC, australia
In the dining and living areas a vintage Eames dining table takes pride of place, accompanied by Niels Moller No.77 dining chairs, originally designed in the late 1950s and reproduced by Great Dane. And to complement the rich American Walnut pieces is a Life & Thread mobile by Alexander Caldwell and a confetti-like carpet in the lounge, from Swedish company Kateha. An original Hans Wegner Papa Bear chair takes centre stage. “We always prefer to add a little colour to a room,” says Anton. Persia also appreciates the colourful additions, particularly the carpet. “She treats it a bit like a Twister mat,” says Anton. “She’s finally realised that the coloured dots can’t be removed.”
Other designer pieces in the Assaad’s home are by the late Arne Vodder. Discovered in recent years by Anton, Great Dane is now bringing his post-war designs to a new audience. There’s an Arne Vodder table in the hallway, in the lounge is one of his sideboards, and in the main bedroom is a bedside table. Anton has been a huge fan of Vodder’s designs since he opened his first Great Dane store in Melbourne. “His
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On the wall is a screen printed photo by Andrew Wellman.
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A classic sofa by Danish designer Finn Juhl with other post-war designed furniture.
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Anton, Emma and Persia at home.
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A coveted Hans Wegner armchair sits in the loungeroom.
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anton assaad — VIC, australia
...past the front door and decorative architraves, the house reveals a contemporary wing.
work adds softness to the modernist aesthetic. His lines are clean, but there’s an organic edge,” says Anton, running his fingers along the edge of Vodder’s Number 29 sideboard.
While there aren’t many designer classics that Anton can’t locate, he’s currently on the hunt for a great outdoor setting, preferably Danish and definitely from the 1950s or 60s. For the moment, he has two Hans Wegner armchairs in which to enjoy the outdoors. “It’s not easy finding the right outdoor setting. I don’t mind something contemporary. But it has to ‘speak’ to these classics.”
Although it appears that everything in the Assaad’s home has been considered to the nth degree, the furniture arrangement is spontaneous. “I couldn’t believe it when I found my Hans Wegner bed [main bedroom] five years ago in a secondhand store. I didn’t even have to restore the original cane,” says Anton. “This is one piece that won’t be going to the store. Apart from anything else, Emma wouldn’t let it go!”
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Kanika Ratanapidakul led a wave of overseas-trained Thai architects who returned to address the issue of how to design a contemporary Thai house and maintain connection with traditional values. Tonkao Panin reviews her career.
Throughout the first decade of the 21st Century, we have encountered many challenges. Faced with a global crisis, striving to save and protect our environment has become a common goal in all professional arenas. But many questions remain unanswered. These don’t just concern environmental issues. We also need to, again, question the basic premises in architectural thought and practice – whether cultural, social, political or aesthetic. Today, architecture is approached from various points of view. On the one hand, one can argue architecture’s autonomy and that its form and geometry can be understood in their own right, as testimony to a designer’s intelligence or invention. On the other hand, one can disavow the supposed autonomy of form and discover, behind a building’s dimensions, geometry and overall appearance, the influence of broader cultural conditions, whether technological, social or economic – not unlike the way we view political arguments and choices. Between these two polar opposites are various ways of thinking and practising that have shaped the way architects see buildings.
Kanika Ratanapidakul has striven to uncover the various types of balance within the dynamism of architectural practice. A Thai architect who studied interior architecture at the Southern Illinois University, Ratanapridakul went on to study at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. After years of practise in the United States as well as in Thailand, Ratanapridakul established Spacetime in 2004, an architectural firm that proposes interdisciplinary ways of thinking and tries to narrow the space of enquiry between architecture and other related fields. Within the different directions or approaches being practised today, Spacetime
...the design process does not begin and end on the drawing board, but starts from an inquiry into the lives, habits and visions of each and every resident.
A conversation with Kanika Ratanapridakul in her Bangkok home.
02 – 04
P-Cube House faces the ocean –Ratanapridakul’s work, is often open and exposed to the natural elements –with an ensemble of different materials.
has explored critical ways of thinking that may help unfold the inherent complexity and contradiction within the current process of architectural creation. In today’s architectural discourse, architectural production itself is re-read, re-worked and re-presented in roles well outside the original. Spacetime’s critical practice represents both the pragmatic doctrine and the philosophical inquiry which explore the potential of architectural design to draw from the past and the present as it addresses the future.
For the past fifty years, Thai architects have been pressed with questions regarding the definition and identity of contemporary Thai architecture. Are they to simulate the traditional, or should they borrow foreign forms? While such questions address mostly formal and stylistic issues, Ratanapridakul’s vision has been different. Over the years, Ratanapridakul’s opus of work has grown to include projects of various types and scales. Less concerned with stylistic appearance, Ratanapridakul’s architecture is distinguished by the notion of relationship. Architecture is never an autonomous object created to please the eye, but stands in relation to our lives and environment, both man-made and natural.
For Ratanapridakul’s architecture, the argument for context, for redefining the architectural object as a constituent of a wider milieu, has meant re-thinking the building’s engagement with its material and spatial surroundings. Architecture is not seen as a complete object in itself, but becomes an active part of the context that envelopes it. It is a practice that seeks not a world of architecture, but an architecture of the world where the natural environment provides a framework for architectural thought. Context, topography and the natural landscape are not only expressive or indicative, but also relational – an integration of the setting that gives life its texture, richness and spontaneity.
This way of thinking is manifested in the specifically topographical issues of siting buildings, detailing constructions, and arranging internal and external settings. The simplicity of exterior forms allows the richness of the interior to occur. A buildings is never composed by Ratanapridakul to be viewed from the outside, but to be experienced within its space and surrounding terrain. Façade as a frontal or formal picture plane seems to disappear and allow the play of spatial articulation between interior and exterior spaces to happen. This emphasis on the relationship between architecture and its site creates building enclosures that are not seen as
permanent separation but as a flexible boundary that can be manipulated, or a line that allows one space or setting to pass onto the next.
In Ratanapridakul’s domestic architecture, the design process does not begin and end on the drawing board, but starts from an inquiry into the lives, habits and visions of each and every resident. What type of environment, relationship and future do they envision? Preceding all material and quantitative requirements, these questions are translated into the spaces and forms of each building. Thus a house is not a beautiful object to be displayed, but a background for everyday affairs, composed after careful consideration and with true understanding of daily routine.
Notwithstanding programmatic and stylistic differences, all of Ratanapridakul’s domestic architecture shares something in common. It is the way it acts and interacts with the surrounding environment. The flow of spaces between each and every setting, both interior and exterior, is an indication of Ratanapridakul’s desire to integrate buildings and landscape. What is given in the location has to be taken into account, for it is a temporal unfolding that provides that the framework for the building’s relationship to the surrounding environment. The entry of the landscape, its light, temperatures, textures and times, was always an encroachment –like the entry of a visitor bringing something new but essential to a familiar
Existing trees and landscape are integral to the design of P-Cube House.kanika ratanapidakul — BANGKOK, thailand
Third House – a multiple family residence in Nontaburi, Thailand.
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place. Buildings benefit from and are affected by environmental entry at all times. We are not alone, but always part of a larger environment which we constantly shape and re-shape.
Despite its respect for the environment, Ratanapridakul’s architecture never pretends to replicate natural topography. Instead of trying to eliminate the conflict between the artifact and the environment, Ratanapridakul often leaves slight traces of encounter between the manmade and the natural that makes the building a legible narrative of its operations and of the life it sustains. These buildings have proved that elements of architecture that are measured, sharply defined and sometimes repetitive can be integrated into a natural setting while still capable of sustaining their own identity. Yet, in order to understand these buildings, we must shift our focus from their quality as objects to the actions they are meant to accommodate. We must concentrate on and remember their performative role because they are architectural settings that represent human life. When architecture is not seen as an empowering foreground but is designed to recede into the background, it allows both the interior habits and the exterior environment to interact. To understand the way this type of architectural setting is lived and recognised, we need to see not only the objects themselves, but the way they work together to sustain typical dwelling practice.
Ratanapridakul’s architecture is... never an autonomous object created to please the eye, but stands in relation to our lives and environment, both manmade and natural.
For several years, Ratanapridakul’s practice has been marked by its concern for the changing environment. The level of intervention that architecture forces onto the natural world has become a central question for her, as for many of her contemporaries. Thus the task of an architect is not only to design something new, but also to explore possible ways in which architecture can be both creative and responsible to architectural ideas and cultural traditions that have been in the past. When the designer is attentive or attuned to the situation of the project with all the contingencies of place, program and client in mind, choices and possibilities emerge. As the natural world offers us endless possibilities and choices, it also presents a meaningful sense of design decision that sustains a sense of both social and environmental responsibility.
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Third House and its de-materialised walls.
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Third House has strong elements of light and shadow.
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dan mcpharlin — SA, australia
Ever wondered where inspiration comes from? South Australian illustrator, designer, model-maker, sculptor, photographer and musician Dan McPharlin tells Kath Dolan about a musical muse that rocks his world.
Asking Dan McPharlin about his inspirations is a little like letting a genie out of its lamp. Not surprisingly, for a man who divides his time between designing album covers (electronica outfits Prefuse 73 and Pretty Lights), magazine covers (Wallpaper*), prints and illustrations (The New York Times and Wired [Italy]), building, photographing and exhibiting miniature cardboard sculptures and models, and recording experimental soundscapes in his home recording studio. McPharlin’s list of interests and influences is as long as your arm.
Depending on what he’s working on he might take you deep into hyperspace, discussing the themes, surreal landscapes and solitary figures of science fiction, Stanley Kubrick’s films, or David Pelham’s covers for Penguin’s 1970’s sci-fi paperbacks. Start with filmmaking as a medium and you’ll probably segue into the unlimited imaginative possibilities of animation, the work of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki (Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Ponyo), and the intricately beautiful, hand drawn style of French director René Laloux’s 1973 classic La Planète Sauvage (Fantastic Planet). Tap into the rich vein of music flowing through McPharlin’s work and you can’t avoid analog synthesisers, the acquired taste of electronica pioneers Kraftwerk, and the ambiguous, otherworldly nature of electronic and instrumental music. From there, you’ll rush headlong into the musical and visual inspiration that’s currently closest to McPharlin’s heart: the lavish album art of 1970s rock royalty
like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Genesis and 10cc, created by groundbreaking London design studio, Hipgnosis.
Hipgnosis drove the golden age of album design from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, producing iconic covers for best-selling albums including Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and Animals, Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, 10cc’s How Dare You!, and Peter Gabriel 3. Hipgnosis was the brainchild of film students, Storm Thorgersen and Aubrey Powell. At a time when album art was a hugely influential means of expression, the self-taught graphic designers pioneered a new visual language using a highly theatrical, visually arresting style. It’s an influence that’s clearly evident in McPharlin’s lush, quietly surreal landscapes and abstract forms, which often feature figures dwarfed by beautiful but vaguely eerie environments. Thorgersen and Powell favoured ambiguous, dramatically-lit photographs (often using multiple exposures), visual puns drawn from song titles and themes, intricate pen and ink illustrations, art references, images from science fiction, and packaging innovations like stickers and elaborate inner sleeves that were later adapted by the advertising industry.
McPharlin’s striking, sci-fi infused album covers for Prefuse 73 illustrate his style perfectly, he says musicians often make particularly creative clients. “They wanted [something] really lavish, completely illustrated, and a throw -back to the old Yes covers of the 1970s,” he
...rush headlong into the musical and visual inspiration that’s currently closest to McPharlin’s heart: the lavish album art... created by groundbreaking London design studio, Hipgnosis.
says. “I could just really go overboard with the illustration and they were totally into it, so that was great.”
McPharlin spends much of his time these days working on album art and illustrations in the home studio (complete with recording studio) he shares with his ‘assistant’, a Jack Russell called Lily. It’s an idyllic spot between bush and beach in Port Willunga on the Fleurieu Peninsula, an hour’s drive south of Adelaide. He’s a self-confessed control freak who struggles to share the space with anyone because his living and working space is completely intermingled. “I really should do a better job of separating studio from living space but I found when I was doing a lot of photography work, and making models, I needed a lot of space and they’d end up in my bedroom or the lounge,” he says. “It’s always encroaching on my living space but that’s fine, I love working from home and having things around me that are inspiring me all the time.”
McPharlin’s mum was an art teacher and he grew up with pencils in his hands and a passion for collecting shared by both his parents. His studio contains just enough vinyl to turn audiophiles of a certain age green with envy and also a number of contemporary design icons, including a Konstantin Grcic Chair One and a Richard Sapper Tizio lamp. Unusually for someone whose work is so wedded to technology (and who started his career as a website designer after graduating from Visual Arts and the University of South Australia), he’s no computer geek, working happily enough on a six-year-old Mac (despite a screen that’s too small), a Wacom
“I love working from home and having things around me that are inspiring me all the time” –DAN
dan mcpharlin — SA, australia
06 McPharlin’s home studio in Adelaide.
07 Music and imagery are inextricably linked for McPharlin.
08 McPharlin’s collection of vintage and contemporary design icons.
09 Artwork for the cover of 10cc’s 1976 album How Dare You! by Hipgnosis.
10 A spread from For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis showing work from Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here.
pen tablet and a Nikon camera. For now he’s resisting his friends’ urges to update.
For the past few years, much of McPharlin’s time has been spent on a series of delightfully low-fi, highly detailed cardboard miniatures of analog synthesisers and audio equipment, complete with colourful knobs and wires that, in the days before the abstraction of digital technology, used to actually make stuff work. Images of these quirky models have spread like wildfire across the internet, charming everyone from synth freaks to music buffs, design lovers and technology geeks and leading to a commission for a cover for Wallpaper*, exhibitions in Japan and the US, and rave reviews in magazines and websites like Blanket and Lost at E Minor. The models were an outlet for exploring design ideas from his beloved 1970s and imagining where analog technology might have taken us had post-modernism not intervened. But for now McPharlin has taken them as far as he wants to go, and is happily focusing again on album art and illustration, which allow him to spend more time with his mysterious musical muse. “I’ve always loved that connection of image to sound.”
danmcpharlin.com
flickr.com/photos/danmcp default00.blogspot.com
Hipgnosis was formed in 1968 by London film students Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell. Later that year, the pair was working from an makeshift studio in Tin Pan Alley designing dust jackets for sex novels, when a then-unknown band called Pink Floyd approached them to paint the cover of their second album, A Saucerful
7:30 am
This seems to feel like the right time to start the day. I’ll make a pot of coffee and lift the lid on the laptop. I always have my best ideas in the shower... When is someone going to invent a waterproof pad and pen so I can actually write them down!?
8:30 am
I try to read something every morning, lately it’s been old Cinefex magazines. For some reason this gets me inspired for the day.
10:00 am
mid-morning I’ll take my dog, Lily, for a walk. There’s a beach nearby with a bit of a reef, steep cliffs and large clumps of seaweed sculpted into strange mounds. There’s always something new to look at, and new smells for Lily to discover.
of Secrets. Powell describes early Hipgnosis covers as “surrealism with a soupçon of narrative and a dash of the romantic”, in the book For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis
Their big break came in 1973 with the release of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. It became one of the biggest selling albums of all
time and its prism design one of the most instantly recognisable worldwide.
High-profile collaborations followed for bands including Genesis, UFO, Black Sabbath, The Alan Parsons Project and Yes. The studio was also responsible for the original UK paperback cover of Douglas Adams’ sci-fi romp The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy. In 1974, Throbbing Gristle’s Peter Christopherson joined Hipgnosis. By 1982 Powell was making ads for Levi Jeans and Thorgerson wanted to return to filmmaking. With the advent of MTV Hipgnosis abandoned cover art in favour of directing music videos for singers like Paul Young.
11:00 am
a couple of hours of work in before lunch; either sketching with pen and paper or using Photoshop. I don’t have television or radio but I like to have music on during the day, usually jazz or electronic, anything with vocals I find a bit too distracting. Currently on the turntable is Spiral by Vangelis –can’t get enough of that record!
1:00 Pm
a quick bite to eat for lunch and then its back to the grind. I like to just work on one project at a time, get it finished and move on. However, I do have a number of side projects that I like to delve into. For instance, I’m currently working on an iPhone game which requires a totally different approach – I love working on the tiny pixel-precise components and slotting them
together like lego. Its very different to my usual large-scale print work.
5:00 Pm
my work area is usually flooded with natural light during the day, so if I need to do any critical colour work on the computer I have to wait for sundown when the ambient light has subsided.
8:00 Pm
If I’m working for an international client, I’m watching the clock and waiting for their morning to roll around so we can talk. Sometimes I have to adjust my workday around them, even if it is 12 hours behind!
SPONSORED BY
outofstock — singapore, argentina, spain
truly cross-cultural, Outofstock brings together creatives from singapore, a rgentina and spain. One member, Gabriel tan, offers an insight into this international melting pot of minds.
a fortuitous stockholm event brought them together and eventually provided the inspiration for their moniker. Gabriel tan, Wendy chua (both from singapore), sebastián a lberdi (spain) and Gustavo Maggio (a rgentina) all participated in the annual design competition and workshop, Electrolux Design lab in 2005. Here, they worked closely together and, enjoying the experience, kept in touch when they returned to their respective homelands.
“Despite being based in our own cities, we communicate on a regular basis,” says Gabriel. “It was interesting. Whenever we shared our views, we found strange similarities toward some things and stark differences in others.” t his dynamic relationship inspired them to work together creatively for a second time, presenting a collection of furniture at salone satellite 2007 in Milan under the name Outofstock.
Once this was successfully completed, they decided to register the company in singapore, with plans to collaborate long term
for the annual Milan fair, as well as other interior design projects, commissioned product designs and educational workshops.
In some ways, their methodology could be conceived as unusual, but in other ways, a
cross-cultural design collective makes complete fiscal and creative sense. Gabriel describes the logistics and what advantages they offer – from where they can best achieve cost-effective, quality prototypes, to their decision to store these in spain following exhibitions to enable efficient transportation between interested European manufacturers.
as well, an international office means a 24hour output. “When we work on interior projects or commissioned work for clients in singapore, spain or a rgentina, being in different time zones actually enables us to turn around things pretty quickly for clients,” Gabriel explains. “Especially when we have tight deadlines, because at any one time at least one of us will be in normal working hours.”
t he creative advantages are even more forthcoming, with a depth and diversity of inspiration and experiences for the group to draw from. Gabriel gives an example of designing a tea trolley: “We can talk about the different ways we make and enjoy tea in our respective countries. We often take pictures... and this sort of allows us to take a peek into each other’s cultural backdrop.” t his consideration is something that gives their products a wide
01 the Outofstock team (l–r) Wendy chua, sebastián alberdi, Gustavo Maggio and Gabriel tan.
02
Detail of glide chair from a collection launched at imm cologne 2010 for new design label, Foundry.
03 – 04
the Naked chair is extremely lightweight and flat packs for transportation.
05 the sherlock floor lamp is inspired by the magnifying glass.
“Whenever we shared our views, we found strange similarities toward some things and stark differences in others.” –
Ga Br IEl
06
Glide
07 – 08
the
appeal, imbuing complementary senses of revealing and discovery. It’s a simple aesthetic that, beyond the initial engagement, invites a deeper connection and understanding of more complex mechanisms, details and relationships – which almost mirror the group’s own identity.
For Outofstock, it is connection that is the crux of their positive engagement – both between themselves and with clients. “ t he key is to communicate with each other frequently, clearly and concisely,” Gabriel says. “Especially in relaying the design brief or what the client’s needs and wants are, because the designers in other cities may not have met or spoken with the client in person.”
a lthough there is much to be learnt from traditional methods and crafts, all that is creative is not lost in the contemporary world. technology and travel have made it completely possible for Outofstock to discover and celebrate diverse traditions in their aim to ‘bring back poetry and romance in the design of everyday items’. t his can only serve to add richness into the way we experience furniture design, they believe. as Gabriel aptly describes: “When you bring people of different cultures together, you are accumulating vastly different experiences... Design is driven by inspiration and it is personal experience that inspires people.”
Outofstock,
outofstockdesign.com
outofstock — singapore, argentina, spain
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The tropical oases of landscape architect Andrew Prowse are defined by local climate, culture and site, and shaped by his distinct creative hand.
Tempe Macgowan discovers the gardens of this Far North Queenslander.
For Engelbrechts
Andrew Prowse’s love of the exotic was evident early on, when he was a landscape architectural student at Canberra University (formerly College of Advanced e ducation). Now based in Cairns, Queensland, he’s found his niche, and the residential gardens, resorts and public projects that he works on befit his exuberant imagination. This characteristic has always been tempered, though, by a strong sensitivity towards culture and place and a pragmatic, down-to-earth, country sensibility.
Author Michael o ndaatje, writes that “gardens, as we know, must follow all the rules of local climate and site and the visionary hand of the gardener and ‘the needs of life at the time’”. o ndaatje was writing about sri Lankan landscape architect Geoffrey Bawa here, but the observation is just as applicable to the work of Andrew, who visited Bawa’s home in the early 1980s, on travels throughout i ndia and sri Lanka.
Andrew grew up amongst big landscapes on a property at Quirindi, Nsw, and his mother’s background in the fashion and design industry was also influential. He recalls visiting Florence Broadhurst’s studio in Paddington when he was young and the silver foil wallpaper she selected for their country home.
After College, Andrew’s design ethic was refined whilst working at sydney City Council with Leonard Lynch (now with landscape architects, Clouston Associates in sydney) who he says, “encouraged a sense of place and how it is important to be comfortable in an environment”.
i n the 1990s, Andrew moved to Cairns in Far North Queensland with Andrew Pawsey, who he met at sydney City Council. Together they formed landscape design firm Pawsey & Prowse. w hilst Pawsey has since moved on, Andrew has stayed with the practice. As the northernmost city on the east coast, the tropical climate of Cairns contrasts with the rest
of Australia, with only two real seasons. Here, the flora is more similar to that in Papua New Guinea, where Andrews also works (he also has projects further north, into China).
Andrew’s own house, at Holloways Beach in Cairns, is a vernacular Queenslander with a difference designed by architect, David LangstonJones. The house is especially compact and efficient, with a central stairwell around which rooms pivot out at different levels.
“it was built well before ‘green’ houses and sustainable design became the fashion,” says Andrew. “it was built as an example of a low energy house when i was working on a manual for appropriate design in the wet tropics.” As such, no air-conditioning is necessary, and the house takes advantage of local sea breezes and utilises louvres and vents throughout.
i n his tropical garden, Andrew can name and describe each individual plant and has a fond story or personal connection with each species. “The tree in the backyard is the sausage Tree from tropical Africa which i’ve seen growing in the wild in the serengeti where leopards lie in the branches,” he says. “There’s the yellowish sword-shaped plants which are a Bromeliad from Colombia and Brazil – i love the glowing translucent foliage. There are lots of bamboos in the garden too, for the contrast of fine foliage seen against the broad leaves of the Heliconias, Gingers and elephant ears.”
i n much of Andrew’s work, this play of contrasts between minimalist architecture and the garden itself is more measured. He collaborates closely on many projects with award-winning local architect, roger Mainwood, Architect and Principal Director of Total Project Group. “He involves us early in the design process, in the design of pools and the landscape, to create flowing indoor/outdoor spaces,” explains Andrew.
Two such projects by roger and Andrew are the Gilbert and struthers residences – neighbouring, award-winning vacation homes in Port Douglas that were designed and built consecutively.
Andrew describes roger’s brief for the two projects as “two homes distinct in personality but of complementary prestige and architectural interest. each home had to respond to and embrace the tropical climate of hot, wet summers and warm, dry winters. environmental sustainability was a key component with the homes to be comfortable year round without reliance on air-conditioning.”
each residence is starkly different, yet the same hand is evident in both designs. i n the Gilbert residence, the experience is that of entering an oasis within an oasis and there is an overall sense of light, whiteness and space that flows outside to the terrace and pool. The scale of the doors onto the terrace, the Vietnamese white marble and the seamless transition with the pool is dream-like.
“...it is important to be comfortable in an environment.”
ANDrew
i n the struthers residence, black granite is used throughout, edging the terrace and pool, and floor-to-ceiling doors let the outside garden belong to every room. The main swimming pool merges with the house on an upper level terrace in a double block, with a lower terrace formed by a rolling lawn edged with a framing pergola. A tropical fruit orchard, cactus garden and rainforest sits behind, providing a unifying backdrop to the home.
“The inspiration for the concept of contrasting white marble and black granite came from the Taj Mahal where it had been thought that the Mughal emperor had planned for a matching black granite mausoleum for himself to be built opposite the white marble one constructed for his wife,” says Andrew.
The designs of these two homes, like the work of Bawa, follow all the rules of local climate and site, with Andrew’s distinct hand directing and shaping the design. The tangled mass of a tropical rainforest may be distilled down to its essence or selected to play a particular role in a design. it is this ability to be selective in a way that balances imagination with pragmatism defines Andrew’s work.
07 Prowse House (right) plays a part in forming a new tropical streetscape by maintaining a feeling of transparency while acting as a gatehouse to the private garden beyond (photography by Trevor Mein).
The tangled mass of a tropical rainforest may be distilled down to its essence or selected to play a particular role.
From a classic Roman to the striking appearance of timber-batten blinds — every blind we create is designed with an eye to quality and craftsmanship.
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Be part of the inaugural Clicquot in the Snow celebration this season with a luxury weekend package at The Denman, a boutique mountain retreat in the Snowy Mountains Kosciuszko National Park, positioned moments from the chairlifts.
The package includes return flights* and transfers, three nights accommodation, a complimentary bottle of Veuve Clicquot at the award-winning Terrace Restaurant or its famous Après Bar, a pampering session in The Denman’s Thalgo Day Spa, access to Veuve Clicquot events in and around Thredbo during the weekend and of course, breathtaking mountain views.
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Behind the ornate façade of a traditional Singapore shop house lies an interior by Ong & Ong that purely defines its vertical and horizontal axes. Darlene Smyth experienced the subtle and delicate contrast between interior and exterior.
01
the centrally positioned sculptural spiral staircase is open on the lower level.
02
a Frangipani tree rises up through the deck to frame the view into the kitchen.
03
View through the courtyard into the living room.
t he narrow winding streets of the Blair Plains conservation zone in Singapore are lined with highly decorative and colourful façades that characterise the historic shop houses in the area. Dating back to pre-War times, these slender and long terrace houses with their shallow forecourts and common covered passageway (called the ‘five-foot way’) are one of the older housing types in Singapore. t he experiential quality of this indigenous housing typology is partly a result of its symmetrical and ornate façade, as well as the mystery of its narrow interior and internal courtyards.
No 55 Blair Road shares the same ornate façade details and mouldings as its neighbours. Designed by the husband and wife team of Diego Molina and Maria a rango from Ong & Ong of Singapore, the secrets hidden behind this façade reflect an unusual mixture of influences. t he crafting of the internal spaces is not only a transformation of the existing building, but takes into account the desires of an expatriate owner as well as the expatriate designers’ interpretation of the internal experience of the shop house.
From the outside – which is largely characterised by the conserved detailing and proportions of the shop house – subtle clues are given as to the nature of the internal spaces. Firstly, a simple grey-on-white colour scheme
blair road — singapore
...a sculpted stone bathtub enjoys views of the courtyard and the pool, as well as the presence of the sky above...
for the façade contrasts with the more colourful neighbours along the street. Other hints of the subdued internal material palette are given in the choice of the sleek stainless steel gutter and rainwater downpipe and matching stylised signage for the house.
t he designers’ intentions and modern style are more fully revealed upon entering the house. t he strict symmetry of the façade is carried into the internal living spaces. however, here it is executed in a clean, minimalist way. From the entry of the house, a slightly curved stainless steel mesh screen is centrally located and defines a narrow entrance vestibule. t his axially-positioned screen is the first in a linear sequence of centrally positioned elements throughout the length of the house. From the living room furniture, to a centrally positioned sculptural spiral staircase, to the middle island of the kitchen beyond, a strong axis is defined. t he two side walls flanking the central axis are thickened with carpentry and conceal the sound and electrical services of the house. In order to create a sense of centrality to the otherwise linear rooms, large niches are recessed into these walls which house bold pieces of artwork.
a lso punctuating this horizontal axis throughout the house are two interjections of vertical symmetry. t he first vertical space is a small central void in the high ceiling of the first storey, just beyond the entrance screen, which peeks up into the master suite on the second storey. t he more prominent vertical expression in the house is a large open courtyard space that separates the main conservation building from a rear service block.
“We wanted the house to act like a light box,” explains Molina. “ to be lasting, but edgy and not just stylish.” t his modern light box is expressed in the central courtyard by a vertical well, lined on three sides with a modern pattern of vertical aluminium strips that run down the walls to a swimming pool below. With the combination of daylight bouncing down the metallic strips and the reflections off the water of a swimming pool below, a literal ‘box’ of light is created that brightens the spaces surrounding it. aside from the light and wind that is introduced into the house through the
ArchitectS
Ong & Ong
De SiGN te A m
Diego Molina, Maria a rango, Camilo Pelaez
iN teriOr Fur NiShiNG
YPS Design
civil Structur A l eNGiNeer
KKC Consultancy Services
QuAN tity SurveyOr
Rodney Chng & associates
courtyard, other natural elements such as a sculptural Frangipani tree and creepers bring a sense of internalised nature to the house.
above this courtyard space, the master bathroom is expressed as a cantilevered room on the second storey that is detached from the side party walls and encased in glass, seemingly hovering over the swimming pool. Within this symmetrical bathroom, the centrepiece is a sculpted stone bathtub positioned at the edge of the cantilevered box and enjoying views of the courtyard and the pool, as well as the presence of the sky above through a frosted glass skylight.
In a nearly doorless open configuration, the master bath is separated from the master bedroom by the winding, sculptural spiral staircase. Below, this stair has open timber treads wrapped around a central column with the outer edge of the treads supported by a twisting ribbon-like steel plate. On the second storey, the same staircase is enveloped in a stainless steel mesh and glass screen that recalls the detail of the curved screen at the entry of the house.
Similar to the arrangement of the first storey, the second storey that houses the master bedroom itself is organised with all the furniture along a central axis and the two side walls in carpentry. toward the front of the master bedroom, the ceiling opens up to a double volume space and these side walls are lined with ultra-clean built-in bookshelves and storage. a n attic was added above the master bedroom with a guest bedroom and en-suite. Natural daylight is cleverly designed to enter this space through a jack roof that looks down into the front area of the master bedroom below. t he series of visual connections from this attic down to the reading area of the master bedroom and, finally, to the main entrance on the first storey, allows light and air movement throughout the front portion of the house. t he modern detailing of the interior of the house contrasts with the traditional ornate elements of the façade, yet the two are somehow happily linked together through their respect for the symmetry, material palette and clear central axis of the design.
Fur N iture
mech ANicA l & electricA l eNGiNeer
Rankine & h ill (Singapore)
mA iN cON tr ActOr
Jia Construction
Ong & Ong
(65) 6258 8666 ong-ong.com
Kitchen stool Grace by E15, e15.com. Coffee table in Lounge from Flexform, flexform.it, in Living room Florence by Minotti, minotti. com. Sofas Marocco by Casamilano, casamilanohome. com, and custom-made. Rug silk pile by Jehan Gallery, jehan. com.sg. Ceiling fan Minimal Air by Boffi, boffi.com. Armchair Ming by Casamilano. End table
Baran by Hudson Furniture, New York, hudsonfurnitureinc.com.
Fi N iShe S
Stone Ivory travertine honed from Polystone, polystone. com.au, in Guest Bathroom white mosaic Polystone by Sicis, sicis.it. Timber 200mm Teak strips stained with water-based coating on second floor and attic, also Bona Naturale from Wood Doctor, wooddoctor.com.sg,
on roof terrace naturally-aged Balau. Aluminium cladding on courtyard walls.
Fixture S / e QuiPme N t Kitchen system b3 by Bulthaup, bulthaup.com. Steam oven, induction hood, rangehood and wine chiller from De Dietrich, dedietrich.com.au. Integrated dishwasher by Fisher & Paykel, fisherpaykel.com.au. Integrated fridge by Liebherr, liebherr.com. Sanitaryware includes
concealed wall basin mixer and free-standing bath/shower mixer from Antonio Lupi, antoniolupi.it, Xilox1 cylindrical free-standing Corian basin from Antonio Lupi, custom limestone bathtub and basin from Polystone and ceramic wall-hung WC from Flaminia, ceramicaflaminia.it.
“We wanted the house to... be lasting, but edgy and not just stylish.”
–MOLINa
each cadrys hand-woven rug has a unique story to tell – whether it be a magnificent centuries-old Persian silk rug or a contemporary graphic creation. Representing europe’s most coveted and award-winning rug designers, such as Jan Kath, provides cadrys with remarkable collections that traverse cutting edge design and techniques, inspiring leading interior designers the world over.
cadrys exquisite Florence Broadhurst collection continues to excite and unfold, with a second collection released in may at the prestigious International contemporary Furniture Fair in New york. the brilliant wallpaper designs of this eccentric australian designer have been cleverly transformed into stunning floor art by cadrys, who now have 10 leading US dealers carrying the collection. the interpretation of Florence Broadhurst designs from wallpaper to the medium of hand-woven rugs has allowed them to appreciate new artistic perspectives in her work.
It is not enough to simply convert interesting patterns and colour combinations into a carpet. the understanding that a handwoven carpet takes on its own unique properties is essential when translating designs from one medium to another.
all cadrys rugs are handmade with the finest natural fibres, such as pure silk, hemp, nettle and tibetan hand-spun wool – chosen for its remarkable properties. this lanolin-rich wool provides exceptional resilience and durability that will ensure sustainable quality, whilst also creating a pile surface that displays interest, life and texture.
Importantly, all the rugs are produced under the Rugmark certification that ensures ethical standards are met and that no child labour is involved in their production.
the release of new designs from the Florence Broadhurst archive include some never-before-seen styles that will complement a wide variety of interior spaces. the bespoke collection offers a wide range of tonal possibilities and commissioned sizes that will result in a truly luxurious original and personalised rug.
Cadrys (61 2) 9328 6144 info@cadrys.com.au cadrys.com.au
This house by Kanoon Studio is nestled in a quiet residential neighbourhood of Bangkok. Known for their distinctive design, Chartchalerm Klieopatinon and Vasuvat Mettapun here offer an alternative solution for an urban home.
Bangkok might be known for its impossible traffic, air pollution and population density, but it is also known for its relaxed attitude and cheerful friendliness. Hidden in this city of contrasts, many residential areas are surprisingly tranquil. Prachachuen is one such neighbourhood. Located close to the city centre, the area nonetheless offers a sense of escape, which has allowed the architects to build a private universe within the chaotic bustle of city life.
Three requirements predicated the design: it should be able to grow to reflect the changing lives of the people who occupy it; accommodate three generations whose preferences and needs differ widely; and provide close connection to the natural environment, despite being in the heart of a metropolis. These aims are translated into subtle, but creative design solutions – for local architects, Kanoon Studio, saw such requirements as opportunities, rather than design restrictions.
The four-storey house occupies the back part of the site while leaving enough open space at the front for a deep blue pool and large green trees – thus offering a great sense of welcome whenever the owners come home.
01
The upper level is open to the elements.
02
Leafy trees become a protective barrier.
03 Spacious kitchen connects to the outside.
04
Connecting spaces between living, dining and pantry.
...the room becomes more like an outdoor space filled with light and air.
The voluminous living space is warmed up through the use of timber and brown accents.
06
Up the stairs and into the dining room upstairs, timber features throughout.
By building upward instead of spreading out, the architects gave the owners the natural environment they so much wanted. However small, this leafy open space becomes at once a protective buffer and a lively backdrop for the people living in the house.
While most of the service areas are located on the ground floor, the public spaces for the family, as well as the grandparents’ bedroom, are raised on to the upper level surrounding by shaded terraces. The master bedroom, children’s bedroom as well as a music room are on the third level, while the fourth level is left as a multi-purpose space and large deck equipped with a convenient pantry. The living area on the second floor is positioned as a central gathering place. With exceptional height, voluminous space and surrounding terraces, the room becomes more like an outdoor space filled with light and air. This sense of close connection between inside and outside is the main characteristic of the house. Nothing is ever closed off and everything is always interconnected, either by means of natural ventilation or spatial connection throughout the home.
From its exterior, the house is subtly quiet, while the richness begins to show in its interior organisation and amenity. In other words, the house reveals itself through its operation. The location, amount of sunlight, humidity and wind are taken into account and translated into the house’s configuration as well as materials. The house responds to the inside activities of its inhabitants rather than trying to express any stylistic character on the outside. To the owners, it is a house designed and built for them –spaces in the house are positioned, organised and orchestrated as an ensemble of places that imitate their activities and lives.
Yet nothing is fixed – activities can flow from one space into the next with a sense of ease. Thus, it is not difficult to imagine each space being re-organised and re-shaped if need be. Rather than a complete object composed by the designer, the house seems like a container waiting to be filled by the owners’ actions.
With this sense of flexibility, the house is also well equipped. Everything needed for each event is positioned within reach. Well-made settings deploy their items so that they are always near enough to be useful. No single element in a spatial ensemble is positioned to stand out from the rest; no single
...a private universe within the chaotic bustle of city life.
Kanoon Studio kanoonstudio.multiply.com (66) 2678 8322
aRCHit EC t Kanoon Studio dES ign t E a M Chartchalerm Klieopatinon, Vasuvat Mettapun
piece of equipment intrudes itself into one’s awareness – each coexists with the others in a state of shared latency, but with a tendency or disposition to prefigure patterns of behaviour. At its most effective, the amenity of each interior setting remains tacit and only comes into action when needed. Both the architectural elements and the interior amenity are designed and built to last. And just as important as their stability is their flexibility, which allows the house to live and breathe as it envelopes life. Through its configuration and constituent elements, the house functions as an ensemble of flexible instruments that allows both the internal and external factors to come into play. It acts as a lived experience that is always fluctuating. Seeing it this way gives us insight into the real character of the house.
FuR nituRE
Wardrobe Grande Armoire from Poliform, poliform.it. Kitchen system from Varenna, varenna-dc.com.
FiniSHES
Doors and windows powdercoated aluminium doors and windows from Alfab, alfab.co.th.
Stone fossil stone from Stone Gallery, starmarmoth.com, limestone and volcanic stone from Stones & Roses, stonrose. com. Ceramic tiles from Cotto, cottotiles.com, and Porcelanosa, porcelanosa.com. Flooring Teak from Sam Tunwa, samtunwa@ hotmail.com. Concrete throughout from Hammer Smith, ardexpandomo.de. Paint throughout is Super Shield from TOA Paint Thailand, toagroup.com.
L igH ting
Fixtures from United Lighting, unilamp.co.th, Lighting House, lightinghouse.co.th, Lamptitude, lamptitude.net, and SeenSpace from Artemide, artemide.com.
Fi X tuRES/EQuiPME nt
Elevator hydraulic lift from MHE-Demag, mhe-demag. com. Hardware from Pro One Agent, pro1agent.com, and Hafele Thailand, hafele.com/th/ en. Mosquito screens from Magic Seal, magicseal-winseal. com, and Ocean New Line, oceannewline.com. Sun louvres aluminium from Frame Line, mvpfourstars.com. Ceiling fan from Brain Thai Enterprise, regene.biz. Home automation Altech system powered by Siemens, altech.co.th.
A design-sensitive client, an extraordinary ocean site and the partnership of Dan Sparks and Gabriel Poole has to be the perfect combination. But for Margie Fraser, the humpback whales added something special.
As if it wasn’t blissful enough to be standing above a broad white beach, a cooling breeze rustling the banksias in the dunes, an endless view of sparkling blue cresting waves stretched before me, and a picturesque headland crouching to the north. But the masterstroke to this canvas of paradise was yet to be added. Within minutes of contemplating the scene, a giant spume of water rose before me and several humpbacks started cavorting in the ocean – tails lifting and thwacking with a divine audibility. Welcome to another day at Sunshine Beach, just south of Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Given the propitious natural setting, it seemed likely that anything man-made could disappoint. But that wasn’t to be, and more surprises were in store. Local architect, Dan Sparks, in association with Gabriel poole, was briefed to design a holiday house that would eventually segue into a retirement home for its empty nester owners. i n the meantime, it was also to serve as an entertainment haven for the couple and their friends and family.
“it was really something of an ideal project from our perspective,” says Sparks. “An incredibly beautiful site coupled with a designsavvy client who was committed to realising it’s potential. to our delight he was also very open to having some fun with the design.”
t he site is splendid beachfront land, taking up half of a larger block once straddled by an old Queenslander. it is elevated just enough above the wide stretch of public beach to make the descent quick and easy, but at the same time retain privacy and a sense of exclusion. Looking east, there’s a sublime
01 the entry gate looks south over Sunshine Beach.
02 the custom ‘cratelike’ wine cellar and tasting room on the ground floor.
03 Short section.
04 the kitchen with sliding timber door to the study.
“We want the house to eventually blend into the site rather than stand out from it”
–reSiDeNt
panorama of the pacific on offer. t he site slopes steeply from street to beach, and the house is tucked neatly into the slope, defying its generous 700m 2 proportions.
i n deference to the setting, the owner wanted a nautical look, using “materials that could stand up to the weather,” he says. “it’s very exposed to the elements here. We looked at a few yachts for inspiration as they use the sorts of materials that can endure in this environment. We want the house to eventually blend into the site rather than stand out from it.”
Another reason to shun the “big white Grecian mansions” (which are not unknown to the enclave) derives from the owner’s passion for Japanese minimalism. “i lived in Japan for fifteen years,” he says, “and love that spare, simple aesthetic.” t he palette, then, was always to be natural, and the style simple. At one year-old, the timber is already greying as planned to match the nearby She-oaks, while luxurious touches such as titanium zinc ceilings and timber and cork decking for floors nicely channel the comforts of the yachting brigade.
t he house is set out on three levels, with the top eyrie consisting of a master bedroom, pool deck and carport. placing the pool on the top deck flips expectations, while catering for a mandatory 15 metre erosion control setback from the fragile dune. it also means that the ground level can enjoy a bit of garden and lawn. And the climb to the top level pool is more than worth it – gazing through the glass balustrade to the ocean a decadent take on a poop deck.
t he middle level, and point of entry, accommodates the main living space, a second bedroom and a television nook. A series of substantial portal frames render the gallery-like space post free. t he above ground tray of space extends out to a wide deck which cantilevers over the lawn below.
t he ground level is party zone, replete with a wine cellar, billiard table, bar and spare bedroom. Underground water tanks can be peered at through portholes set into the floor in the pattern of the Southern Cross. t he holes provide service access points to the underground water and also act as art
krimmer house — QLD, australia
installations: a special effects “shimmer pump” makes the water ripple and glow underfoot.
Sparks has designed a suite of furniture for the house, including the beds, a long dining table and a blonde timber billiard table that, unlike its more pompous forebears with their turned Mahogany legs, works with the minimalist aesthetic and beach regalia. t he finishes and details expose a careful craftsmanship and a finely honed sense of warmth. American rock Maple timber is used throughout, and walls are rendered in American clay (an ingenious mix of marble dust, crushed glass and natural clay which emits negative ions). A mirror covers the front of the long kitchen bench, reflecting the ocean view, and, as Sparks notes, it “helps to de-materialise the solidity of the bench as an object”. No two doors are the same size or proportion. Doors and windows are carved into thick walls with deep timber reveals to offset their aluminium hardware. Natural light is directed through a generous stairwell, and glazing punctuates tall walls to capture framed moments of gardens, ponds and ocean. t he operatic moment, though, is unarguably stepping through the fully open-able wall of glass from the living zone to the deck... perhaps accompanied by a shout of ‘t har she blows!’
09 Southern elevation with Noosa National parks’ ‘Lion’s Head’ beyond.
ARCHITECT
Sparks Architects (in association initially with Gabriel poole Design Company)
BUILDER
JW Constructions (Jason Warren)
INTERIOR FURNISHINGS
Dawn Schaffer
ENGINEER
Bligh tanner (rod Bligh)
BUILDER
JW Constructions QLD
Sparks Architects (61 7) 5472 7903 sparksarchitects.com
ART wORK Paintings by Emma Sheldrake from Redsea Gallery, redseagallery.com.
au. Antique French children’s car from The Country Trader, thecountrytrader.com.au
FURNITURE Outdoor furniture manufactured by Coast New Zealand, coastnewzealand. com. Tables indoor and
outdoor dining tables designed by Dan Sparks, manufactured by Metaltrendz, (61 7) 5456 2211, Eames coffee tables in Living from Herman Miller, hermanmiller.com, available from Living Edge, livingedge. com.au, and antique Chinese table top on Ground Level from Orient House, orienthouse. com.au. Chairs Lapala outdoor dining chairs, Catifa indoor dining chairs, Onda bar stools in Kitchen and Bar, and ‘True’ armchair in Master Bedroom, all from Stylecraft, stylecraft. com.au, and tub chairs in Living
SPARKS ARCHITECTS
from The Country Trader. Lounge suite in Living from Arte Sofas, artesofas.com. Soft furnishings throughout by Dawn Schaffer, fabrics from Missoni, missoni.com.
L IGHTING
Skylight from Architectural Glass Solutions, solutionsinglass.com.au.
FINISHES
Flooring caulked
American White Oak from Queensland Timber Flooring, queenslandtimberflooring. com and concrete from Honed and Polished Concrete,
honedandpolishedconcrete. com.au. Decks Queensland White Beech from Queensland Timber Flooring. Walls American clay from Earth Design, earthdesign.net.
nz. Roof and soffit titanium zinc from ZC Technical, zctechnical.com.au. Joinery
American Rock Maple, 2-pac polyurethane, painted back glass bench tops and white Corian, installed by Bain Kitchens, (61 7) 5449
7479. Island bench and back bar stainless steel from Metaltrendz, (61 7) 5456
2211. Bar Corian in Ice, casf. com.au. Stone steps grey limestone from Ace Stone + Tiles, acestone.com.au. Glass for skylight, shower screen, frameless glass gate, balustrades and portholes and shoji doors from Architectural Glass Solutions. Pool acrylic walls from Aquatonic, aquatonic.com.au
FI x ED & FITTED wine cellar custom by builder, jwconstructionsqld.com.au. Audiovisual from Fl Audio, (61 7) 5455 6300.
A peaceful sanctuary created by Ministry of Design in the midst of Singapore is a meditation on the relationship between private space and our wider surroundings.
Patricia Nelson discovers a simple, modern retreat with clean lines and a strong sense of privacy.
There is little doubt that creating a secluded retreat in the midst of Singapore’s spirited skyline seems like a relatively impracticable venture. Is it possible to truly foster a sense of calm amid such a densely populated, glittering urban landscape?
Singaporean firm, m inistry of design ( mod) was approached to source viable architectural and interior solutions for this residential conundrum – how best to create a sense of isolation within a site that has little visual privacy from neighbours?
Founder and design director, Colin Seah, formed the company to tackle challenges of this exact nature. In his own words, mod was created to question, disturb and re-define the space that surrounds us. This critical mindset means that Seah is constantly seeking alternative answers as he continues to turn conventional architecture and design wisdom upside down by finding new and diverse ways of expressing spatial relationships.
“When we begin a project we consciously seek issues, usually architectural or programmatic, to re-define through a series of questions,” Seah says. The most refreshing aspect of this approach lies in the fact that conventions are consistently challenged and scrutinised. He attempts to re-craft tradition in order to elicit a real change in how we view and spatially interpret the world we inhabit. Seah stresses that this is not simply a flamboyant gesture to be iconic or radical for the mere sake of image or appearance.
The modesty of this tactic is revealed in his subtle approach to the architecture of the o ntario Residence. Instead of trying to create good design through grand and overt movements, he chose to adopt a more restrained course of action. By observing the development of the house’s shape one can see the significance inherent in a simple gesture and appreciate how poignant a sense of grace can truly be.
The client supplied the firm with a relatively prosaic brief. He desired a modern home, defined by clean lines and a strong sense of privacy and intimacy. “I think I struggled with the banality of the brief, as well as the site
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The concept of creating a sanctuary within the city drove the design development.
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The internal courtyard is a continuous reminder of the relationship between inside and outside, reinterpreting the vernacular associated with the bungalow.
itself – it was generically orthogonal. This to me was one of the biggest challenges, which some may see as ironic,” Seah says.
An examination of the site and an awareness of the aesthetics of the surrounding landscape helps to explain the somewhat insipid nature of the brief. The neighbourhood is not especially inspiring; its overall feel is defined by a series of apartment blocks and houses that are quite built up. As a result, attaining a feeling of seclusion and a real sense of privacy is obviously incredibly difficult.
This notion of withdrawal from the outside – of creating a sanctuary – is what drove the design development. Seah kept questioning how he could re-work the form, dictating a conventional bungalow without creating an
Is it possible to truly foster a sense of calm amid such a densely populated, glittering landscape?
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Subdued colour palette and simple materials make for a classic finish.
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The architecture is based around an assemblage of simple geometrics.
06 A double-storey courtyard with a lap pool is a focal point.
07 Basement, first and second floor plans (top to bottom).
08 A demure and calming ambience defines the home.
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The ontario House defies ordinary expectations.
outlandish or fussy structure. Keeping an innate simplicity was essential, as was maximising the given space – 420m 2 – in order to establish an airy and light home environment.
making a reasonably small area private, yet not claustrophobic, is clearly a thorny challenge. This was a task Seah set to with energy and vigour – tackling the design in an academic manner. Interestingly, he attempted to disentangle the vernacular associated with the common Singapore bungalow, instead of simply using the personality or perspective of the client to direct the form. “o ne of the things we recognised was that bungalows usually suffer from an over-articulation of domesticity. And we worked hard,” says Seah, “to produce something that was marked by an elegant and simplified shape.”
The structure most definitely defies ordinary expectations of an exercise in residential architecture. “The primary part of the building is built on an assemblage of simple geometrics,” says Seah. “A vertical tower block juxtaposed with a horizontal block.” This absence of unnecessary complication is immediately apparent, and such a basic measure works to distinguish the property from most typical domestic ventures.
The geometrics of the house overtly push all boundaries, as shown in the sectional silhouette. “Here is an example of mod rejecting conformity, challenging the typical over-articulation of residential houses through simplicity,” comments Seah.
All the public zones face inward, organised around a central space. In the middle
...although we may build walls, we still maintain a linkage to our wider surroundings.
lies the project’s heart and unifying feature – a double-storey courtyard with a lap pool. “We really wanted to introduce the idea of a water body engaged in the house while also being open to the elements. most houses tend to have a pool as a separate entity,” Seah explains. This technique lends a contemplative edge to the site and augments the sense that this home is indeed an escape from the outside world.
An exploration of the relationship between inside and outside is a theme that constantly reappears throughout the design – a meditation on the public domain and our individual private existences. A firm connection is made between these spaces and this investigation reveals that, although we may build walls, we still maintain a linkage to our wider surroundings.
This idea that we are all part of a bigger entity is most sharply defined through three features within the house. most obvious is the central courtyard that acts as a focal point for the home in its entirety. Secondly, in the living room a lightwell takes centre stage by drawing abundant fresh air and light into the internal environment. Lastly, in the master bedroom, there is a second courtyard – albeit much smaller – that divides the bathroom from the bed area.
Simple interiors of an equally pure nature accompany the refined architecture. This demure ambience is the defining element of the house. “materiality was very restrained, with a limited palette of both materials and colours,” Seah explains.
It is this controlled approach and commitment to clean lines and simple geometrics that has helped establish such a haven. By ignoring convention, the traditional typology of bungalows is defied, which works to exemplify the breadth of hidden possibilities that surround us.
...a meditation on the public domain and our individual private existences.
DESIGN
m inistry of design
PROjEcT A RchITEcT
Park + Associates
cONTRAcTOR
Entron Construction
TIME TO cOMPl ETE
18 months
TOTA l FlOOR A REA
420m 2
Ministry of Design (65) 6222 5780 modonline.com
FURNITURE
Sofa in Living Room from Cream Homestore, cream. com.sg. Dining table and chairs Tulip from Exit Design, exit-design.com. Bed in Master Bedroom and In-Law’s Bedroom from Mod Living,
modliving.com.sg.
FINIS hES
Exterior floor light speckled grey granite in flamed and brushed finish from T&L Stone, tlstone.com.sg. Exterior walls and ceilings finished in emulsion paint from Entron Construction, entron.com.sg.
Interior flooring in Dining and Living area is light speckled grey granite in flamed and
brushed finish from T&L Stone, in Bedrooms, Walk-in Wardrobe and Stair is White Oak solid timber strips from Wood Doctor (Far East), wooddoctor.com. sg, in Ground Floor Powder Room is black mosaic tiles from Entron Construction, and in Entertainment Room is Indian Ebony timber strips from Wood Doctor (Far East. Carpet brown shag pile from
The Rugmaker, therugmaker. com.sg. Paint throughout from Entron Constructions. Walls in Entertainment Room are brown fabric panels from Roselle Mont Clair, rosellemontclair.com, in Bathrooms and Outdoor Shower is honed travertine with clear resin finish from T&L Stone, and in Ground Floor Powder Room is black mosaic tiles from Entron Construction. Feature
melbourne showroom now open stocking australian made furniture, art and lifestyle accessories
176 Johnston street fitzroy victoria 3065 australia +61 3 9419 7484 | store@tait.biz
wall copper from Sin Kiat Metal Works, sinkiat@singnet.com. sg. Bar stone from Polybuilding, polybuilding.com.sg.
l IGh TING
Lighting throughout from Bizlink Associates, bizlinklighting.com.
FIXTURES/EQUIPMENT
Bathroom Toto WC, basin and shower from Inhwa Marketing, inhwa.com.sg.
It was the epitome of the australian holiday cottage – simple, unpretentious and rudimentary. But, as Peter Salhani reveals, Michael and Dinah Dysart saw potential in it, especially given its magical location.
It was an old fisherman’s cottage by the water at Wagstaffe, before the Dysarts bought it in the mid 1990s as a family weekender. over the years, they had holidayed often in the small coastal town on the Central Coast, north of Sydney, until they found the property for sale. “I instantly fell in love with the trees along the water’s edge,” says Michael Dysart. “ t hey frame the view beautifully. a nd we both loved the simplicity and honesty of the old cottage.”
owner-built in the 1950s, the original house had two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a combined living/dining room that opened to a deck – 65 square metres in total. With fibro-cladding outside and Pine floorboards inside, the materials were rudimentary, the adornment basic: lattice screening around the rainwater tank for instance, and hand-made metal ducks decorating the flywire doors. “It represents that era of postwar austerity – my parents’ generation. t here was a real shortage of materials and money which imposed simple, cost-conscious design. People were inventive because they had to be,” says Dysart.
Dysart is an architect of note in australia for his influence on housing, public works and commercial projects. Dinah is an arts
writer and curator, and a former editor of art & australia t hey furnished the cottage with pieces from their Sydney home, and used it for around 10 years before doing the major extension. “I’d been fiddling with the place for years,” says Dysart. “But it got to the point where we desperately needed an extra bedroom and larger living space to accommodate the family. t hough we were reluctant to lose the original house, or any of its charm, so the interventions had to be sensitive and we wanted to keep the overall footprint small.”
Maintaining most of the original structure, Dysart elongated the building across the east-west facing site, adding a bedroom and bathroom to the south and a living room to the north. Materials and finishes were kept in the original language of fibro and Pine. t he outline of the old pergola/carport was repeated in decking for the new façade. Dysart approached the job of sourcing materials and fittings like an owner/builder, using standard options where possible, as opposed to custom-made. Pine floorboards throughout have been limewashed to lighten and blend the old and new timbers, and the original kitchen’s handmade cupboards and shelves have simply been painted white.
01 along the eastern elevation, existing door and window proportions have been repeated in the new living room (to the far right) with sliding louvres to temper the sea breeze.
02 the east-facing ‘summer end’ of the living room facing the bay.
03 the west-facing ‘winter end’ of the living room focuses on the fireplace.
“...we were reluctant to lose the original house, or any of its charm, so the interventions had to be sensitive...”
–MICHaEl
“Surprisingly, many of the same timbers, flashings, mouldings, kitchen cupboard vents and handles, even the basic bathroom tiles were all still available locally, some 50 years on,” he says.
Proportions of the old rooms and window openings have been repeated and a few embellishments added – shutters and shiplap for the vaulted ceiling in the living room a nod to the coastal vernacular. t he ceiling is compressed at either end to match the original room height, and raised in the centre to accommodate a ceiling fan and spatial gesture. “I wanted to separate the room into seasons –the winter end, defined by the fireplace, and the summer end, facing the water.”
Environment and landscape are deeply important to Dysart. o utside the kitchen door – the original entry to the house – the fibro wall of the new bathroom is curved to preserve a sightline to one of the garden’s great old angophoras. “ trees, for me, are architecture,” he says. “I’m always looking for ways to bring the garden inside.” His first order of business, on purchasing the cottage, had been to rebuild the seawall to save an angophora and Norfolk Pine from falling into the bay. t he previous owner had planted “one of everything all over the block” and mostly it’s all still there – fruit trees, natives, even the wisteria vine outside the kitchen. Dysart had to cut the carport posts off at the base, leaving their remnants twisted in the vine to save it when the new front deck went in. “We’ve tried to preserve the memories of the previous owners both in the building details and leaving all the trees and the wisteria.”
t he cottage won the 2009 small projects award from the australian Institute of a rchitects, which brings the veteran of 50 years full circle. Dysart is a member of the Sydney School of architecture. He first came to
04
“We’ve tried to preserve the memories of the previous owners...”
–MICHaEl
public attention in 1958, winning the taubmans Family Home competition with his colleague Ken Woolley from the NSW g overnment a rchitect’s office, where Dysart was in Public Works from 1955 to 1969. t he competition called for an ‘economical australian home’. t he winning entry by Dysart and Woolley was a courtyard house whose design was fresh for its day, aspirational and cost-effective to build – a bridge between the regional and modernist aesthetics. t his led Dysart to design for the 1962 Carlingford Homes Fair exhibition, and project-home builders such as Pettit & Sevitt and Habitat, introducing architect-designed housing to the burgeoning middle-class suburbs of Sydney’s North Shore and north-west.
t hat early house embodied the elements of passive solar design, cross-ventilation and light, garden access and geometry that Dysart has brought to all his buildings since, along with a measured restraint of both resources and space. Doubtless a much larger house could have been built on this site, forcing the loss of yet another fibro cottage from our coastline, but Dysart’s light touch has kept the spirit of the place intact. “We’re all part of the continuing of history,” he says. “ t he old house is all still there inside, we just built around it.”
Michael Dysart, mdysart@bigpond.com.au
The restoration and additions by Luigi Rosselli to this 1930s Leslie Wilkinson house turned out to be an organic process, which Paul McGillick discovers perfectly matches the original character.
“What I really like about Wilkinson’s work,” says Luigi Rosselli, “is the fact that there was an approach looking to simplify architecture, to look for a very pure form. He was looking for a more organic type of architecture.”
He points out that the plan and section of this house (built in 1936 for a doctor) is quite complex and conveys the sense of a house which has grown quite naturally over a period of time. “It is,” he says, “quite similar to what time does to a building – complexity gets layered with time.”
Wilkinson became foundation professor of architecture at the University of Sydney in 1918 and was soon after appointed university architect. Right up to the time of his death in 1973, Wilkinson was hugely influential and undertook many private commissions –domestic and multi-residential, ecclesiastical and commercial – in addition to his outstanding work at the University of Sydney.
He was attracted to the vernacular architecture of the Mediterranean and colonial Australia. This interest manifested itself in various ways, including finishes, decorative
elements and an easy connection between inside and outside. But it is also apparent in this house with its complex section and plan. This makes the house seem like a ‘family of rooms’. With his additions, Rosselli has responded to this sense of ‘family’ and highlighted the organic, or additive, character of the house to create a cluster of buildings linking together to form a little village.
“He always managed to keep the envelope quite compact,” says Rosselli, “by interlocking the different sizes of the rooms, the different heights of the rooms and the different levels. So, he would have a high ceiling height in the living space and a low ceiling in the bedrooms or utility rooms. This creates something akin to Adolph Loos, a Rubik’s cube type of structure with lots of steps. You go up to mezzanines and then go down with lots of different levels and split levels.”
This house, he says, is a classic split level with the front part of the house at the lower end of the site and the back section half a flight higher. This reflects the steep site. The house steps up the site to a sandstone rockface with
“...in [Wilkinson’s] time there was an approach looking to simplify architecture , to look for a very pure form .” ROSSELLI
wiston gardens — NSW, australia
LUIGI ROSSELLI ARCHITECTURE
a shelf on top. This is almost the height of the two-storey house and so was difficult to access.
The client is a collector – of paintings, books, rugs and, quips Rosselli, children. He has six. Accordingly, he had outgrown the house. So, the brief was to provide more accommodation to fit the growing family. But new possibilities kept presenting themselves until there were three DAs current for the house. This could have resulted in something of a mish-mash, but Rosselli was able to unify old and new elements through materials and a consistency of form.
There is also a sequence of arrival and progress, both internally and externally –ultimately leading all the way up to the pool and pool house on top of the sandstone rockface – which links this cluster of semi-autonomous elements together into a miniature version of a Mediterranean hill town.
The restoration work left the lay-out of most of the rooms intact – only the kitchen and laundry areas were re-worked, along with renovated bathrooms, under-floor heating and new lighting. Otherwise, shutters have been repaired and Wilkinson’s beautifully sinuous internal stairway stripped back to its original polished concrete finish.
The new works began with the pool house, followed by a new family room (off the new kitchen and cut out of the sandstone rockface) and then the basements. “It was basically adding where you could add,” says Rosselli, “without impacting on the original Wilkinson footprint and original building forms.”
The pool is now accessed by a stairway which makes its way up past a rain and stormwater retention pond (which filters the water for garden reticulation and for the toilets). The infinity-edged pool has sensational views out over Sydney Harbour, while the elegant pool house with its rendered brick pillars is more like a garden pavilion with more than a hint of Mediterranean classicism to link it to the house below.
Steps and retaining walls throughout are all sandstone to sustain the sense of a Mediterranean hilltop town – reinforced by the way the library is cut into the sandstone rockface, almost like a cave.
The original garage at the bottom of the site was disconnected from the house and could house only one car. So, Rosselli has converted it into a children’s playroom, connected to the house by extending the internal stairway. The garage has been re-located to the garden, its roof forming a raised terrace and extension to the garden.
05 Children in the breakfast room, which showcases pieces from the residents’ art collection.
06 The pantry and laundry makes use of clean lines and minimal finishes.
07 Section.
Like a hilltop town, this house... consists of a progressive series of landscaped terraces, connected courtyards and viewing platforms.
10 A renovated bathroom.
11
One of the children’s bedrooms.
The other addition takes restoration even further. It is the new entry gate – designed by Wilkinson, but never built for cost reasons. Rosselli has built the gate to Wilkinson’s design using authentic detailing salvaged from other Wilkinson sites.
Like a hilltop town, this house follows the contour of its steep site – so much so that it looks as though its has been cut out of the rockface, and its walls made from the excavated stone. And like a hilltop town it consists of a progressive series of landscaped terraces, connected courtyards and viewing platforms. This informal progress is reflected in the interior lay-out with its somewhat meandering plan linked by small transitional spaces which appear unexpectedly as the house sashays from one room to another or from one level to another as the staircase curves its way up.
Not only has Luigi Rosselli has been able to extend the house without compromising its original character, he has actually been able to further reveal that character by using sympathetic materials, respecting the existing geometry and by engaging with the dynamics which drive that character.
Wiston Gardens won the Woollahra Conservation Award, 2008
“It was basically adding where you could add... without impacting on the original Wilkinson footprint...”
ROSSELLI
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A RCHITECT
Luigi Rosselli Architects
PROjECT TEAM
Luigi Rosselli, Candace
Christensen
INTERIOR DESIGN
Interni
INTERIOR DESIGN TEAM
Louise Bell, Shane Gogan
HERITAGE CONSULTANTS
Tanner Architects, John
Oultram Heritage & Design
BUILDER
Sydcon Building Services
STRUCTURAL & H y DRAULICS
O’Hearn Consulting
A RCHEOLOGy ASSET
Geotechnical Engineering
GEOTECHNICAL ASSET
Geotechnical Engineering
L ANDSCAPE DESIGN
Andrew Pfeiffer & Associates, Circle Square Landscape Design
L ANDSCAPING
Bates Landscape
Luigi Rosselli Architects (61 2) 9281 1498 luigirosselli.com
ARTWOR k
Living paintings by Ralph Balson and Michael Johnson.
FURNITURE
Chairs in Breakfast Room, Warren McArthur chair from Spence & Lyda, spenceandlyda. com.au, and No 17 chairs by Thonet, thonet.com.au. In main living room, TV Chair by Grant Featherstone and in family room, Kone chair by Roger McLay, both from Ken Neale Twentieth Century Modern.
FINISHES
Windows and shutters
by Artarmon Joinery, artarmonjoinery.com.au.
Metalwork by La Maison de L’Art, lamaison_delart@optus. net.au. Joinery by Silkworth, silkworth@bigpond.com.
Interior walls finished in interior stucco Marmorino from ID Colourfield, idcolourfield. com. Stone throughout is Mt White sandstone from Gosford Quarry, gosfordquarries. com.au, and Pellegrino from Homestone, antropez@gmail. com. Flooring interior timber floor is Tallowwood finished
LUIGI ROSSELLI ARCHITECTS
with Synteko Pro low sheen, synteko.com.au, and specialty concrete work to front entry floor by MJW Applications, mjwa.com.
LIGHTING
Lamp in children’s bedroom by Jieldé from Spence & Lyda. Other lighting throughout by Tangent, (61 2) 9698 5088.
FIXTURES/EQUIPMENT
Heating by Sun Heating, sunheat@optusnet.com.au.
Hardware from Style Finish, stylefinish.com.au.
The dampening element is integrated invisibly into the sensys hinge – an innovation that makes living spaces work beautifully.
For more information on sensys visit www.hettich.com.au/endorsedshowrooms for a Hettich Endorsed Showroom.
Made its big screen debut in 1952
And has been performing ever since From takeovers in the boardroom, to the secluded den The grace and poise of a true design classic
Experience the original
An artistic, integrative approach, underlined by a need for practicality: this was the brief Miriam Fanning of Mim Design set herself, when designing her family home. Alice Blackwood explores the ways in which art and daily life intersect.
Practicality is not always a word we hear when talking about design. But, when it came to designing her own family home, Interior Designer Miriam Fanning put precious attitudes aside and approached the task in a matter-offact manner.
Fanning, who is Founder and Director of Melbourne interior design firm, Mim Design, enjoys a creative and collaborative relationship with her clients, often linked by a common interest in Australian art, and an integrative approach to design. Underscoring this is her clients’ key requirements and an ever-underlying need for practicality. So, when embarking on her own space, with herself the client, Fanning approached the project in much the same manner.
“I would have loved to have done more ‘way-out’ things with the house,” says Fanning of the result. “But the reality of having two
MIM DESIGNsmall boys meant that it was a family home, and not a showcase.”
The dwelling in question, or “Downshire Street” as Fanning refers to it, is a doublefronted Victorian, which dates back to the turn of the 20 th Century. It is renowned as being the first house on the street, and enjoyed humble beginnings as part of an orchard.
The dream, says Fanning, was to clean it up and simplify it, “Not muck around too much with the spatial value of the traditional Victorian,” but enhance it in a way that melded with modern day living and modern architecture.
From their previous Victorian cottage in Port Melbourne, Fanning and husband, David Hayes, started searching for a house to renovate and live in. The main requirement was that the renovation be completed in stages. The rather shabby Downshire Street, when first discovered, came complete with a “rat-infested barn” and a garden “like Lord of the Rings”. However, it was the 1970s-esque back extension and rear access that really caught their attention: it fit the brief perfectly.
It was a blessing in disguise that Fanning was running her business while simultaneously designing her house. She herself concedes that it is a lot harder designing for oneself. “You see so many beautiful things and constantly change your mind. But by the end of it, we were so busy [between work and home], I had to treat it like a project so I could make decisions.”
It was that back extension and rat-infested barn that underwent the biggest transformation, and today forms the main living area for Fanning and her rambunctious children, Sam and Charlie. All the major living – eating, lounging, playing – takes place here, under spacious high ceilings. Inner dwelling merges with outer through floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors which capture morning sunlight while allowing for subtle supervision of outdoor activities.
Admiring the simplicity and open vistas of the iconic Neutra-designed homes of Los Angeles (see neutra.org), Fanning looked to re-
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“[We wanted to] not muck around too much with the spatial value of the traditional Victorian.”
–MIRIAM01 The classic Victorianstyle entrance hall. 02 ‘Desert Tribe’ by John Coburn injects colour and vibrancy into the living space. ‘Never Limerick’ by Dale Frank in the lounge.
“...the reality of having two small boys meant that it was a family home and not a showcase.”
conjure their essence in the main living space. “I love the big windows and square eaves of the Neutra architecture, I wanted to pick up on the simple shapes, while not [dating] the style.”
Fanning has long been a champion of Australian art and this was an important consideration when designing the main living quarters. Working with Architect Dean Landy of Clarke Hopkins Clarke, Fanning conceptualised the space to encompass two major pieces, ‘Desert Tribe’ by John Coburn, and ‘Gamboge Reds’, a vibrant piece by Michael Johnson. The two walls, designed specifically for the pieces, imbue the space with a gallery feel, “while still making it a home”.
Where finishes and furniture form a subdued background, these works inject the spaces with colour and life. The Coburn piece effortlessly draws the eye with its intense reds and bolds shapes, and represents a ‘round circle’ for Fanning.
“About 15 years ago, I started collecting work by Australian artists. My favourite was always John Coburn, I loved his shapes and the simplicity behind his paintings and his colour,” she says. “It wasn’t until after he died that I was able to obtain a canvas of his work. My first ever piece was a print [of ‘Desert Tribe] and the last was the original, which is now in the lounge.”
In practice and in life, Fanning sees no boundary between interiors, art, sculpture and graphics – “to me it’s all about design... You have to think about them as integral,” she says –an attitude which flourishes among her interior design team. When Mim Design tackled the interiors of her home: “It was all about working with what we had, the juxtaposition of the art, and making the space liveable.”
Art and sculpture aside, usability and practicality still reign supreme. It can be found in the custom stained and limed American Oak floors (coloured grey to pick up the light and hide the dirt), the pure white Caesarstone benches and New Age Veneer tabletops (both hard wearing and low maintenance); all come back to that common theme.
From the front of the classic Victorian, to the modernised back, and even upstairs – a mysterious play space which Fanning describes as “their room” (humorously referring to her two boys), the result is a synergy of design, art, and life.
DESIGNEr
Mim Design CoNSulta N tS
Clarke Hopkins Clarke
CoN traCtor
SBR Developments
l a NDSCapE DESIGN C-Scapes
Mim Design mimdesign.com.au
(61 3) 9826 1266
art Wor K
Living ‘Gamboge Reds’ by Michael Johnson, ‘Big Yellow Flowers’ by Mark Schaller, and ‘Untitled’ by Kim Westcott. Dining ‘Desert Tribe’ by John Coburn. Office ‘Rythems et Sons’ by George Raftopolous, Lounge ‘Never Limerick’ by Dale Frank.
Fur NI tur E
Dining table custom made in New Age Veneer, newageveneers.com.au.
Dining chairs Chair 170 from Feelgood Designs, feelgooddesigns.com.
Accessories from Zuster, zuster.com.au and Hub Furniture, hubfurniture.com.
au. Outdoor lounges are Tribu from Cosh Living, coshliving. com.au, ottomans are Moroso Osorom from Hub Furniture, and chair is Little Albert from Hub Furniture. Garden bench Utopia from Zuster.
FINISHES
Floorboards limed American Oak from Floors by Greensborouh, floorsbygreensborough.com.
au. Rug from Rugs Carpet & Design, rc-d.com.au. Paint Dulux Domino to fireplace, Homebush to window frames and ½ Vivid, ½ Whisper White to walls, dulux.com.au.
Benchtop Ceasarstone Snow, caesarstone.com.au. Joinery is Arcadian Oak from New Age
Veneers. External pavers Bluestone from DeFazio, defazio.com.au Pool Falcon Pools, falconpools.com.au.
l IGH t ING
Floor lamp in Living is Foscarini Twiggy from Space Furniture, spacefurniture.com.au.
Pendant lamps above dining table are moooi Non Random from Space Furniture. Table lamps from Zuster, zuster. com.au
FIX tur ES/EQuIpMEN t Kitchen appliances from Miele, miele.com.au. Sinks in Kitchen and Laundry from Abey, abey. com.au.
back extension became the family living area.
Renowned Indian architects, Manit and Sonali Rastogi of Morphogenesis, are re-defining Indian architecture. Jagan Shah explores the creative spaces of the Rastogi’s own home.
Gone are the days when the hot, dry climate of North India and primitive building technology would automatically combine to produce heavy-walled boxes with cramped, dark rooms and sparse, small openings. Gone, too, is the assumption that privacy demands screens and veils for the eye, and that the Indian home must be an impenetrable fortress where threatened customs and mores are preserved and perpetuated.
Instead of these tropes of the past, the contemporary Indian home is being re-defined as the interface between home and world, work and pleasure, individual and community, solitude and society. And the re-definition is coming from a new generation of architects, like Manit and Sonali Rastogi, principals of Morphogenesis Architecture Studio in New Delhi, who see their role as a post-modern avant-garde, transforming Indian society by changing its built form.
Like their predecessors in early 20 th century Paris, Vienna and Moscow, the Rastogis are also evangelists for new technologies, new aesthetic forms and new lifestyles. They enjoy privilege, and access and leverage these currencies to seek opportunities where art, design and building science can infuse a new spirit into architecture. However, unlike their bohemian cousins, the designers behind Morphogenesis are located in India, the last place on earth where you might expect to find the cutting edge.
Yet N85 is just that: a place where the new is being invented every day, in the Rastogis’ basement full of architects and urbanists, where new typologies, forms, methods and technologies are a staple diet, and in the Rastogis’ home above, where creative professionals and thinkers of all variety drop by regularly, and their random thoughts and inspirations remain like gifts that can be cherished long after they leave. The N85 household is seldom idle, as there is always an idea that needs following up and a person who needs to be engaged with.
In a relatively short life, Morphogenesis has achieved international recognition as a leading practice in ‘green’ buildings and a wellspring of innovation. Manit’s professional calendar is marked with numerous commitments to speak about the future of Indian architecture and Indian cities. As director of a leading school of architecture, whose 80 graduates join the profession every year, his engagement with the future of Indian architecture is ever more critical. His reliance on Sonali, as business and design partner, and spouse, is therefore doubly intense, and their
home office is a crucible for ideas as well as an environment for nurturing the positivity of family and friends.
The ethos of ‘practice what you preach’ is strong in the architectural community; N85 needed to be a paradigm-shifting demonstration of ‘morphogenesis’ in action and a true reflection of the Rastogis’ beliefs.
The formal challenge in the project was the interlocking of three distinct spatial units –a house for Manit’s parents, a house and home office for the Rastogis and their two children, and an office/studio for Morphogenesis – and the resolution of conflicts between private and ‘public’ spaces within each unit.
The solution is masterfully straightforward. Vertically, the studio necessarily occupies the basement floor – an allowance given by the codes for commercial activity in a residential zone – and the residences stack up above. Horizontally, the block above ground is divided into two volumes; an opaque, protective mass at the rear containing bedrooms, dressers, bathrooms and lounges, and a transparent mass at the front containing living and dining rooms, lobbies and the main staircase. The kitchen
The internal courtyard is a domestic landmark, a constant point of reference that can shift in a moment from being a location of activities to being a background or foreground for them.
The house is homage to the marriage of materials, the play of forms and the seduction of senses.
The formal challenge was the interlocking of three distinct spatial units... and the resolution of conflicts between private and ‘public’ spaces within each unit
provides a functional and spatial segue between private and public in each house.
But the configuration of plan and section are like back-of-the-envelope operations for these seasoned designers. The real architecture emerges from the detail, especially the working of an environmental logic into the spatial configuration. This truly is where the Rastogis’ hearts lie: in using passive solar techniques like the thermal mass on the south and west sides – the cluster of smaller south-facing private spaces at the rear, and the unbroken protective wall surface on the west side – and the grouping of large glass surfaces on the north and east façades, and in embracing the natural environment by devoting half the site to gardens and inserting a green atrium.
The atrium is the pièce de résistance of the house – the energy centre around which the house comes alive. It greets the visitors as they arrive at the piano from the entrance vestibule downstairs, it locks together the living and dining areas and the balcony that extends the home into the garden, and it enables the free movement of air and the dispersal of natural light throughout the public areas.
With its plants, pebbles and garden furniture organised into a strict geometry, a space both interior and exterior, the atrium is also a signature of the Rastogis’ central preoccupation: to create an architecture that marries nature and culture, where landscape and building are in peaceful communion. In the deft hands of a crafty designer, these binaries dissolve into nothingness, and are replaced by a fullness of experience and discovery.
No wonder Sonali’s favourite spot is at the red dining table, from where she can gaze out on the large Neem tree in the garden, through the dappled light filtering past the silk-string curtains. It is here, she fondly recalls, that “innumerable memorable conversations take place over dinner with friends”.
As evangelists of a new Indian architecture, Manit and Sonali consider the art of engagement, of conversation, of persuasion and commentary as concomitants of their professional work. But their concerns about the state of Indian cities, the environment and the education system would seem worn and pedantic if the rationalism wasn’t offset by an artful sense of detail and the delight of making.
The house is homage to the marriage of materials, the play of forms and the seduction of senses. Such devotion produces the light that filters through the rooftop lap-pool into the atrium, and the cosy bar that is suspended over the entrance, its protruding bay windows evoking a relationship with the street that could have been, if New Delhi hadn’t been planned for isolation. It’s as if the Rastogis would have the front setback erased altogether, and their house become a renaissance palazzo once more, inviting maestros and virtuosos to walk in from the street and share some enlightenment.
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DESIGN
Morphogenesis
St RuctuR a L cONSuLta N t
optimal
ELEctRIca L & PLuMbING
Spectral
cON t R actOR
Bhayana Builders, Vadehra Builders
tOta L FLOOR aRE a 1,508m 2
Morphogenesis morphogenesis.org
(91 11) 4182 8070
a Rt WORK Bar by Balasubramaniam, and Nitin Agarwal. Living Room by F.N. Souza, and Chintan Upadhaya. Staircase by V. Ramesh, Sanjeev Sonpimpare, and Amit Ambalal.
Foyer by Probir, and Dhawan. Dining Room by Jyoti Bhatt, Manisha Gera, and Probir. Bedroom by Sonali Rastogi, Probir, and Ajay Rajgarhia.
FuRNI tuRE
Bar custom designed by Morphogenesis. Chaise in Living Room from Molteni&C, molteni.it. Sofa in Living
Room custom designed by Morphogenesis, made by Proform, upholstered in fabric from Shades of India, shadesofindia.com. Seating tall chairs in Living Room and hardwood seating in Courtyard custom designed by Mike Knowles at India Chic, (91 11) 2630 3968, chairs in Dining from Proform, and Calligaris chairs in TV Area from Stanley Boutique, stanleyboutique.com. Tables inlay table in Courtyard and benches in Dining are custom made by Kaaru, kaaru. com, red table in Dining custom
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designed by Morphogenesis and Mike Knowles from India Chic, Anchor tables in Dining from India Chic, and Jean Nouvel Less Table in TV Area from Stanley Boutique. Cabinetry in TV Area is custom made by Proform, and from Poggen Pohl, poggenpohl. com. Outdoor rattan furniture purchased in Hong Kong.
FINISHES
Flooring Oak planks and Travertine stone. Timber throughout is Teak ply and veneer and renewable forest timber treated with Linseed
oil. Wall panelling handmade fabric and paper sandwiched in glass, and textured Limestone.
Paint throughout is non-toxic paint (acrylic emulsion) from Asian Paints, asianpaints.com.
Glass in joinery by St Gobain, saint-gobain.co.in.
LIGH t ING
Bar lighting by Murano, muranolighting.com. Lamp in Living Room, Louis Poulssen lamp, louispoulssen.com. Rubber lights in Courtyard are handmade with rubber by Quasar, quasarled.com.
Chandelier in Dining Room is
Phillip Starck from Flos, flos. com. Recessed lighting in TV Room by Antares, antares.com. General lighting throughout by Erco Lighting, erco.com.
FIX tuRES/EQuIPMEN t Bathroom fixtures Jacob Delafon, jacobdelafon.com, Kohler, kohler.com, Ceramica Flaminia, ceramicaflaminia. it, and Gessi, gessi.com, all from FCML, fcmlindia. com. Hardware from Hafele, hafeleindia.com, and Hettich, hettich.com. Fans antiques from flea market at Chor Bazaar in Mumbai.
0403
A place where the new is being invented everyday.
What were sunlit interiors during the day become glowing beacons at night.
Winning Appliances is Australia’s leading kitchen and laundry appliance specialist.
Within each of the six showrooms, conveniently located around Sydney and Newcastle, Winning Appliances displays an extensive range of over 50 quality brands and is your one stop shop for all your major household and kitchen appliances. Whether you require a refrigerator or need a complete kitchen package, Winning Appliances can meet all your requirements.
www.winningappliances.com.au
gesualdi house — vic, australia
Piero Gesualdi’s career reflects a rich and adventurous imagination. a nd this, says stephen crafti, informs his remarkable make-over of an unprepossessing army drill hall into a home and a professional base.
a n army drill hall built in the mid-1930s is an unlikely place to create a home. it certainly wasn’t Piero Paolo g esualdi’s intention when he bought the building ten years ago. Located in the inner melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, g esualdi was renting it while building a house for himself nearby. “i was more or less camping in the place. i used a portable barbeque to cook,” says g esualdi.
austere by anyone’s standards, the red brick hall possessed a number of fine art deco features such as architraves, skirting boards and a stone fireplace. But it was the proportions of the rooms and their generous ceiling heights that made g esualdi re-think his long-term plans. “i probably wouldn’t have persisted had i known then it would take six years to get permits through Council. even when i thought i was nearly there, it took almost a year for the kitchen joinery to arrive from italy.”
o thers would never have started such a daunting project, particularly with many neighbours describing it as the ‘ugly duckling’ of the street. However, g esualdi is recognised for his highly trained eye and for being just that little bit ahead of the mainstream. i n the 1970s, g esualdi opened the mason fashion boutiques – two in melbourne and two in Sydney – which became the word in high fashion in australia through to the 1980s. g esualdi was responsible for importing clothes from designers such Jean Paul gaultier, Romeo gigli, Claude montana and Comme des garçons. a nd, like his choice of home, these designers were unknown and adventurous. “There were no large advertising campaigns like there are today. it was like diving out of a window and just hoping you’d land on your feet,” says g esualdi.
g esualdi left masons to open Rosati’s bistro in Flinders Lane (evocative of a café in an italian railway station) and is now returning to ‘fashion for the home’ with designer artist, Sara Thorn (well known for her 1980s fashion labels, abyss Studio and Funkessentials). g esualdi and Thorn’s business, WorldWeave, is based on the ground floor of the re-designed building. o ne room functions as an office and another as a meeting room. a third room operates as the showroom, complete with darkveneered shelves filled with cushions, scarves and throws. “i’ve known Piero since i was 16. We’d always run into each other at different stages in our careers,” says Thorn.
Separating the offices from the g rand Salon, also on the ground floor, is a moody lobby. Reminiscent of a great film set, the key ‘prop’ is a dramatic steel staircase. Spanning three levels, the sculptural form stops visitors in their tracks. Designed by g esualdi and fabricated by Peter Drofenik, the staircase’s curvaceous lines are exaggerated by a twelve metre-high photo montage of m ichelangelo’s ‘David’. “i’ve always had an affinity for Florence. The masons headquarters was based there,” says g esualdi, who with all of his designs, whether furniture, interiors, homes or
accessories, appreciates the juxtaposition of old and new. “There’s something quite european in this approach,” he says.
The Salon is the epitome of refined italian style. g esualdi essentially kept the proportions of two combined rooms (one originally used as a mess hall), as well as the original dark timber veneer joinery, comprising built-in bookshelves and storage units. The timber was accentuated with grey polished plastered walls (stucco lustro). “The fireplace simply needed a good scrub,” says g esuadi. o ne of the main changes to this space was achieved by extending the size of windows and adding glass and steel doors to the front lawn. “i didn’t want to start the renovation until this permission was granted,” he says. “i couldn’t have lived with the original chicken wired translucent glass windows.”
While the ground floor is dedicated to WorldWeave, the upper two levels are g esualdi’s private domain. o n the first floor is an open plan kitchen and informal living area, together with a second bedroom. a nd while previously there was no outlook, new steel and glass windows and doors frame the city skyline. “i wanted to make use of these balconies,” says g esualdi. a nd rather than fill the space (and there’s a considerable amount of it) with knick-
Piero Gesualdi01
gesualdi looking over plans in the dining area.
02
The dramatic entrance is enclosed by a black steel canopy.
03
The spacious formal entertaining areas are panelled with original timber walls.
04
The stainless steel kitchen features a retractable rangehood.
austere by anyone’s standards, the red brick hall possessed a number of fine art deco features...
“Whether i’m designing a chair or an interior, it’s about understanding the human scale” geSUaLDi
knacks, it errs on the spartan side. The polished plastered walls are void of art and there are a select few designer pieces of furniture, including a modular lounge suite designed by g esualdi himself. “Just sit on it. You won’t want to budge,” says g esualdi, who eventually intends to bring such designs to market.
The all-stainless steel kitchen is also pared back. Stainless steel joinery conceals a fridge, a pantry, as well as storage. a nd the 3.5 metre stainless steel island bench even includes a pop-out power point to ensure the lines remain clean. o ne of g esualdi’s ‘toys’ is his rangehood, also made from stainless steel. But rather than being a permanent fixture over the island bench, it retracts in the ceiling when not in use. “it took its time to arrive. But it was worth the wait,” says g esualdi, who just has to touch the switch to demonstrate the rangehood’s gymnastic qualities.
Piero Gesualdi08
09
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Like the living areas, g esualdi’s bedroom is almost monastic in style. a double bed, flanked either end by fur-covered ottomans, is the centerpiece. The only other form that competes for attention is a sculptural stainless steel basin, cheekily revealing a voluptuous behind on one side. a nd instead of a separate shower, there’s a slight change in level and the shower head is attached to a beam. “i designed this space for myself. i’d rather notice the way the light falls into the space than a rack of clothes lined up against a wall,” he says. g esualdi, who trained as an architect, has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve in design, and after decades of designing for others, so he should. “my years in fashion have helped me enormously. Whether i’m designing a chair or an interior, it’s about understanding the human scale. Understanding the way something is draped on the body requires the same skill as understanding the way someone sits in a chair or enters a room. You just know when something is right.” 10
a rchitect Piero Paolo g esualdi desiG n
Dusko Lapcevic
Fabrication & desiG n Peter Drofenik l andsca PinG Prue Watson bud Get $1.2 million
t ime to comPlete 18 months
total Floor a rea 450m 2
Piero Gesualdi (61) 413 055 510
WorldWeave (61) 435 294 946 worldweave.com.au
art Wor K Stairs large format, photographic reproduction of Michelangelo’s David, graphic design by James Widdowson and Piero Gesualdi, printing and installation by Design & Deliver, ddsignmakers.com.au.
Furniture
Soft furnishings throughout by WorldWeave, worldweave. com.au. Upholstery generally by Newlands Upholstery, newlandsupholstery.com.au. Tables glass table in Living is custom built, and refurbished Baroque table in Meeting Room. Sofas G Street Sofa in Living designed by Piero Gesualdi and Dusko Lapcevic, in Recreation Area by Format, formatfurniture.com, upholstered in fabric by Suzie Stanford’s Tapestry Chair, suziestanford.com.au. Ottoman in Recreation Bar Area by Hermon & Hermon, hermonhermon. com.au. Stools wooden stools in Kitchen designed by Piero Gesualdi. Mirror in Ensuite is custom built. Bar designed by Piero Gesualdi. Bed in Master Bedroom designed by Piero Gesualdi. Outdoor canopy by Canvascraft, (61 3) 9587 7633. Planter boxes from Prue Watson, pruewatson.com.au.
Finishes
Walls basalt walls throughout by Stoneworks, stoneworks. com.au, in Bedroom rendered in gesso with oxide additives using traditional Italian method, and in Office is painted cement render. Floor original Jarrah floor refurbished by Borthwick Floors, brothwickfloors.com. au, and basalt by Stoneworks. Steel work throughout by Hi-Tech Stainless Fabrications, hitechstainless.com.au.
liGhtinG
Lamp wall-hung lamp in hall by Stadium Venetia, venetiastadium.com. General lighting throughout by Dean Phillips, Architectural Lighting and Design, deanphillips.com.
Fi X tures / e QuiPment
Basins sculptural basalt basins custom designed by Piero Gesualdi and Dusko Lapcevic, made by David Pecorini, Bum Basin in Master Ensuite designed by Piero Gesualdi and Dusko Lapcevic. WC from Villeroy & Boch, villeroy-och.com. Kitchen custom by Xera Kitchens, xeraonline.com
Bertazzoni has new ingredients for your kitchen. Eight bold, exuberant colours - red, white, green, black, cream, blue, burgundy and yellow.
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For the full range of colours and options phone 1300 727 421 or visit ww.s ampfordixl .com .au
Replicas, ripoffs, copies, fakes. They can turn your design into disaster and hurt those who create the originals. Support the industry that supports you: join the ADA today at authenticdesign.com.au
Over the past decade, Sicily has become a compulsion for Jane Burton Taylor. First part of her ongoing Italian itinerary, it became connected to home when she wrote a book on Italian Australians. Last autumn, she returned to photograph the island’s mountains.
Flying into Palermo airport – named after the heroic Sicilian anti-mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino – the plane is buffeted by wind and mountains are alternately lit by morning sun and hidden in cloud. Sicily has a long history of dark and light. It has been repeatedly invaded and the Sicilians have adapted over millennia to the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans and the Spanish.
Palermo
Sicily is not a pristine destination. In old Palermo, the streets are crowded, dirty and have neighbourhoods that seem Third World-poor. Much of it even remains in postWWII ruin. The story goes that the Allies met gangster, Lucky Luciano, and repatriation money was diverted to re-kickstart the Mafia (previously subdued by Mussolini.)
Amid this quasi-chaos, though, Palermo has an abundant historic legacy of art, architecture and cultural hotspots, such as the pint-sized theatres where pupi (marionettes), like the handsome Orlando, re-enact heroic tales from the crusades.
Sicily’s regional art gallery in the catalan Palazzo Abatellis is a good starting point. It was restored post-War by carlo Scarpa, and his classically spare fit-out, setting off mainly
medieval and Baroque works and rooms of 18th century pastoral scenes, provides a glimpse into the Sicilian psyche.
The physical heart of Palermo is the nearby Quattro canti, four Baroque façades framing crossroads which divide the city into its four precincts.
There are many historical itineraries which you can follow in Palermo. My favourites are Baroque and Norman-Arab – the latter was apparently the happiest era. The Arabs considered Sicily paradise on earth and they and the Normans were the only conquerors to live here during their rule.
A few steps from Quattro canti the two eras combine in a piazza bounded by the Baroque Santa caterina and the 12th century churches, San cataldo and La Martorana. San cataldo is impressive for its simplicity; La Martorana for its mosaics, which can be seen on a grander scale in the cappella Palatina in the Palazzo dei Normanni, now home to Sicily’s regional government.
Not surprisingly, you can also experience art and history in B&Bs, such as La Dimora. In an old palazzo, it has original 16th century decorative wooden ceilings and rooms looking down onto a narrow street crammed with washing and life, with neighbours chatting, children playing soccer and cars throbbing with music. The owner, Paola Mendola, is also a cooking teacher who throws a mean party.
In Sicily’s interior, there are also many homes open to guests – these tend to be country villas or masserie (fortified farms) dating from the long feudal era that ran from around 1500 –1900s (Garibaldi arrived in 1860 promising land reform for peasants, but it never happened).
At the foothills of the Madonie Mountains is one called Monaco di Mezzo. It was sold in 1865 by the church to Baron Michele Pottino and remains in the family (their palazzo is in nearby Soltana Petralia.) It has its own church and was originally surrounded by stone huts where the workers lived. Typically, owners of such estates were absentee landlords who stayed on an upper floor during the harvest months.
Here, too, the chef Mimo is amazing and his four-course meals – made using farm produce – can be walked off on the steep driveway. Alternatively – as we do – one can join the young Palermitians who turn up sporting long black boots to ride horses across Monaco’s postcard-pretty hills.
Want to know where the best galleries go… Melbourne Art Fair 2010.
Leading galleries, representing over 900 living artists, exhibiting some 3,000 artworks gather together at the 12th biennial Melbourne Art Fair. Save the date!
Alongside over 80 selected national and international gallery exhibitions, Melbourne Art Fair 2010 presents programs including: Artist Commissions; Project Rooms, featuring independent and emerging artists; Education Programs; and free Public Fora and Lectures with artists, curators and international guests.
Melbourne Art Fair 2010 is presented by the Melbourne Art Foundation, a not for profit organisation supporting living artists.
Melbourne Art Fair 2010 Vernissage
Preview party Wednesday 4 August
Royal Exhibition Building Melbourne
7 – 10.30pm Tickets AU$175
Bookings essential vernissage@melbourneartfair.com
Tickets
5 – 8 August
Adult AU$25 Concession AU$19 Tickets at door
Collector Packages
Available for purchase prior to the event only, includes: 4 day unlimited exhibition pass, entry to Vernissage, VIP Lounge. Premium Collector Packages AU$375 including the ‘be first’ Exclusive Preview
Collector Packages AU$275
Travel and Accommodation
Special accommodation packages through ACCOR hotels. Phone 1300 65 65 65 quote ‘Melbourne Art Fair’. For online bookings visit www.melbourneartfair.com
Platinum Travel & Cruise can arrange all your travel requirements. Email: jan.lyons@ptc.travel
Tel 61 3 9835 3003 Fax 61 3 9835 3030
Melbourne Art Foundation
Tel 61 3 9416 2050 Fax 61 3 9416 2020 mail@melbourneartfoundation.com www.melbourneartfoundation.com
Major Partners
Partners
Government Partners
Driving east via a string of historic towns including moody Gangi and Sperlinga with its 12th century castle carved from rock, there is another version of a baronial country house outside Nicosia.
Villa Pietralunga (long rock) has the classic central courtyard, a massive barrelvaulted room where wine was once stored and old stables, which now house bedrooms and a dining room (literally in a horse stall) and living room with a welcoming open fire.
Here, too, is another serious chef, Maria, who prepares her own family recipes (I’m still trying to replicate her caponata with pine nuts.) Plus, every morning a gentle man named Salvatore – who looks after the sheep together with sheep dog Lupa – prepares fresh ricotta.
Although Nicosia is thankfully off the tourist trail, it isn’t far away. Outside nearby Piazza Armerina is a 3rd century Roman villa with 4000m 2 of original mosaics, along with Morgantina, a mountain top escalation where we explore the footprints of 6th century BcE courtyard houses.
Nicosia itself is prosperous. Although a labyrinth to drive into, it offers a strange juxtaposition of modern and medieval life with chaotic traffic in cobbled streets. Every Easter, an evening ritual returns it firmly to the Middle
Ages. Taking over the streets is a solemn vigil, where many walk silent and barefoot carrying statues of christ and the Madonna.
Another other-worldly experience in this heartland is the still active volcano, Mount Etna. As you drive east on the road to cesaro, you head into the Nebrodi mountains and it intermittently comes into view. More than 3,300 metres high and generally shrouded in clouds, it seems more sky than earth.
The towns around Mount Etna’s base are built in black volcanic rock and have a sombre beauty. Instead of exploring them, we turn back toward the coast to the charming mountain town of Mistretta, which has a museum showing the amazingly resourceful past lives of Sicilian country people. The palazzo in which the museum is housed is similar to one once owned by the family of Senora Allegra. Although the palazzo is long sold, she and her family have now converted their 17th century oil mill into a home and agriturismo.
Just outside Pettineo and overlooking the coast, casa Migliaca is on a small promontory surrounded by centuries-old olive trees. The family have renovated it with rare respect and the old press wheel is even preserved as a dinner table.
On the day of our visit for an impromptu lunch, two Dutch couples are visiting to help bring in the olive crop and there is a wild wind blowing. After a simple but delicious lunch of salsiccia and fennel, I walk outside. One of the guests is sitting on the terrace in the sun reading while the wind blows about her.
It is one of those photos taken with the mind’s eye. It epitomises why I will come back to Sicily again. Having being at an ancient crossroads of culture for centuries, Sicilians know just how to graciously put us at our ease, feed us well and leave us in peace to savour their beautiful island.
Reflecting the look and character of the past. Reclaimed hardwood and French oak is being used to create truly unique floors. Cut to size, sanded by hand and restored with natural oil to create traditional European patterns. We also offer a wide range of bespoke furniture.
Showroom: 73 Beattie Street, Balmain NSW 2041
Opening 10 - 6 Tues, Wed, Fri, 10 - 8 Thurs, hours: 10 - 2 Sat and Sun
Tel: 61 2 9810 8838
Fax: 61 2 9810 8839
Email: info@antiquefloors.com.au
www.antiquefloors.com.au
style /stail/ noun and verb — n. 1 a kind or sort, esp. in regard to appearance and form. 2 a manner of writing or speaking or performing 3 the distinctive manner of a person
decorate /dekareit/ v.tr. 1 provide with adornments 2 provide (a room or building) with new paint, wallpaper, etc
– ConCise oxford diC tionary
t here is an unspoken hierarchy in intellectual circles (involving those who create spaces for a living) which descends from architect to interior designer, interior decorator and finally to stylist.
often seen as lower-caste cousins, the creative disciplines of styling and decorating have to do with the dressing of finished surfaces and placement of furniture, lighting and objects, while design and architecture involve spatial organisation.
But, as structural modifications often require the costly knowledge of professionals, the process of styling and decorating of one’s home is not only more viable financially, but also an integral fact of everyday life. Walls must be painted, furniture arranged and lamps placed for use in daily activities. t hese decisions, no matter how minor, express a particular aesthetic and way of living. each decision is the result of a combination of stylistic, economic, cultural and social factors, even though for some, these may be subconscious.
Can styling and decorating be considered serious expressions of a creative philosophy? Nicky Lobo takes a theoretical journey into this grey area ( dulux a 215 oyster Linen, to be exact), and brings a few recent books into the discussion.
a rchitecture and design have evolved through periods such as Gothic, Baroque, Georgian, Victorian, a rt nouveau, a rt deco and Post-Modern, each reflecting a social paradigm through specific stylistic elements. i n his 2006 book, The Architecture of happiness, a lain de Botton explains how “Political and ethical ideas can be written on to window frames and door handles”. for Botton, designed objects have the ability to portray a unique, human-like personality, as well as psychological and moral attitudes, in a deeper reading of seemingly inconsequential everyday items.
Moving beyond prescriptive books from the past, contemporary styling and decorating titles offer inspiration more than anything else, with a few tips and tools of the trade thrown in. i mages dominate and are, as expected, beautiful, large and rich enough to evoke the smell and feel of the myriad textures shown.
i n home Love, australian stylist Megan Morton takes the reader through various spaces (kitchen, bathroom etc), different looks (‘t he new romantic’, ‘Post-Modern Psychedelic’), and ideas for more detailed elements such as hanging art, floral arrangements and living with pets. Practical advice is also included, with standard heights and distances for ergonomic living, useful for design-conscious non-professionals. t his particular title is more traditional and specific about ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’, although Morton does promote a very habitus idea that “...beautiful rooms are rarely accidental”.
a lthough shannon fricke offers similar morsels of decorating knowledge in her weighty tome, A Sense of Style: Colour and Space, she begins to venture beyond the aesthetic and into the theory, focusing on the experiential: “We can only begin to form an idea of what we need from our own private spaces when we move through the environments surrounding us with a degree of awareness and connection to them.” Here, we start to understand decoration as a valid interpretation of an individual’s perspective through the selection and placement of objects, lighting and furniture within the home. fricke emphasises the personal, with an invitation to create “spaces that make you feel alive... reflect who you are... provide you with an environment where you can celebrate your individuality”.
...decoration as a valid interpretation of an individual’s perspective through the selection and placement of objects, lighting and furniture...
t his deeper reading of decorating and styling is crucial, recognising that theoretical knowledge that can be gleaned from everyday items. similarly, ian Woodward of the school of social science, University of Queensland, interprets consumer objects through cultural anthropologycoloured glasses in a paper entitled, ‘domestic objects and the taste epiphany’. i n this approach, culture is embedded in everyday elements of the home, and expression of social and emotive factors takes place through these items, where the home is “a site of maintenance of self-identity and self-esteem, family relations and notions of insiders/outsiders”.
sibella Court’s e tcetera takes this idea of self-curation and presents it in a wonderfully textured, visual experience. Court believes “a home is like a museum... t hink of all the stuff you own that has emotional or historical significance, or comes with a memory or tale of where, when and who.” While she also offers her own insights into combinations of hues, haberdashery and hardware, e tcetera reads more like an autobiographical journey of self-discovery.
for Court, as for many others, a home is an on-going journey and environment where you can become “the curator of your own style and creator of beautiful and evocative interiors”. e ducated, confident individuals are no longer content with being told what is ‘in’ or ‘out’. i nstead, they seek out their own inspiration, assured enough to believe that what is right, is what feels right to them.
t his is even more so for creative individuals, who are familiar with the art of expression. francesca Gavin’s Creative Space: urban homes of Artists and Innovators explores the interiors of myriad creative personalities across major global cities. t hrough glimpses of their living spaces and close interviews, this book celebrates “our fascination with interiors [which] reflects a desire to form and define our identity”, communicating a deep connection between what people do, and the spaces they live in.
for many, style is not a frivolous afterthought, but a serious and intrinsic part of who we are, an external manifestation of values, personality and way of life. Like the fashions we wear, the spaces that we live in often evolve over time reflecting the unique experiences and changing beliefs that combine to produce our sense of self.
r eferences
de Botton, a lain The Architecture of happiness: The Secret Art of furnishing your Life (2006) Penguin Books
Woodward, ian “ domestic objects and the taste epiphany: a resource for Consumption Methodology”, in Journal of material Culture, 2001, sage Publications, London, t housand oaks, Ca and new d elhi, Vol. 6(2): 115 – 136
t his deeper reading of decorating and styling is crucial, recognising that theoretical knowledge can be gleaned from everyday items.
habitus magazine is available at newsagents and bookshops across australasia, south-east asia, the Usa, Canada, europe, the Middle e ast and south a merica. habitus is published quarterly in March, June, september and december. to subscribe securely online visit habitusliving.com/magazine, or email subscriptions@indesign.com.au to subscribe or request a full list of locations where habitus magazine is available.
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