COVER STORY
Stars align at Thornton DEBRA BEL A
They are among Australia’s finest artisans of food and the arts and they’ve come together in an Australian first to design 13 inner-city apartments that have front-row seats to the city. Brisbane-based Australian arts patron and gallerist Philip Bacon AM, Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Thierry Galichet, awardwinning architect Liam Proberts and Brisbane’s acclaimed landscape artist Ralph Wilson are turning Kangaroo Point’s prestigious Thornton development into a work of art that can be enjoyed by anyone with a $6 million budget. “Architecture is about the generation of ideas but also being open to ideas from other places,” Bureau Proberts architect Liam Proberts said. “It was refreshing to collaborate with people who had such knowledge in their field. I met with Philip and Thierry and we came up with a concept of how we thought living might occur in such a unique and fantastic location.” Developer John Livingstone of JGL Properties has known Philip Bacon since childhood, when his parents began buying works of art from Bacon’s Fortitude Valley galleries. The idea to collaborate came during a visit to commission art for the foyer. “We talked about Ralph Wilson and then that expanded over many months to art hanging systems and that’s what happens when great people who are good at what they do send you
in new and exciting directions.” Each four-bedroom full-floor apartment, situated on the Kangaroo Point peninsula with views over the city, Story Bridge, City Botanic Gardens and South Bank, features an unprecedented 60 linear metres of wall hanging space, with lighting taken from the Louvre Museum in Paris and the same state-of-the-art hanging system used in museums around the world. Residents can also design the floor so the lift opens to a gallery before you enter the home. “As art dealers, if we find a client is building a house, we always say don’t let the architect put glass everywhere, we want walls for the art,” said Mr Bacon, who was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the visual and performing arts in 1999. “It is sensible really and at the price point that Thornton is in, most people moving there will be coming from big houses and have big collections. Rather than give them to the kids, we like to imagine rehanging them.” There will be no shortage of glass at Thornton when Hutchinson Builders finish the project next year, in fact it will wrap around living spaces like a translucent skin, but Mr Proberts has made sure everything from the width of the hallways to the size of the living room wall can accommodate Mr Bacon’s vision.
regularly and cooking is part of his life you know he’s going to be very clear about the way the kitchen is part of the experience of the living space, rather than just another space,” Mr Proberts said of Thierry Galichet’s involvement. Each apartment will be supported by a three-car garage with recharging bays. The stone-encased foyer is where Ralph Wilson’s commissioned art of the Brisbane River will hang and above this will be the pool deck with a 10-metre heated pool below a soaring cantilevered ceiling. “This project is authentic,” Mr Livingstone said. “Everyone involved in Thornton lives in Brisbane, it’s in their veins, they understand it and they added significant value to the project in terms of their experience and insights. You literally have a front-row seat to the city.” “We really did work hard to make sure the walls are virtually like gallery walls and there is enough space for the hanging of artwork while not diminishing the views.” A focus of the kitchen is an eight metre long galley bench crafted from Noceto Striato stone sourced from the Apuan Alps in Italy. All sink and service amenities have been moved to the back bench to allow the galley bench to focus on final preparation and the communication with guests. “When you’ve got someone who entertains
THE BASICS THORNTON KANGAROO POINT 13 full-floor, north-facing residences on the Kangaroo Point peninsula Developer John Livingstone, JGL Properties Architect Liam Proberts, Bureau Proberts Price From $6 million Location 11 Thornton St, Kangaroo Point Details thorntonkp.com.au
THE ARCHITECT: LIAM PROBERTS Architect and managing director at Bureau Proberts “It’s a confluence, one of the most unique sites on the Kangaroo Point peninsula, looking toward the city and the gardens, so we wanted to bring something emblematic of that site and also living in the 21st Century. This will be a glass building with a sculptural element that allows the northeast breezes to filter through the house. The translucent glass skin to the building is subtly sculpted and a nice addition to the skyline so the building has an identity as you approach the site.”
THE ART CURATOR: PHILIP BACON Australian art dealer, patron and owner of Philip Bacon Galleries “This is unprecedented that there are 60 linear metres of walls (in each apartment) to hang pictures on even things like the lighting which is the most advanced gallery lighting system in the world from a company called ERCO who are based in Germany. All the great museums that I know of around the world and in Australia use ERCO lighting it’s all been thought through, including the hanging system too that we use here at the gallery, so people with even larger collections than 60m will be able to circulate their pictures on the various walls. It will be so easy.”
THE CHEF: THIERRY GALICHET Brisbane chef and owner of La Cache a Vin and Montrachet restaurants “The kitchen is the place where you can communicate with one another and tell stories and exchange recipes and talk about food and travel. It really is the engine of the living space. After designing a lot of kitchens, I came up with the latest design. My input was to make it more practical and friendly to use, the way you can open draws and grab oil and seasoning … a bottle of wine or champagne. Everything will be at your fingertips. If you want people to come and cook for you in your kitchen, you have a separate section where people can come and wash up. The main bench is a masterpiece, whether you’re cooking or come as a guest it will be very rewarding and I think you’ll spend more time in this kitchen than any other room.”
THE ARTIST: RALPH WILSON Brisbane-based landscape painter and photographer “ When Philip Bacon approached me to do this for Thornton, looking at the walls, which are a stone finish and the amount of light available in there, I thought that three very long panoramic images arranged one above the other would work. The subjects would be something in the upper reaches of the Brisbane River, the cliffs which are right around the development and possibly the lower reaches of the river with the shipping areas. So the middle panel with the cliffs of Kangaroo Point, are a wonderful subject because they’re colourful, they’re still in their raw state, they change a lot with the light and then they have their little fringes of hard edges which can compositionally be interesting, and of course underneath it all is the water which just abstracts the shapes around the cliffs. It’s a subject that offers a hell of a lot. I hope I’m up to it.”