Australian Residential Architecture and Design
ISSUE 129
$12.95
HOUSES AWA R D S 2019 Celebrating Australia’s most outstanding houses, gardens and apartments
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At a Glance: Houses Awards 2019
AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
This issue presents the winning, commended and shortlisted projects in the 2019 Houses Awards, celebrating the important contribution that Australia’s architects and designers make to enhancing the way we live.
NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
24 Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill
NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M²
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Bay Guarella House by Peter Stutchbury Architecture
Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N A N D ADDITION UNDER 200 M²
H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² JOINT WINNER
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² JOINT WINNER
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House in Darlinghurst by Tribe Studio
Brisbane Riverbank House by Owen Architecture
Teneriffe House by Vokes and Peters
Supported by
Supported by
Supported by
HOUSES 129
CONTENTS
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C O M M E N D AT I O N S Twenty-eight commendations across nine categories in the 2019 Houses Awards.
A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT
GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
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The Bae Tas by Work by Liz and Alex
Whynot St Pool and Carport by Kieron Gait Architects with Dan Young Landscape Architects
The Garden Bunkie by Reddog Architects
Supported by
Supported by
Supported by
HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T JOINT WINNER
HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T JOINT WINNER
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SHORTLIST One hundred and eighty-one entries 83 and five emerging architecture practices shortlisted across nine categories in the 2019 Houses Awards.
EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
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Balmain Rock by Benn + Penna
House in Darlinghurst by Tribe Studio
Edition Office
Supported by
Supported by
Supported by
CONTENTS
Fiji by Mandalaki Studio
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At a Glance
From the Editor Musings
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Contributors
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La dolce vita Products Design highlights from the 2019 Milan Furniture Fair.
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93 Clement Meadmore: 138 The art of mid-century design Postscript The first major retrospective on the work of designer and sculptor Clement Meadmore makes a convincing argument that industrial design is an artform in its own right.
CO-AP Architects In Profile
Fitzroy Terrace by Taylor Knights
Seed House by Fitzpatrick + Partners
CO-AP’s architecture is enriched by the complementary design approaches of principals Will Fung and Tina Engelen.
Alteration + addition Melbourne, Vic
New house Sydney, NSW
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Oak House by Kennedy Nolan
New Farm Park House by Myers Ellyett
Alteration + addition Melbourne, Vic
Alteration + addition Brisbane, Qld
AT A GLANCE
130 Ooi House by Kerry Hill Architects Revisited An icon of Australian architecture, Ooi House continues to evoke a visceral connection to its surroundings.
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Musings
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Now in its ninth year, the 2019 Houses Awards had more than five hundred entries submitted, with a total of 181 entries and five emerging architecture practices shortlisted. This year’s jury was particularly impressed by the entrants’ emphasis on place and space making, rather than architecture that is typologically or formally driven. Our Australian House of the Year is Daylesford Longhouse in rural Victoria, designed by Partners Hill (page 24). The project is a simple, yet compelling response to a brief that required living quarters, a cooking school and a working farm building. It is a home that focuses our attention on the fundamentals of how we exist, at once embedding us in, and protecting us from, nature. The building presents possibilities for self-sustained living, ever relevant in our changing environment. Congratulations to all those recognized and thank you to our generous Houses Awards supporters – Cult, Artedomus, Asko, Blum, Haymes Paint, the Heritage Councils of Victoria and New South Wales, Maximum, PGH Bricks and Pavers, Sussex and Tractile.
02 Be part of the conversation at the next Our Houses event, where we bring together architects and clients to share the stories behind their houses. At our forthcoming session, hosted in Sydney on 27 August, Owen Architecture and client Davin Lim will discuss Brisbane Riverbank House (pictured) – joint winner of the House Alteration and Addition over 200 m² category in this year’s Houses Awards. Joining them, Welsh and Major Architects and client Kellie Hush, former editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar Australia, will chat about the making of her stylish Sydney home. Photograph: Simon Devitt. designspeaks.com.au
01 Don’t miss out on your chance to explore some of Brisbane’s most interesting homes. Brisbane Open House (12–13 October 2019) is a chance to visit remarkable buildings throughout the city. The event will include tours of D House by Timothy Hill, One Room Tower by Phorm Architecture and Design, and L and T’s Workers Cottage by Nielsen Jenkins (pictured), among a gamut of significant public and privately owned architectural treasures. Photograph: Andy Macpherson. brisbaneopenhouse.com.au
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Gemma Savio and Katelin Butler
03 Write to us at houses@archmedia.com.au Subscribe at architecturemedia.com Find us @housesmagazine
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MUSINGS
03 Join the centenary celebrations for Robin Boyd (1919–1971), one of Australia’s most renowned architects. Robin Boyd: Design Legend, explores some of Boyd’s key design themes and principles through ten of his iconic houses, including the influential House of Tomorrow (1949), Boyd’s own house in Walsh Street in Melbourne’s South Yarra (1958), and the eminent Featherston House (1967–9, pictured). The exhibition of photographs, drawings and film will be presented by Heide Museum of Modern Art from 3 August to 27 October 2019. Photograph: John Gollings. heide.com.au
Follow us for design inspiration
AWSAUSTRALIA
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ARCHITECTURAL WINDOWS AND DOORS BY
Houses Awards Jury 2019 Houses Awards jury (L-R): Rachel Nolan, Katelin Butler, Luigi Rosselli, Lindy Atkin and John Choi. Photograph: Jessica Prince.
Editorial director Katelin Butler Editorial enquiries Katelin Butler T: +61 3 8699 1000 houses@archmedia.com.au
Managing director Ian Close Publisher Sue Harris General manager operations Jacinta Reedy
Associate editor Gemma Savio Assistant content editor Stephanie McGann Editorial team Cassie Hansen Josh Harris Alexa Kempton Mary Mann Lindy Atkin
Rachel Nolan
Lindy Atkin is a co-director of Bark Architects, established with Stephen Guthrie in 1997. As a councillor for the Australian Institute of Architects’ Queensland chapter from 2012 to 2017, Lindy was an active member of the Regional Affairs Committee and was the creative director, with Stephen, for the Institute’s 2016 regional architecture conference, Evoke. Lindy and Stephen have been invited to present numerous lectures in Australia and around the world.
Rachel Nolan is a principal of Kennedy Nolan, established with Patrick Kennedy in Melbourne in 1999. Rachel has been actively involved in the Australian Institute of Architects as a juror for the Victorian chapter and a member of the Institute’s Honours Committee. She has taught a number of design studios at the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Design and is currently a member of the university’s Architecture Advisory Board.
John Choi
Luigi Rosselli
John Choi is a partner of Chrofi. In 2012, John was nominated for the Iakov Chernikhov Prize and in 2014, he was runner-up in the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney, is a member of the New South Wales State Design Review Panel and serves on the board of the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.
Luigi Rosselli is a director of Luigi Rosselli Architects, established in 1985. Luigi’s formative experiences as a student architect included working for Mario Botta in Switzerland and for Romaldo Giurgola, both in New York and in Canberra, where he contributed to the design of Parliament House.
Katelin Butler Katelin is the editorial director at Architecture Media. Prior to this role, she was editor of Houses (2010–2018) and assistant editor of Architecture Australia (2005– 2009). She has coedited three books, published by Thames and Hudson.
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CONTRIBUTORS
Production Simone Wall Design Metrik studiometrik.com General manager sales & digital Michael Pollard Account managers Amy Banks Tash Fisher Lana Golubinsky Victoria Hawthorne
Published by Architecture Media Pty Ltd ACN 008 626 686 Level 6, 163 Eastern Road South Melbourne Vic 3205 Australia T: +61 3 8699 1000 F: +61 3 9696 2617 publisher@archmedia.com.au architecturemedia.com New South Wales office Level 1, 3 Manning Street Potts Point NSW 2011 Australia T: +61 2 9380 7000 F: +61 2 9380 7600 Endorsed by The Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.
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Cover: Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill. Photograph: Rory Gardiner.
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Copyright: HOUSES® is a registered trademark of Architecture Media Pty Ltd. All designs and plans in this publication are copyright and are the property of the architects and designers concerned.
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La dolce vita
Brimming with bold lines and sleek surfaces, the latest furniture, lighting and textiles from the 2019 Milan Furniture Fair are sure to inspire you to indulge in the good life.
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01 Francis table French design house Petite Friture’s distinctive Francis table references colour billowing off the tip of a paintbrush dipped in water. Petite Friture released two versions of the Francis table in Milan, one in black with violet tones and one in white with hues of yellow and green. petitefriture.com
03 Zigzag suspension lamp Australian designer Jason Bird has created a sound-absorbing suspension lamp for Italian manufacturer Panzeri. The lamp is intended to improve acoustic quality in open spaces. The Zigzag lamp’s profile increases its surface area, maximizing acoustic performance. panzeri.it
05 Wireline suspension lamp The Wireline suspension lamp is Formafantasma’s second collaboration with Flos. Hung using a rubber belt, the light is made from a ribbed glass extrusion containing an LED light source. Flos is available from Euroluce. euroluce.com.au
02 Fat Tulip sofa Nau presented its Fat Tulip sofa, designed by Adam Goodrum, at Local Milan – an exhibition featuring the work of forty-four designers from Australia and New Zealand. A modern take on the traditional club chair, the Fat Tulip sofa features strong intersecting curves. cultdesign.com.au
04 Leva chair Designed by Foster and Partners for Mattiazzi, Leva is inspired by the form and materiality of an oar. The sparing use of material is rooted in the idea of sustainability – to do more with less. Mattiazzi chairs are available in Australia through District. district.com.au
06 LA Sunset table LA Sunset, designed by Patricia Urquiola for Glas Italia, was first released in blue. This low table with a tubular metal structure is now available in a specially formulated, copper metallic surface. The laminated glass top blends a palette of colours. spacefurniture.com.au
HOUSES 129
PRODUCTS
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07 Pyramid Scheme lighting collection Melbourne’s Volker Haug Studio debuted its new lighting collection Pyramid Scheme at Local Milan. This series is inspired by the mathematical precision of ancient geometries and includes a wall lamp, ceiling oyster, pendant, chandelier, and table lamp. volkerhaug.com
09 Mito lighting Designed by Tom Fereday for Rakumba, the Mito lighting collection launched at Local Milan. The series presents purposeful and elegant lighting solutions that highlight the natural materials used in each design in a sculptural manner. rakumba.com.au
11 Cortile rug The Milanese atelier Fornasetti presented a range of new creations at the Fornasetti Store in Milan this year, including the Cortile rug. Hand-tufted using New Zealand wool, the Cortile rug depicts images of Italian courtyards in perspective. fornasetti.com
08 Inax bathroom collection Japanese tile manufacturer Inax unveiled two new bathroom collections in Milan, the S600 and S400 lines. The design for the new collections, which include tiles, basins and toilets, was inspired the importance of water in Japanese culture. artedomus.com
10 Sigmund desk Parisian designer Studio Asai has added a sculptural writing desk (pictured) and side tables to its Sigmund collection for Arex. The collection, which features elegant elliptical forms and also includes a day bed, is available in Australia through Poliform. poliformaustralia.com.au
12 Michelle furniture collection The Michelle chair and stool by SP01 is an exercise in pure, architectural geometry. Together they make a subtle statement and when arranged in a group, the repetition of the framed arch backs is reminiscent of classical colonnades. sp01design.com
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PRODUCTS
WINNER 2019 AUSTRALIAN HOUSE OF THE YEAR
D AY L E S F O R D LONGHOUSE BY PA R T N E R S HILL D AY L E S F O R D , V I C
Award for Australian House of the Year is supported by
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DAYLESFORD LONGHOUSE
HOUSES 129
HOUSES AWARDS
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The Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill is more than a remarkable home – it’s also a hardworking farm building, a verdant greenhouse and a new business setup, all within the confines of a 110-metre-long shed. The opportunity to create a generous volume within a singular footprint is cleverly exploited and the timber and brick buildings within the shed form an internal terrain. The contrast between the scale and character of the industrial building and the craft and detail of the internal structures is unexpected yet delightful.The scale of the shed responds to the expansive landscape setting, but once you’re inside, it shifts to the human scale, making it a comfortable space in which to live and work. The shed structure creates a microclimate that protects the productive garden from the harsh climatic conditions and can be opened up completely as weather permits. Standing within the shed’s garden gives you the unusual feeling of being simultaneously outside and inside – you could walk around the internal gardens in socks, but you’re sitting surrounded by mature trees and vines.
At the eastern end of the plan, a modestly sized living quarters is a space to hunker down at the end of the day, where views of the landscape are carefully controlled and proportions are only as big as they need to be. A small “verandah” forms the transitional space between inside the living quarters and the rest of the building. Ladders and stairs lead the way to spots to sit and drink a glass of wine, various forms of guest quarters and storage spaces. There are many ways of being at home in this house. At the Daylesford Longhouse, a simple, yet compelling idea is executed in its purest form and the design intent is palpable at every turn. It is a sanctuary for retreat and seclusion, but can be easily transformed into a place for large groups to explore and enjoy. This home is the Australian House of the Year for the commitment by the architect and client to the design intent, their innovative approach to a relatively complex brief and its joyful collection of architectural expressions. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Architecture Australia July/August 2019.
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Architect Partners Hill +61 7 3608 2868 mail@partnershill.com partnershill.com
HOUSES 129
Project team: Timothy Hill, Domenic Mesiti, Andrew D'Occhio, Michael Hogg, Jonathan Chamberlain Builder: Nick Andrew Construction Engineer: Tim Hall and Associates Landscaping: Partners Hill
HOUSES AWARDS
Photographer Rory Gardiner
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WINNER 2019 NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
B AY G U A R E L L A HOUSE BY PETER STUTCHBURY A R C H IT ECTU R E S O U T H C O A S T, N S W
This house, located on a west-facing slope in a eucalyptus forest with filtered views to Guerilla Bay, is a shared retreat between friends. The project is an exemplary response to the landscape and brief, executed with utility, clarity and rigour. The spatial arrangement is set up by a compact footprint over two floors, rotated to the contours. The rotation opens up the living areas toward the sun and provides three key site connections: an entry court, a balcony at the highest point and a lower court. These set up a diagonal sequence of interior spaces that offer many compelling opportunities to engage with the site, achieved while working to a tight footprint and a disciplined tectonic order. Combined with the operability of the envelope and raw materiality, these design moves encourage visceral, elemental engagement with the place. This house is a distilled work of architecture that provides an extraordinary place to experience the surrounding landscape. From the Houses Awards jury.
Award for New House under 200m² is supported by
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BAY GUARELLA HOUSE
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INAX Mougins mosaic tiles. Thornton Residence by Doherty Design Studio. Photography by Derek Swalwell.
WINNER 2019 NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M²
D AY L E S F O R D LONGHOUSE BY PA R T N E R S HILL D AY L E S F O R D , V I C
Daylesford Longhouse by Partners Hill is an uplifting home that was generated by laterally thinking about a novel and challenging design brief. Although the project is more than 1000 square metres in size, the footprint of the living quarters is only a very small proportion of this space and the majority of the floor area is given over to a leafy, productive garden. The journey through the 110-metre-long shed takes you from the working farm to the cosy living quarters, with layers of mature trees, vines and other plants growing in all the spaces between. Farm properties usually comprise a series of buildings dotted throughout the landscape, with all the various functions separated. Containing all three elements – a home, a commercial cooking school and a working farm building – within the one prefabricated shed structure cleverly removes the need for waterproofing the buildings within. The modular way that the Daylesford Longhouse is pieced together gives the impression that the shed might be extended in the future to contain more garden or accommodation spaces. This project is inventive in every way and would be a delight to inhabit. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Architecture Australia July/August 2019.
Award for New House over 200m² is supported by
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DAYLESFORD LONGHOUSE
HOUSES 129
HOUSES AWARDS
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Architect Partners Hill +61 7 3608 2868 mail@partnershill.com partnershill.com
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Project team: Timothy Hill, Domenic Mesiti, Andrew D'Occhio, Michael Hogg, Jonathan Chamberlain Builder: Nick Andrew Construction Engineer: Tim Hall and Associates Landscaping: Partners Hill
Photographer Rory Gardiner
DAYLESFORD LONGHOUSE
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WINNER 2019
HOUSE IN D AR L I NG H U R ST
H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M²
BY T R I B E ST U D I O S Y D N E Y, N S W
This project saw the transformation of a former electrical substation built in the 1930s, located in what was once a slum and red light district in Darlinghurst. The architect’s modest response to the context involved making a respectful intervention into the existing grungy industrial form. Behind the chiselled exterior is an elegantly sparse, compact, minimal and monochromatic interior. This innovative house becomes a generous home by striving to filter natural light by day and becoming an illuminated glowing lantern by night. A gossamer stair within a narrow chasm connects the four levels of varying heights through an encrusted outer skin to a crisp, black-and-white sequence of functional inner volumes. Diverse patterns are produced through layered filigrees, veils and screens, providing a secure refuge for the occupants. Venetian glass bricks, described by the architect as “a wild extravagance,” are wrapped around the spacious rooftop pool terrace, providing a shiny oasis within the urban collage. The final skyward gesture is the embrace of foliage from the neighbour’s mature gum tree, reminding us that the ambience of a protected and private backyard is possible even in the city. Achieving excellence through the use of a restrained palette, this experimental project is a bold contribution to a challenging environment, with a refreshing depth of thoughtfulness and consideration.
From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 128. Award for House Alteration and Addition under 200 m² is supported by
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HOUSE IN DARLINGHURST
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HOUSES AWARDS
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Architect Tribe Studio +61 2 9211 3211 info@tribestudio.com.au tribestudio.com.au
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Project team: Hannah Tribe, Miriam Green, Jeff Grant Builder: Daniel Girling-Butcher Engineer: SDA Structures
Photographer Katherine Lu
HOUSE IN DARLINGHURST
ASKO Craft Black Steel
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JOINT WINNER 2019 H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M²
BRISBANE R I VE R BAN K HOUSE BY OWE N A RC H I TE CTU RE BRISBANE, QLD
Set atop a gentle knoll on the edge of a riverbank, Brisbane Riverbank House is an addition to an existing home for a car collector who asked for a dwelling that would enable a simple way of living, with spaces for family and friends to enjoy together. The house features two large courtyards that are finely calibrated in response to the site and the levels that organize the plan. The riverside courtyard is a level lawn courtyard with social spaces around it, all of which overlook the river. Diverse living spaces, indoor and outdoor, offer different functions and experiences. The street-side courtyard is a large entry court that is precisely depressed and outlined. It deftly accommodates vehicular movements and storage while offering a quiet integrated setting for the existing house. The design accommodates a significant amount of addition with ease, grace and human scale. It is a masterful balance between traditional elements of the existing 1930s home and a contemporary living landscape that greatly expands life’s possibilities on this suburban site. From the Houses Awards jury.
Award for House Alteration and Addition over 200 m² is supported by
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BRISBANE RIVERBANK HOUSE
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Project team: Paul Owen, Christopher Skinner Builder: Upside Construction Engineer: Westera Partners Landscaping: Dan Young Landscape Architect
BRISBANE RIVERBANK HOUSE
Photographer Simon Devitt
The Colour Library. Vol 12 The latest release from Haymes Paint, Volume 12 – Flow explores the ‘less is more’ approach to colour, the calmer way to colour block. With minimalism now more popular than ever, a monochrome palette offers an approach to design that embraces only the essentials. An imperfect and gentle take on minimalism is achieved using textures and materials breathing life into interiors. For a copy of our latest volume contact Craig Salen, National Commercial Manager on 0409 085 104 or Teresa Watters, Architectural Specification Manager on 0438 614 221. Alternatively email via specifier@haymespaint.com.au
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JOINT WINNER 2019 H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M²
TENERIFFE HOUSE BY VOKES & PETERS BRISBANE, QLD
Delightfully sculptural and elegantly crafted, the striking Teneriffe House responds explicitly and exquisitely to three essential criteria: “response to context,” “experimentation and innovation,” and “house becomes home.” The architect’s response is respectful of the culturally significant 1909 Brisbane house, which was originally designed by AB Wilson. Celebrating the existing pavilion, the stumps have been replaced with a “shadow” of indoor and outdoor rooms. Considered thresholds provide seamless transitions between ground-level living spaces and the garden plane, using inlaid bricks, smooth concrete surfaces and clipped lawn platforms. Experimentation and innovation are expressed through dynamic forms clad in timber shakes, providing a fresh and enigmatic presence to the streetscape. De Chirico-esque off-form concrete arches are reminiscent of internal timber arches upstairs, and differentiation between old and new is achieved by white-painted existing materials balanced with new joinery elements. The house provides a sanctuary for an extended multi-generational family, using intimate contrasting volumes connected by what the architect calls the “stair room,” mediating between house and garden. It’s easy to imagine garden parties here, with guests promenading through the cloister on arrival. Subtropical Brisbane is blessed with a caring addition to its rich timber Queenslander tradition in this sublime contribution to the landscape and fabric of the city.
Award for House Alteration and Addition over 200m² is supported by
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From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 128.
TENERIFFE HOUSE
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Architect Vokes and Peters +61 7 3846 2044 mail@vokesandpeters.com vokesandpeters.com
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Project team: Stuart Vokes, Aaron Peters, Emma Denman, Christopher Skinner Engineer: Greg Killen Landscaping: Vokes and Peters with Martin Brothers
Photographer Christopher Frederick Jones
TENERIFFE HOUSE
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WINNER 2019 A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT
THE B A E TA S BY WORK BY LIZ AND ALEX H O B A R T, TA S
Undeniably an exercise in doing more with less, this conversion of a 1970s twenty-six-square-metre bedsit in Hobart could earn the architects a new title as “space magicians.” Plywood has been used masterfully to create a new volume that makes the most of both the plan and section. There is a place for everything, yet signs of life’s daily routines are discreetly located on the perimeter – these functional elements are both compact and generous. The most powerful aspect of the design is the way the space feels almost gallery-like when all is packed away. Achieving this in less than thirty square metres is a real feat, and is why this project is so deserving of the award. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 125.
Axonometric
Award for Apartment or Unit is supported by
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Project team: Liz Walsh, Alex Nielsen Builder and joiner: Andrew Otto Woodworks Engineer: Aldanmark
Photographer: Sean Fennessy
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WINNER 2019 GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE
WHYNOT ST POOL AND CARPORT BY KIERON GAIT ARCHITECTS WITH DAN YOUNG LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT BRISBANE, QLD
Part building and part archaeological dig, this project is both unexpected and deeply innovative in its approach. There is a lot of construction here: a carport and store, a terrace and pool. The skill of the designers is particularly evident in the fact that the site appears to have been deconstructed to reveal a pre-suburban landscape. The garden is wild and river rocks replace the typical timber deck, turf lawn or hard paving. The street benefits from this cleverly crafted insertion of the ruin/ carport hybrid. The rear private swimming pool holds the sloping site and deals with Australian pool fence regulations in a firm and creative way. The decorative concrete block pool wall evokes memories of Walter Burley Griffin and the natural world and also reads as an effective datum to contemplate the long views to the surrounding hills. This is a poetic solution to the Aussie suburban “must haves.� Award for Garden or Landscape is supported by
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From the Houses Awards jury.
WHYNOT ST POOL AND CARPORT
HOUSES 129
HOUSES AWARDS
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Architect Kieron Gait Architects +61 7 3399 5446 kieron@kierongait.com.au kierongait.com.au
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Project team: Kieron Gait, Anna O’Gorman Landscape designer: Dan Young Landscape Architect Builder: JBS Build Engineer: NJA Consulting Landscaping: Sod Photography: Christopher Frederick Jones
The Designer Solar Roof
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WINNER 2019 S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
THE GARDEN BUNKIE BY REDDOG ARCHITECTS BRISBANE, QLD
After a long deliberation over this year’s commended projects, the jury agreed that The Garden Bunkie by Reddog Architects deserved the Sustainability award. This small building, akin to a granny flat, is called the “bunkie” in reference to the name given to humble Ontario guest cottages. Beautifully detailed and designed, the light-filled building connects intimately to the garden, providing a flexible space that could be a quiet retreat for a new parent, an evening workspace or a guesthouse for extended family. The Garden Bunkie was awarded for its modesty, and for its use of timber and simple materials to produce an affordable outcome that makes both a social and ecological statement. In particular, the jury commended the project team for designing around existing trees and connecting the dwelling to the local landscape, achieving biophilic benefits for the occupants while respecting nature. The use of sliding screens, skylights and well-orientated windows allows the building to gain passive natural light, heating and cooling. This considered collaboration between the architect, structural engineer and builder has resulted in an affordable, adaptable and integrated outcome. From the Houses Awards jury.
Award for Sustainability is supported by
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THE GARDEN BUNKIE
1 Deck 2 Fire pit 3 Multipurpose living 4 Day bed 5 Kitchenette
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HOUSES 129
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Architect Reddog Architects +61 7 3252 8912 email@reddogarchitects.com reddogarchitects.com
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Photographer Christopher Frederick Jones
JOINT WINNER 2019 HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T
BALMAIN ROCK BY BENN + PENNA S Y D N E Y, N S W
Balmain Rock excels for its human scale, and for the warmth and tactile qualities that Benn and Penna Architecture has added to the tiny 1860s sandstone cottage. The additions have been carved off an archetypical gabled shelter volume; light wells and balconies have been sculpted off the solid mass to great effect. The light is soft, and the juxtaposition of new and old materials is magical, paired with the warmth of the old sandstone and sandstock bricks and the calm and robust slate floor and concrete. What is most satisfying is the respect that the additions offer to the original cottage. The new living spaces seem to gaze admiringly toward the old stones and intimate sharing of everyday living occurs around the linking courtyard. There is intergenerational admiration between the cottage and its offspring. The skill, balance and solidity of this project will guarantee an enduring life for this renewed house. From the Houses Awards jury.
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7 Garden 8 Store 9 Carport
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Architect Benn + Penna +61 2 9518 9900 info@bennandpenna.com bennandpenna.com
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Photographer Tom Ferguson
BALMAIN ROCK
Godsell House Š 2018 HIN LIM AIPP | Hin Lim Photography
OUR HERITAGE The Heritage Council of Victoria and the Heritage Council of New South Wales protect and celebrate our diverse heritage. Proudly supporting the 2019 Houses Awards House in a Heritage Context category. Find out more: heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au environment.nsw.gov.au/heritage
Heritage Council of NSW
JOINT WINNER 2019 HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T
HOUSE IN D AR L I NG H U R ST BY T R I B E ST U D I O S Y D N E Y, N S W
House in Darlinghurst by Tribe Studio is a beacon of adaptive reuse. The subtle design shines for its conceptual clarity, and for the coherent reinterpretation of the original electrical substation and its function to provide light and power to the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst. The adaptation of the former substation into a compact three-storey home celebrates light, both natural and artificial, through skilfully detailed brise-soleil, metal screens, light shafts and venetian glass bricks. The hermetic brick structure inherited from the industrial era has been gently and lovingly opened up to relate with a more benign post-industrial Darlinghurst, its trees and the laneways. This pastcentury workhorse building has been sanctified with a sparkling crystal roof extension, serving as a crown or aureole that appears to softly dissolve into the sky. From the Houses Awards jury. For further coverage see Houses 128. Award for House in a Heritage Context is supported by
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HOUSE IN DARLINGHURST
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HOUSES AWARDS
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Architect Tribe Studio +61 2 9211 3211 info@tribestudio.com.au tribestudio.com.au
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Project team: Hannah Tribe, Miriam Green, Jeff Grant Builder: Daniel Girling-Butcher Engineer: SDA Structures
Photographer Katherine Lu
HOUSE IN DARLINGHURST
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WINNER 2019 EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
EDITION OFFICE MELBOURNE, VIC
Founded in 2016 by Aaron Roberts and Kim Bridgland, Edition Office has already made its mark on Australian residential architecture. The practice’s suite of projects embodies an inspiring merging of art and architecture, relating to an exploration of material expression, form and spatial practice. The work has a strong sculptural quality and boldness, and the purity of the deep design thinking is often illustrated in expressive model-making. The poetry of the finished spaces is impressive. Projects such as Hawthorn House (see Houses 128), Point Lonsdale House and Fish Creek House (see Houses 114) use a layering of screens and courtyards to connect inhabitants to the outside world with consideration and thoughtfulness. Whether responding to a suburban context or an impressive landscape setting, Edition Office takes cues from history and climate in order to anchor a building to its site. The jury is keen to see this practice continue to grow and take on larger-scale projects, including some medium-density housing in Melbourne’s innercity suburbs. From the Houses Awards jury.
Award for Emerging Architecture Practice is supported by
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Page 70 Hawthorn House (Vic), 2018. Page 71 Fish Creek House (Vic), 2016. Page 72 Point Lonsdale House (Vic), 2018.
Architect Edition Office +61 2 9979 5030 info@edition-office.com edition-office.com
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Photographer Benjamin Hosking
Impressive kitchen design deserves quality hardware @blumaustralia
INTERGRAIN SHOWCASE
A heritage home extension that will endure the test of time
When EME Design director Luke Middleton was approached to extend a heritage-listed home in Armadale in Melbourne’s south-east, he relished the opportunity. The home’s interiors weren’t fit for living in terms of being functional or accommodating, so the priority was to create an abode that offered comfortable living spaces and efficient planning. Given EME Design’s strong commitment to sustainability, it was also important that the project comply with passive house standards. In conceiving the extension, the designer’s greatest challenge involved optimizing solar access to the home’s south-facing rear and the solution came via the incorporation of an asymmetrical butterfly roof. Striking in its architectural form, the roof pertinently allows the winter sun into the heart of the home, while also providing shade in summer. Within the extension is an open-plan living area, which wraps around a courtyard planted with deciduous trees. The kitchen has been positioned in the threshold space between the existing structure and the new extension, thus reducing “circulation-only” zones and ultimately making the most of the home’s compact footprint. It’s a simple yet robust design that uses low embodied energy materials, which also offer great longevity. Local Australian timbers were the logical choice for the extension’s cladding, as were the carefully selected timber coatings. Intergrain UltraDeck in ‘Natural’ has been used to stunning effect on the varied-width panelling, while the remaining timber elements are coated in Intergrain NaturalStain in ‘Ebony’. “We wanted to use materials that can stand the test of time and we like the idea that a building like this can have a hundred-year lifespan, with timbers that age elegantly over time,” Luke notes. “Using Intergrain products was part of our ‘think local’ environmental strategy as well, because they’re fit for purpose and can withstand the harshest of Australian climates.”
Intergrain finishes have been used to outstanding effect in this award-winning home by Melbourne’s EME Design. Clad in factory-coated timbers that offer style and longevity, the renovated heritage house is an exemplar in sustainable building design.
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The benefits of using factory-coated timber, as opposed to timber coated on site, are also valued by Luke, who favours a coating process that allows the entire material to be finished evenly. “It goes through a soaking stage, which allows the first coat to impregnate the timber,” he explains. “The top coat, like anything, will deteriorate over time, but the impregnated layer means that there’s consistency on all surfaces. I’ve been to the factory and seen the spraying process, and can attest that the timber’s being coated evenly and in accordance to the manufacturer’s specification – this gives me confidence.” Certainly, there’s a quality assurance that comes with factory-coated timber that can’t be matched by on-site coating. Problems can arise when the material is left exposed to the elements for an extended period of time and on-site coating inevitably creates mess – such is the nature of finishing materials in an uncontrolled, outdoor environment. It’s also just another activity on the site and, while a larger area might easily accommodate this, smaller residential sites can’t afford the room. For Luke, moving toward a construction approach that incorporates as many prefabricated elements as possible in order to reduce on-site costs and time simply makes good sense.
Designer: EME Design Builder: Ridge Developments Timber supplier: Precise Timber Innovations Photographs: Amorfo, Luke Middleton
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INTERGRAIN.COM.AU
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01 To EME Design, factory-coated local timbers were the logical choice for the cladding at Passive Butterfly House. 02 Intergrain UltraDeck in ‘Natural’ and NaturalStain in ‘Ebony’ enhance the home’s simple yet robust design. 03 The coatings ensure that the timbers will age elegantly over time.
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For more information: intergrain.com.au timberstudio.com.au
INTERGRAIN SHOWCASE
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NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
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01 Courted House (NSW) by Breakspear Architects. Photograph: Tom Ferguson 02 Princess Street House (Qld) by Owen Architecture. Photograph: Simon Devitt 03 Bellbird Retreat (Qld) by Steendijk. Photograph: Christpher Frederick Jones
NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M²
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04 Hawthorn House (Vic) by Edition Office. Photograph: Benjamin Hosking 05 GB House (NSW) by Renato D’Ettorre Architects. Photograph: Justin Alexander 06 Point Lonsdale House (Vic) by Edition Office. Photograph: Benjamin Hosking 07 Cloister House (WA) by MORQ. Photograph: Givio Aristide 08 Indooroopilly House (Qld) by Owen Architecture and Lineburg Wang. Photograph: Toby Scott
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COMMENDATIONS
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HOUSES 129
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H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M²
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09 Balmain Rock (NSW) by Benn and Penna Architecture. Photograph: Tom Ferguson 10 Fitzroy Terrace (Vic) by Taylor Knights. Photograph: Peter Clarke 11 Winship House (Qld) by Owen Architecture. Photograph: Simon Devitt 12 Stack St (Qld) by Lineburg Wang. Photograph: Toby Scott 13 Jacaranda House (Qld) by SP Studio. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones
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COMMENDATIONS
C O M M E N D AT I O N S 15 14
H O U S E A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² 14 Woollahra House (NSW) by Nobbs Radford Architects. Photograph: Murray Fredericks 15 Light House (NSW) by Neeson Murcutt Architects. Photograph: Brett Boardman 16 Mount Stuart Greenhouse (Tas) by Bence Mulcahy. Photograph: Adam Gibson
A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT 17 Palazzo Marcello (Vic) by Freadman White in collaboration with Anon Studio. Photograph: Gavin Green
16 GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE 18 Daylesford Longhouse (Vic) by Partners Hill. Photograph: Rory Gardiner
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
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19 Harriet House (Qld) by Bligh Graham Architects. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones 20 Brick and Gable House (Vic) by Breathe Architecture. Photograph: Benjamin Hosking 21 Picard (WA) by David Barr Architects in association with Ross Brewin Architect. Photograph: Dion Robeson 22 Bay Guarella House (NSW) by Peter Stutchbury Architecture. Photograph: Michael Nicholson
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C O M M E N D AT I O N S HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E C O N T E X T 23 Woollahra House (NSW) by Nobbs Radford Architects. Photograph: Murray Fredericks 24 The Bank, Vaughan (Vic) by Maria Danos Architecture. Photograph: Trevor Mein 25 Chimney House (NSW) by Arque. Photograph: Tom Ferguson 26 Mount Stuart Greenhouse (Tas) by Bence Mulcahy. Photograph: Adam Gibson
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EMERGING PRACTICE 27 Retallack Thompson. Pictured is Erskineville Creature (NSW). Photograph: Benjamin Hosking 28 Breakspear Architects. Pictured is Courted House (NSW). Photograph: Tom Ferguson
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SHORTLIST NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M²
Ballarat East House Porter Architects
Ballarat House Elridge Anderson
Bay Guarella House Peter Stutchbury Architecture
Bellbird Retreat Steendijk
Caroline House Cera Stribley Architects
Cloud House Akin Atelier
Courted House Breakspear Architects
Dragon Skin House Dunn and Hillam Architects
Hart House Casey Brown Architecture
Hello Houses Sibling Architecture
Oikos @ Breakneck Gorge Robert Nichol and Sons
Princess Street House Owen Architecture
South Cres Arkit
St Andrews Beach House Austin Maynard Architects
The Garden Bunkie Reddog Architects
NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M2
The Tree House Coledale Michael Vail Design
Yandoit Cabin Adam Kane Architects
Ascot Veil Wolveridge Architects
Bayside House Adam Kane Architects
HOUSES 129
Almora House Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects
Blade House Takt Studio
HOUSES AWARDS
Bluff House Rob Kennon Architects
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NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M² CONTINUED
Brighton House Architecture Caisson
Bundeena Beach House Grove Architects
Bundeena House RAA Architects
Canopy House Leeton Pointon Architects and Interiors and Allison Pye Interiors
Castle Cove House Terroir in collaboration with Pascale Gomes-McNabb Design
Cloister House MORQ
Cornerstone House Splinter Society Architecture
Cove House Justin Humphrey Architect
Crescent House Matthew Woodward Architecture
Daylesford Longhouse Partners Hill
Folding Floor House Crosshatch
G B House Renato D’Ettorre Architects
Haverbrack House Emma Tulloch Architects
Hawthorn House Edition Office
House at Otago Bay Topology Studio
House at Prickly Rocks O’Connor and Houle Architecture and Landscapes
Indooroopilly House Owen Architecture and Lineburg Wang
Mermaid Beach Residence B. E. Architecture
Mermaid Multihouse Partners Hill with Hogg and Lamb
Minka Twins Bureau Proberts
NNE House Planned Living Architects
North Curl Curl Residence Andrew Donaldson Architecture and Design
Picard David Barr Architects in association with Ross Brewin Architect
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SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST
Point Lonsdale House Edition Office
Salmon FGR Architects
Sea Deck Tim Ditchfield Architects
Spinnaker House Sparks Architects
Stirling Residence Adam Johnson Design
Sugar Gum House Architects Ink
The Bird Cage Tim Ditchfield Architects
Torquay House Eldridge Anderson
Balmain Rock Benn and Penna Architecture
Camp Hill Cottage Owen Architecture
HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² Woollahra Courtyard House CO-AP
Casa Atrio Biasol
Cascade House Atelier Red and Black
Darling Lane Welsh and Major Architects
Darlinghurst Terrace Tom Mark Henry
Erskineville Creature Retallack Thompson
Fitzroy Terrace Taylor Knights
Freshwater Art House David Boyle Architect
Garden Wall House Make Architecture
Harriet House Bligh Graham Architects
House in Darlinghurst Tribe Studio
Jacaranda House SP Studio
Lansdowne Extension Preston Lane
HOUSES 129
HOUSES AWARDS
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HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² CONTINUED Lilyfield House David Haseler and Angela Rheinlaender
Little Lane Studio Pleysier Perkins
Machiya House Downie North
Naremburn Twin Peaks Benn and Penna Architecture
Page Street House Wellard Architecs
Plaster Fun House Sans-Arc Studio
Powell Street House Robert Simeoni Architects
Spanish Mission House Kennon
Stack St Lineburg Wang
Storybook House Folk Architects
Surfside House Andrew Burges Architects
Tetris Extension Crosshatch
The Bank, Vaughan Maria Danos Architecture
Winship House Owen Architecture
Albert Park Residence Robson Rak
Albert Villa Bureau Proberts
Apollo Bay House Dock4 Architects
Brick and Gable House Breathe Architecture
Brighton Homestead Robson Rak
Brisbane Riverbank House Owen Architecture
HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M²
Ballara Rosstang Architects
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SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² CONTINUED Central Park Road Residence Studiofour
Chimney House Arque
Chloé Templeton Architecture
Corner Store Maison Co and Amanda Lynn Interior Design
Empire Austin Maynard Architects
Extruded House MCK Architects
Five Gardens House David Boyle Architect
Grant House Austin Maynard Architects
Holroyd Foomann Architects
House Burch Those Architects
House in Queens Park Tribe Studio
Jacaranda House MacCormick and Associates Architects
Light House Neeson Murcutt Architects
Manuka Road Morrison and Breytenbach Architects
Mount Stuart Greenhouse Bence Mulcahy
New Farm Cottage Vokes and Peters
New Farm Park House Myers Ellyett
New Modern Bower Architecture and Interiors
Parnell Facade Preston Lane Architects
Redfern Warehouse Ian Moore Architects
Riverview House Scale Architecture
Sunday Street Reddog Architects
Teneriffe House Vokes and Peters
HOUSES 129
HOUSES AWARDS
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HOUSE A LT E R AT I O N AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² CONTINUED Woollahra House Nobbs Radford Architects
Woolwich House TKD Architects
A PA R T M E N T OR UNIT
131 Residences South Yarra Carr
Apartment 301 Milieu
Blackwattle Bay Townhouse Sam Crawford Architects
Bondi Beach Apartment Redgen Mathieson
Camperdown Warehouse Archer Office
Dragon Kite Residence Downie North
Farmer Street MA Architects
Palazzo Marcello Freadman White in collaboration with Anon Studio
Portman Street Terraces CO-AP
Portmanteau Apartment Brad Swartz Architects
Rhodes Apartment Buck and Simple
Salisbury NTF Architecture
Scarborough and Welkin Justin Mallia Architecture
St Kilda Apartment Dan Gayfer Design
The Bae Tas Work by Liz and Alex
Torbreck Apartment Renovation Kin Architects
UKO Stanmore Mostaghim and Associates
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SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE
Cove House Secret Gardens of Sydney
Daylesford Longhouse Partners Hill
Oak 363 Fieldwork Associates / Smart Design Studio
The Eastern Terrace Lisa Ellis Gardens
Whynot St Pool and Carport Kieron Gait Architects and Dan Young Landscape Architect
Yarrbat Garden Neil Architecture
Bay Guarella House Peter Stutchbury Architecture
Biophilia – Slate House Northcote Melbourne Design Studios
Brick and Gable House Breathe Architecture
Bundeena Beach House Grove Architects
Bundeena House RAA Architects
Elemental House Ben Callery Architects
Ferry Road Anderson Architecture
Freshwater Art House David Boyle Architect
Harriet House Bligh Graham Architects
Hart House Casey Brown Architecture
Lilyfield House David Haseler and Angela Rheinlaender
Palmyra II Turner
Picard David Barr Architects in assocition with Ross Brewin Architect
Point Lonsdale House Edition Office
Princess Street House Owen Architecture
Superba Entrance Courtyard Stark Design
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
HOUSES 129
HOUSES AWARDS
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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y CONTINUED
Scarborough and Welkin Justin Mallia Architecture
South Cres Arkit
Spinnaker House Sparks Architects
HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E CONTEXT
The Garden Bunkie Reddog Architects
The Seed House Fitzpatrick and Partners
Ballara Rosstang Architects
Balmain Rock Benn and Penna Architecture
Chimney House Arque
Danmark Point Piper Higginbotham Studio
Erskineville Creature Retallack Thompson
Fitzroy Terrace Taylor Knights
Garden Wall House Make Architecture
House in Darlinghurst Tribe Studio
House with a Tree Room Make Architecture
Jacaranda House MacCormick and Associates Architects
Kew Apartment Sarah Wolfendale Interior Design
Lord Street House 1 Plus 2 Architecture
Mount Stuart Greenhouse Bence Mulcahy
Paddington Terrace Alterations and Additions Supercontext
Pentagon House FMD Architects
Sly Brothers Semi Archisoul Architects
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Albert Villa Bureau Proberts
SHORTLIST
SHORTLIST HOUSE IN A H E R I TA G E CONTEXT CONTINUED
The Former Salter House Jane Cameron Architects and Architect Hewson
South Yarra House AM Architecture
Tetris Extension Crosshatch
Woollahra House Nobbs Radford Architects
Woolwich House TKD Architects
Breakspear Architects Pictured: Courted House
Downie North Pictured: Dragon Kite Residence
The Bank, Vaughan Maria Danos Architecture
EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE
Retallack Thompson Pictured: Erskineville Creature
Edition Office Pictured: Hawthorn House
Supercontext Pictured: Paddington Terrace Alterations and Additions
R E G I S T R AT I O N S F O R T H E 2 0 2 0 HOUSES AWARDS WILL OPEN IN JANUARY 2020. HOUSESAWARDS.COM. AU
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HOUSES AWARDS
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TWO SPECIALISTS. ONE EXTRAORDINARY KITCHEN.
CO-AP IN PROFILE
The distinct yet complementary methods of CO-AP Architects principals Tina Engelen and Will Fung are united in the work by the practice, bridging design generations to make a marked contribution to Australian architecture. Words by David Clark Photography by Ross Honeysett
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Tina Engelen has been a prominent design figure in Sydney for most of her life. Her family founded the Danish Design Centre (Dedece) in Sydney in 1978. She grew up immersed in Scandinavian design culture and remains, along with her two brothers, a director of Dedece. After studying interior design at Sydney College of the Arts, Tina joined Herbert Ypma’s highly influential Interior Design magazine as a feature editor and helped chronicle Australia’s burgeoning local design scene in the 1980s and ‘90s. She formed Daffodil with designers Marc Newson and Danny Venlet, a practice that, though short-lived, created such landmark projects as the Burdekin Bar at the bottom of Sydney’s Oxford Street – their interior for the project long since, and sadly, demolished. By 1995, Tina had co-founded Engelen Moore with architect Ian Moore and was helping to define a new era of Sydney living. Their layered approach to interiors paired with rational architecture struck just the right balance, earning the practice awards and press coverage around the world. An apartment designed by Engelen Moore became a highly desirable commodity, fostering a local market for designdriven residential developments. The firm lasted almost a decade before the partners split. “It was very much a brand and when you’ve got your name on the brand you take it much more seriously,” Tina says of Engelen Moore. “I felt very strongly that it was representing me as a human. So, it was just this fantastic relief to finally go into a quiet little bubble and approach projects quite differently.” The bubble she refers to is CO-AP Architects, a small practice co-founded in 2005 by Charles Markell and Will Fung (who is also an Engelen Moore alumnus), at which Tina is a now a principal. Will, who studied architecture at UNSW Sydney, worked with Tina in the earliest days of Engelen Moore before heading to the Netherlands to spend almost two years working with Wiel
Arets Architects. He had then returned to Sydney, and Engelen Moore, but before long set up his own practice in a small studio in Surry Hills. Having developed a friendship and a collaborative working relationship, Will and Tina began to work on projects together post Engelen Moore. “I need collaboration,” Tina explains. “I’m not a one-woman band and I suppose, because I’m a designer who loves architecture, I like to work with architects.” In CO-AP, the pair saw an opportunity to start afresh and to work in a different way – more quietly and against the idea of architecture as a brand. Engelen Moore bore a strong signature, “a kind of dogma,” says Will. “We have an architectural approach that leads to an aesthetic.” Will and Tina focused on the brief and satisfying the particular needs of each client. They let the work speak for itself. Publishing wasn’t a priority for the pair. “There was no urgency,” Will says. “We were mulling away, gestating, finding out who we were.” It was several years before one of their projects received attention – a house in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Annandale, with an exceptionally long and narrow site. In that scheme, a two-level Victorian terrace at the front of the property is kept intact, while beyond it, a new extension is quite unlike the Sydney terrace house renovation one might expect. A long line of enclosure zigzags down the length of the site, creating triangulated interior spaces and pockets of garden against the backdrop of a six-metre-high neighbouring wall. The unexpected angular geometry of Annandale House (2011) creates dynamic, fluid spaces, both inside and out. There are expanded points in the corridor for kids to play in, for instance, or to accommodate a sofa or dining table, all the while plenty of service and circulation space is
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01 Will Fung and Tina Engelen at the CO-AP studio in Sydney. Photograph: Katherine Lu . 02 The first of CO-AP’s projects to attract public attention was Annandale House, an addition to a narrow terrace in Sydney. 03 The design for Annandale House saw a long zigzagging enclosure added to the rear of the property to create dynamic indoor and outdoor spaces.
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IN PROFILE
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In CO-AP, the pair saw an opportunity to start afresh and to work in a different way – more quietly and against the idea of architecture as a brand.
accommodated in an opposing spine. In places, the folding line of enclosure pulls the structure far enough away from the high northern wall to let in sunlight without sacrificing amenity. It’s a clever piece of planning. Upstairs, one of several bedrooms skews across the plan, taking the private space away from the neighbouring apartments so as to reduce issues of overlooking. Tina and Will, an architectural generation apart, have an easy understanding of one another’s strengths. Tina confesses to being more orthogonal in her thinking and says that Will’s angular shifts go against her natural instincts, but, beyond that first impulse, they create excitement. Will, a generation younger, has honed a clear design signature during years of running his own practice, but says he sometimes feels constrained by his architectural thinking compared to that of Tina, whose design approach is more unfettered. “I like a clear diagram and a clear vision,” says Will. “I always go back to the original principle and sometimes that makes me undercook things. Tina looks at the detail; she’s good at putting herself in the clients’ shoes.” Clearly, there’s a balance, and a lot of trust between the two, that works. At Rooftop Pavilion (2014), atop a heritage apartment building, creases in the architecture transpose emphatically from the plan to the section. The home’s roof – folding, origami-like – is hardworking in its interactions with the highly urban, inner-Sydney setting, dropping to provide privacy and enclosure before rising up to an open sky. The British client hadn’t been inculcated with the more standard Sydney desire to open everything up to the vista. This allowed the designers to instead frame considered views, and to create a greater variety of indoor and outdoor spaces under the canopy of the roof.
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HOUSES 129
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04 Diversity in age and approach among CO-AP’s relatively small team makes for a dynamic studio culture. Photograph: Katherine Lu. 05 Shirking the common design move of capturing expansive vistas, the roof form at Rooftop Pavilion is shaped to frame only select views.
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06 CO-AP’s signature approach to geometry is expressed at Woollahra Courtyard House, where angled skylights are carved into concrete. 07 Sharp modernist detailing throughout Woollahra Courtyard House is indicative of CO-AP’s broader design language. 08 The fenestration at Woollahra Courtyard House responds to the rhythm and form of the neighbourhood’s historic streetscape.
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An earlier project for empty-nesters, Point Piper Apartment (2011), transformed a 1940s three-bedroom apartment by extracting almost all of its internal walls. Non-structural walls were removed to convert the waterfront home into an open, flexible dwelling, with a generous main bedroom and a guestroom primarily for the owners’ visiting grandkids. From every corner, harbour views slice through the plan, which is anchored by the only structural internal wall, containing a fireplace and now reclad in limestone. Will’s distinct approach to geometry is even more pronounced at Woollahra Courtyard House (2018), a new dwelling in a heritage area with close neighbours. Parallelograms, in void and volume, infuse the plan with subtle dynamism. Practically, the skewed bedroom space on the upper level pulls a wall away from a close neighbour in order to provide a bit more breathing space. On the lower levels, angular voids with clerestories add complexity, light and a seductive geometry to the interior without overwhelming it. In the work of CO-AP, materials are often left raw or unadorned. Zinc roofing, corrugated metal, fibre cement sheeting, plywood panels, concrete, blackened or painted steel – each element is clearly expressed with good modernist detailing. There is also a sense of luxury, perhaps most apparent in the studio’s significant renovation to a historic property in Bondi, Moreton Manor (2018, see Houses 125). Here, a monumental bath is carved from a single block of marble and the kitchen encompasses the space once occupied by four large rooms at the core of the original 1850s cottage. Extensions in concrete and steel
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Garage Storage Laundry Cellar Lift motor Entry Living Dining Kitchen Courtyard Bedroom Study Void
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have a volumetric grandness to them that matches the historic property’s stature. Rigorous planning is evident in the arrangement of new spaces, threading deftly through the old. CO-AP has flipped the orientation of the living rooms from south to north, with new indoor and outdoor spaces giving the house the contemporary amenity that a family needs. For a long time, after Charles left CO-AP in 2006, Tina and Will ran the practice as a duo. Now, more than a decade later, the practice is a group of seven with no plans to get much bigger. “I’ve never wanted a big practice,” says Will. The three generations in the office all enjoy the differences between them in thinking and approach, and the ways in which that contributes to a small collaborative studio. An ongoing dialogue about Australian architecture is important to the CO-AP team and continues to inform its path. Tina grew up in Sydney’s Northern Beaches and Will in Canberra, both loci of Australian modernism in unique ways. As Will says, they are definitely looking back “to the late ‘60s and ‘70s, Pettit and Sevitt housing, and the Sydney School.” Both Tina and Will give a huge amount of credence to Michael Dysart, Ken Woolley, Harry Seidler et al. “It was that whole generation who actually focused us on being Australian,” Tina explains. CO-AP’s work represents modernism of a contemporary kind. If it has a signature, it’s not obvious. Like all good architecture, each project is driven by the specifics of the site and the particularities of both the client and brief. The respective backgrounds of Tina and Will fuse into a holistic, assured and sophisticated response to every brief – each new project is a discovery, and an opportunity to quietly get on with their practice. co-ap.com
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09 High-quality materials, such as zinc and marble, are left raw at Moreton Manor – a design decision befitting the significant home. 10 By selectively subtracting internal walls, CO-AP transformed Point Piper Apartment into a flexible threebedroom home.
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CO-AP
Architect: Freadman White
Photographer: Tom Ross
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F I T Z ROY T E R R AC E B Y TAY LO R KNIGHTS
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Within a seemingly typical Victorian terrace house, new shifts in volume and dramatic apertures to the sky create the illusion of impossibly spacious proportions.
Words by Ella Leoncio Photography by Peter Clarke
As is the case with all terrace house alterations, this project presented the age-old design challenge of maximizing space and light on a tight and narrow inner-city block. Efficient planning comes into play, but it is the varied and eventful journey through this house that gives it a greater sense of spaciousness than its physical size would allow. By creating distinct spaces of varying character, architect Taylor Knights has delivered a house that leaves a multifaceted impression on its visitors, creating an illusion of a house much bigger and bolder than its 145-square-metre area might suggest. The alteration to the existing, two-storey Victorian terrace is divided into two distinct zones: the private ground-floor retreat and the open living space above. A roof terrace also sits atop the house. Though portions of it are new, the ground floor retains the enclosed nature of the original house. The main bedroom, located at the rear of the ground floor, is particularly inward looking, with vertical slot windows at either side of the bed the only apertures. It’s perhaps not the space to lounge in the sun, but it’s certainly a space for reclusive rest, with little visual or audible noise. This strategy, to encourage retreat on the ground floor, opened opportunities to exploit space and light on the upper floors. On the first floor, the space immediately takes on a different quality. As you land at an open living space, where daylight is captured from both
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FITZROY TERRACE
01 The varied and unexpected ceiling heights at Fitzroy Terrace result in spatial clarity and delight. Artwork: Brooke Holm.
2 Melbourne, Vic
Alteration + addition
2
Couple
north and south orientations, the shift in light signals that you’ve stepped into the livelier, more social part of the house. Although it is an open living space, Taylor Knights has interrogated the building section to divide the kitchen, dining and lounge spaces into three distinct but connected zones. This is largely achieved through the varied nature of the ceiling. The flat ceiling over the dining area is partly a function of the roof terrace above it, but it also results in an intentionally protected space for dining. The compressive volume here also serves to contrast with the more expansive volumes flanking it. The lounge area sits below a raised and steeply raked ceiling – a form generated to create volume, while protecting the neighbour’s privacy. This space is slightly sunken, the lowered floor enabling city views, which are less visible from the raised dining and kitchen spaces. A broad skylight separates the dining and lounge roof forms, exaggerating the ceiling height in the lounge area while also delineating the spaces. It offers views of the sky and brings daylight to the centre of the plan. At the opposite end of the plan, the roof pops up again, this time as a scooping concrete roof form that sits high above the kitchen. The gesture is bold and confident, and not one we expect to see in projects of this scale. The shuttered concrete surface is particularly expressive in this context, with daylight streaming through the skylight and animating its texture. The graphic profile of the folded-steel stairs, leading to the roof terrace above, creates further contrast against the concrete surface. The owners, as avid entertainers, were keen to see the kitchen as the hero of the house, and in creating this monumental moment the architects have evoked the impression of a home much grander than its size. Despite it being a small-footprint house with no backyard, Fitzroy Terrace still delivers in outdoor space, providing the owners with three diverse outdoor areas. The existing front balcony adjoining a sitting room, offers protected engagement with the street. The first-floor terrace, given its proximity to the living space and its private location, lends itself to everyday use. The roof terrace offers city views and a bit more space, suggesting use as a more social space for entertaining. In parallel with the shifts in volume, are shifts in colour. Taylor Knights was commissioned to select all furniture and artwork for the house. To further define the different zones, each space is colour-blocked. Mauve for the lounge, green for the dining area, blue for the sitting room and so on. Despite the swings and shifts in volume and colour, there are some common threads that tie the project together. The Flemish bond brickwork of the existing party walls are left unlined, acting as a consistently reliable backdrop. Glazing and wall-washing lights are used throughout to express the texture of these walls. The refined detailing and level of finish are also consistent. Finishes are largely smooth and polished, and often make subtle references to the original Victorian house. The Fitzroy Terrace may be relatively compact, but it’s nevertheless bold and confident. Through daring gestures, carefully considered volumes and a potent use of colour, this terrace renovation is a bit like a TARDIS, holding within it a wide scope of spaces and surprising grandeur.
HOUSES 129
ALTERATION + ADDITION
2 Site Floor
128 m² 145 m²
Design 1 y Build 1 y 1 m
Per m² $6,000
Products Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb in Colorbond ‘Surfmist’; Hanson concrete; Foilboard Green insulation; Foamular rigid insulation External walls: Painted Flemish bond brickwork using Paddy’s Bricks recycled bricks Internal walls: Gyprock plasterboard; custom grooved board Windows: Dayview Window Company sashless sliding windows; painted steel windows with shroud and custom steel eaves by Tescher Forge Doors: Painted steel doors with shroud by Tescher Forge; Capral doors; timber doors from Steptoe’s Renovation Supplies Flooring: Tongue n Groove engineered timber in ‘Parquet’ and ‘Grande’ format; Eco Outdoor Endicott crazy paving Lighting: Allied Maker Court II sconce; Flos 265 wall lamp from Euroluce; Great Dane Caché pendant Kitchen: Asko cooktop; Smeg rangehood; Corian benchtop in ‘Glacier White’; black Zimbabwe granite island bench; Corsi and Nicolai Carrara marble splashback; 2-pac joinery by Tescher Forge; Miele fridge, dishwasher and oven; Vintec wine cabinet; Abey Gessi tapware Bathroom: Artedomus honed Elba stone benchtops; custom steel-framed cabinetry by Tescher Forge in George Fethers and Co oak veneer; Signorino terrazzo tile; Inax Biyusai tile from Artedomus Heating and cooling: Heating system from DPP Hydronic Heating External elements: Eco Outdoor Endicott crazy paving; Olde English Tiles floor tiles; Spiralworks staircase Furniture: Custom dining table and perforated steel stairs designed by architect and fabricated by Tescher Forge; Halcyon Lake rugs
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02 The generous skylight delineates the dining room and sunken lounge, while also exaggerating volume within the living area. 03 An expressive, curved concrete light-scoop adds drama to the kitchen. 04 Perforated folded steel stairs lead to a sunny rooftop – one of the home’s three outdoor areas.
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HOUSES 129
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05 Shifts in colour and light levels signify a change in the character and function of rooms. 06 The multifaceted addition is neatly hidden behind the restored Victorian terrace frontage.
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Architect Taylor Knights +61 3 9417 6862 office@taylorknights.com.au taylorknights.com.au
FITZROY TERRACE
Project team: Peter Knights, James Taylor, Julie Sloane Builder: Dimpat Engineer: R. Bliem and Associates Plant selection: Ben Scott Garden Design Landscaping: Mack Landscape Construction Joinery and Steelwork: Tescher Forge Building surveyor: Fotia Group Building Surveyors
SEED HOUSE BY F I T Z PAT R I C K + PART N E R S
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Adding to the architectural legacy of a salubrious Sydney suburb, this home for the architect’s own family is a volumetric study that celebrates the inherent qualities of timber.
Words by Tim Greer Photography by John Gollings
There is something exciting about architects designing their own houses and unsettling the established triumvirate of visionary client, inspired architect and accomplished builder. And where better to practise this rare form of architecture than Castlecrag, on the lower North Shore of Sydney. Once home to Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, who designed their own house there after planning the entire suburb, Castlecrag and its environs has hosted a rollcall of adventurous house-building architects – there are houses designed by Hugh Buhrich, Paul Frischknecht, Donald Maclurcan, and Bill and Ruth Lucas, to name a few, and a Gordon M. Jenkins house that is undergoing a renovation by Peter Tonkin and Ellen Woolley. The Seed House, fashioned by James Fitzpatrick for his family, is the latest addition to the Castlecrag architectural legacy. The house has evolved over the eight years that the Fitzpatrick clan has inhabited the site, so that it is at once a volumetric masterpiece and the family’s perfect fit. Design was followed by two-and-a-half years of meticulous construction. The project evokes beauty, warmth and richness through the crafting of timber. It takes its place alongside a number of recent technically advanced buildings to make use of CLT (crosslaminated timber), demonstrating the material’s
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potential for Australian residential architecture. CLT has been used for the structure of a series of interconnected, cantilevered forms that make up the house. Inside the timber structural shells, there is an exotic array of Tasmanian timbers – celerytop pine, Huon pine and blackwood – sourced and collected over more than a decade, each marking out different areas and uses. James’s Tasmanian roots are reflected in the selection of timbers and in his skill in detailing. These timbers already have rich associations for the Fitzpatricks and are imbued with stories of searching for and finding them, as part of the longterm plan for the house. Defining the bedrooms on the second storey, the celerytop pine was an unintended byproduct of the Tasmanian hydroelectricity scheme. Whole trees found in lake beds that had been flooded decades ago were extracted and left to dry out for two years. The rarer blackwood in the kitchen joinery was similarly found in trees languishing in the flooded lake. Their sale was conditional upon the vendor’s approval that the precious timber was being used in large pieces for prominent and valuable elements, and not milled down into strips. The Huon pine, used mainly as joinery trim, was collected over multiple family visits to Tasmania, the shape of each piece influencing the shape of the finished joinery element.
SEED HOUSE
01 The warmth and richness of crafted timber are celebrated at Seed House, designed by architect James Fitzpatrick for his own family.
4 Sydney, NSW
New house
Family
Neatly fitting under the council recession plane, the house’s interconnected forms were conceived of as seed pods cascading down the hill. Each of these trumpet-shaped forms houses a different social function: there’s the kitchen, dining area, living space and the bedrooms.They stretch the house out into the landscape, their joints open to capture vistas of the distant geographical features of Middle Harbour and Sugarloaf Hill. Between the two main halves of this composition, a slot for a stairway gives access down the contour of the hill and also draws views of rocky outcrops and angophora trees through the centre of the plan. At the heart of the house lies the naturally lit entry hall, with kitchen and stairs at the periphery, and dining and circulation at the centre. The living spaces on the upper level are visually interconnected, while subtle level changes form sills from one space to the next. The central stairway leads from the living room down to the bedrooms, and continues on to the pool terrace. The more enclosed bedrooms and bathrooms are defined by celerytop pine partitions; functional layers such as waterproof lining and shelves are added to these elements in contrasting materials. The spatial configuration of the bedroom level can be modified by reorienting a series of pivoting partitions. The house is further enriched by the many paths through it: a spiral stair at the hill end of the site drills into the ground, and a landscaped stair at the other end faces the view and follows the contour of the hill. A glass lift is another option. The house’s rich timber detailing is wrapped in vertically seamed blackened-aluminium sheet cladding. Black steel window shrouds with deep reveals – along with an abundance of witty modernist details – are balanced by aged vernacular detailing such as the stretched mortar joints, which mirror those seen in the Griffins’ sandstone houses. There is a clear spirit of architectural experimentation in the design of this house – and perhaps here is the crux of how the architect’s own house differs from the house of a client. We can also see the architect’s wit, where Le Corbusier’s conical concrete overflows have been reinterpreted in metal, where Hans Scharoun’s curved balustrade frames have been tweaked to accord with the Australian building codes, and where commercial flush glazing systems have been rescaled, reassigned, and given attitude and grace. All these gestures take their place in an architecture that is clearly residential. This free flow of architectural inventiveness, and the proposition of timber as a timeless and sustainable construction material, make this house a worthy addition to the Castlecrag architectural legacy.
HOUSES 129
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5 Site Floor
Products Roofing: Firestone Building Products EPDM rubber membrane; custom steel rainheads by Gary Christian External walls: Aluminium sheet cladding by the Copper and Zinc Roofing Company; Britton Timbers celery top pine cladding Internal walls: XLam cross-laminated timber structural walls; Britton Timbers and Hydrowood celerytop pine expressed wall studs lining boards; sandstone blocks found on site Windows: Specialty glazing by Facade Innovations Doors: Lockwood Robert Watson Series hardware; L’Officina by Vincenzo steelframed sliding doors; custom celerytop pine internal doors by Strongbuild; custom steel front door by Gary Christian Flooring: Britton Timbers celerytop pine floorboards; German limestone flooring Lighting: Light fittings from Unios Kitchen: Wolf oven and cooktop; Sub-Zero fridge; custom stainless
NEW HOUSE
5,192 m² 706 m²
Design 1 y Build 2 y 6 m
steel benchtops and integrated sinks; Zetr power points and switches; custom kitchen tap by Watermark Designs; Sussex tapware; water filtration system from the Water Shop; custom shelving in Britton Timbers blackwood by Gary Christian; custom Quasair rangehood Bathroom: Sussex Scala tapware; Watermark Designs tapware; custom concrete vanity units by Concrete Benches Australia; Avenir bathroom accessories; Axa toilet from Reece; Stoneface travertine bath; Toole Stainless Steel strip drain; black slate flooring; Cemintel Barestone walls; custom glass shower screens with timber handles Heating and cooling: Isan radiators installed by DPP Hydronic Heating; Cheminées Phillippe fireplaces; motorized roller blinds by Window Furnishing Designs; Daikin air-conditioning External elements: Polished concrete paving, recycled brick paving from The Brick Pit Furniture: Oxchair by Hans J. Wegner from Cult
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1 Entry 2 Electrical 3 Coat locker 4 Store 5 Kitchen 6 Dining 7 Library 8 Living 9 Family room 10 Terrace 11 Roof garden 12 Lift lobby 13 AV room 14 Laundry 15 Bedroom 16 Bath house 17 Plant room 18 Dressing room 19 Outdoor living 20 Pool
02 The living space is one of several volumes, which open to views of rocky outcrops. Artwork: Minnie Pwerle. 03 Skilful detailing in rare Tasmanian timber is beautifully juxtaposed with blackened steel. 04 The home’s series of interconnected, cantilevered forms, conceived as seed pods, cascades down the steeply sloping site.
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Architect Fitzpatrick and Partners +61 2 8274 8200 enquiries@fitzpatrickpartners.com fitzpatrickpartners.com
HOUSES 129
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5m
Project team: James Fitzpatrick, Joseph Rowe Builder: David Campbell Building Engineer: Taylor Thomson Whitting Horticulturalist: Susie Fitzpatrick Landscaping: Manna Landscapes ESD Consultant: LCI Ventilation and insulation consultant: Proctor Group Australia Hydraulic engineer: AJ Whipps Consulting Group CLT design: XLam Facade consultants: Prism Facades Facade Innovations, and L’Officina by Vicenzo
NEW HOUSE
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OAK HOUSE BY KENNEDY NOLAN
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HOUSES 129
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Colour and geometry permeate this bold addition to a double-fronted Victorian terrace house that offers new-found connections to an established oak tree.
Words by Alexandra Brown Photography by Derek Swalwell
The project that would become Oak House was first drawn up in 2013. Anticipating the possibility of a long planning approval process for alterations and additions to their double-fronted Victorian terrace home, the clients began working with Kennedy Nolan well before they would be in a position to start construction on the project. Things moved forward faster than expected and, months later, the drawings were ready but the clients were not. Capitalizing on this protracted design phase, Kennedy Nolan has worked closely with its clients to make a series of bold but thoughtful additions to the existing dwelling that reflect a deep knowledge of existing conditions and sensitivity to changing family dynamics. The house is a careful balance between bold, almost postmodern, geometric forms, and a series of subtle, site-specific gestures and modestly scaled spaces that promote a strong sense of intimacy while maintaining visual connections. Throughout the project, the architects have complemented the warmth of terracotta tiles, Douglas fir cabinetry and red powdercoated aluminium with a number of burnt orange and pink-inflected finishes. Many spaces also manage to incorporate cool grey concrete and splashes of bright blue with apparent ease. The initial design for Oak House established a series of large site moves that continued to underpin the project as it was constructed more than five years later: the north-facing courtyard arrangement, connections to an established oak tree in the centre of the property and the decision to give over the second floor of the house to the clients’ two sons were all there in the original design. At the same time, however, the experience of living in the older terrace house allowed the clients time to get a sense of what its spaces might become and reconsider the details of the design as their young family began to grow up.
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OAK HOUSE
01 The bold geometry at Oak House is balanced by subtle site-specific gestures and modestly scaled spaces that respond to family life.
4 Melbourne, Vic
Alteration + addition
Family
3 + 1 study
A paved courtyard that opens out to the northern winter sun from the kitchen and dining area was initially imagined as a pool where young children could be closely monitored from a number of adjacent rooms within the house. There is still a small pool on the property, but it’s now tucked beside the garage at the rear entrance to the site. While remaining clearly visible from the house, this entertainment area has become a space for older children and more independent modes of play. Meanwhile, freed from the responsibility of holding and securing a space for swimming, the main courtyard brings people together around an outdoor fireplace, framed by a dramatic griddedsteel brise-soleil and the textured brickwork of the neighbouring property. From the courtyard, it is possible to register some of the deceptively complex operations of the beautifully designed brise-soleil. More than just a unifying facade element, the structure protects both the ground and first floor of the project from the summer sun, while allowing the northern winter sun to reach well into the polished concrete slab of the adjoining kitchen and dining area. Maintaining access to ventilation and light across the first-floor bedrooms and day-bed niche, the depth of this finely executed oxidized-red frame also provides a high degree of privacy to these areas. The move toward a more contemplative hearth space within the courtyard at the centre of the home has also shifted the focus of the sitting rooms on either side of this area. While the lounge situated within the existing footprint of the house turns inward through the use of warm, textured curtains, a sunken concrete room at the very centre of the property sits under the eponymous oak, generating striking views up through its extensive canopy. Since the project’s completion in October 2018, this concrete reading room has become a much-loved quiet space, pushed out to the northern boundary of the site and to one side of the everyday circulation paths of the house. It is also a room that sits beyond the bold lines of the granite kitchen table, which often acts as an initial gathering point for guests. In fact, this was another lesson from the process of living within the original space: despite the intimate scale of the terrace house rooms, the clients and their visitors would often find themselves conversing and laughing around the kitchen table. Instead of losing this experience entirely within the new space, the architects allowed the kitchen table to continue to act as an anchor, while also generating a more expansive zone through the middle of the house. A project like Oak House – bold but sensitive, eclectic yet unified – speaks to a considerable level of trust and collaboration between client and architect. In this case, the close relationship built over a number of years has produced an exciting, refined set of spaces, which respond carefully and thoughtfully to the evolving needs of its occupants.
HOUSES 129
ALTERATION + ADDITION
2 Site Floor
550 m² 354 m²
Design 8 m Build 1 y 2 m
Products Roofing: Lysaght Trimdek in Colorbond ‘Night Sky’ External walls: Smooth rendered concrete; Skheme Rosso terracotta tiles; powdercoated aluminium brise-soleil in Colorbond ‘Manor Red’ Internal walls: Painted timber lining boards; Skheme Rosso terracotta tiles Doors: Steel-framed doors in Colorbond ‘Manor Red’ Flooring: Honed concrete flooring with exposed aggregate finish; Tisca Saba carpet from Halcyon Lake; Dalsouple Daltex Pastille Alpha vinyl in ‘Bleu Paon’ Lighting: Artemide Aggregato Saliscendi pendant, Dioscuri wall light and Shogun lamp Kitchen: Custom joinery in Oregon timber and Laminex laminate in ‘Black’; Artedomus Antilia vitrified tiles; De Fazio granite benchtops; Fisher and Paykel dishwasher, fridge and freestanding cooker; Ilve rangehood; Astra Walker tapware Bathroom: Signorino terrazzo; Oregon timber joinery; Astra Walker tapware in ‘Eco Brass’ External elements: Eco Outdoor Endicott cobblestone paving Furniture: Arflex Marenco sofa from Poliform; Mark Tuckey Oxo Scorched coffee table; Thonet Hoffmann dining chairs; Artek Stool 60; Fermob Luxembourg chair from Design Nation; Grazia and Co Anchor side table
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02 The oxidized-red brise-soleil acts as a unifying element along the northern elevation and protects the house from summer sun. 03 A sunken concrete reading room bridges the courtyard and the garden, offering connection between the outdoor spaces. Artwork: Joseph McGlennon. 04 The proportion and bold lines of the bespoke kitchen table anchor social activity in the home.
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HOUSES 129
Entry Study Bedroom Walk-in robe Living Dining Courtyard Kitchen Pantry Reading room Laundry Garden Garage Pool
ALTERATION + ADDITION
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05 Orange and pinkinflected finishes are teamed with pops of bright blue and Douglas fir timber joinery elements.
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06 Sited beneath the armature of the eponymous oak tree, the home captures views to its verdant canopy.
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Architect Kennedy Nolan +61 3 9415 8971 email@kennedynolan.com.au kennedynolan.com.au
OAK HOUSE
Project team: Patrick Kennedy, Rachel Nolan, Victoria Reeves, Michael Macleod, Peter Cole, Adriana Hanna Builder: Weiss Builders Engineer: Webb Consult Landscaping: Amanda Oliver Gardens
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L&T’s Workers Cottage // Architect: Nielsen Jenkins // Image credit: Andy Macpherson
N EW FAR M PAR K HOUS E BY MYERS E L LY E T T
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A choreographed sequence of landscaped gardens enriches the experiential qualities of this addition to a Brisbane home, whose regional sensibility befits its locale.
Words by Michelle Bailey Photography by Cathy Schulser
One of the challenges for architects working with vernacular housing in the subtropical city of Brisbane is finding suitable ways to adapt the Queenslander. Jade Myers and William Ellyett, directors at Brisbane-based architecture studio Myers Ellyett, attempt to bridge the divide between what this historic housing type satisfies and what contemporary living culture demands through their experimentations with courtyard houses. New Farm Park House, their most significant project to date, reconciles opposing types – the 1920s Queenslander pavilion and contemporary courtyard – through the creation of a walled garden. The clients expressed their wants and needs in common terms: they required a new deck and laundry. But the architects were keen to delve deeper and adopt a holistic approach to site intervention that would do justice to the generous 746-square-metre plot opposite New Farm Park. High on the agenda was keeping the historic Queenslander intact and securing longevity for the site by acknowledging potential threats: neighbouring development, intense summer heat and seasonal flood waters. Balancing the functional with the experiential, the architects were committed to addressing the deeper, spiritual needs of the human condition, in order to forge connections with nature and provide a retreat from the outside world. They approached this by engaging with the landscape. “The project is as much about built form as it is about gardens,” William says. New Farm Park House is set around “three courtyards varying in scale, type and level of privacy”. The smallest of these is a planted buffer between street and Queenslander and the largest, a rolling field between contemporary extension and pool pavilion. But primacy is reserved for the central courtyard, which takes seed in the large void carved out of the twostorey pavilion extension. A solitary tropical birch tree rises from its centre, its papery, deciduous leaves casting ever-changing shadows over the pebbled floor and scattered groundcover. The enchanting garden was curated by Myers Ellyett’s long-time collaborator, landscape architect Dan Young, who was influenced by Japanese compositional principles. Dan’s expert knowledge of local climate, soil and species was instrumental in enabling the architects to achieve their ambitions.
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NEW FARM PARK HOUSE
01 The seasonal transformation of the birch tree at New Farm Park House is a focal point in the landscaped garden.
2 Brisbane, Qld
Alteration + addition
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Fortress-like walls protect this fragile inner sanctuary from the outside world. On entry to the house, the sense of “arrival” is suspended until the pathway from the front gate reaches its natural terminus at a raised plinth, halfway down the length of the site. The courtyard garden is then revealed slowly, via the sliding motion of the entry door. The visitor’s gaze is encouraged to focus, firstly on rocky ground, then to be drawn toward the tree, then skywards to the apex of the new roof, before finally resting on the monolithic chimney. The choreography of this sequence is carefully constructed and presents the walled garden as prelude and finale to an unabridged architectural encounter. The experiential opportunities presented by the central garden extend beyond fleeting moments of passage. The courtyard is a living room in its own right, open to the sky and yet protected from the sun by high walls in the morning and evening and by the shade of the tree at midday. It’s the go-to space on summer afternoons when the garden is cast in shadow. In winter, when leaves fall from its branches, the tropical birch tree adopts an entirely different character, becoming “a natural work of art” that remains the visual centrepiece of the garden. As the climatic regulator for the whole house, the courtyard delivers sunlight, breeze and outlook to rooms around its perimeter on both ground and upper floors. In formulating a climate-responsive architecture, Myers Ellyett took inspiration from the modernist traditions of other hot-climate countries, namely Brazil, and in particular the work of Oscar Niemeyer. Echoing a design move mastered by Niemeyer in Das Canoas House, New Farm Park House achieves a “free plan” by means of impressive structural spans of formed concrete supported, in this instance, by slender, concrete-reinforced steel columns. “The free plan allows living rooms to sit seemingly in the gardens, eroding the sense of enclosure and preserving direct sight lines to gardens and light beyond,” Jade says. The concrete floors play another important role, their thermal mass contributing to the regulation of extreme temperatures. In a building that is otherwise influenced considerably by the International Style, the eccentric hipped roof imparts upon the architecture a regional sensibility. In Brisbane, where undulating topography allows suburban landscapes to be viewed at a distance, the recognizable roof form sits comfortably at the city scale. Roof geometry also plays a part in the clever bookending of the site, with a truncated hipped form placed neatly over the pool pavilion at the rear boundary. This project proves that in the same way that architecture might never fully reach its potential without consideration for the landscape it connects or contains, the memorable experiences of landscape rely upon the material and structural commitment of the architecture. New Farm Park House deconstructs the qualities and experiences latent within the historic Queenslander and the adjacent New Farm Park, and reconstructs the two in new ways to make an original and captivating house and garden.
HOUSES 129
ALTERATION + ADDITION
2 Site Floor
746 m² 445 m²
Design 10 m Build 1 y 3 m
Per m² $3,000
Products Roofing: Lysaght Spandek in Colorbond ‘Surfmist’ External walls: Bagged and painted PGH Bricks and Pavers Common bricks; rendered masonry in Dulux Acratex; All Fab Qld metal screens in white powdercoated finish; Hardwood weatherboards in Dulux ‘Vivid White’ Internal walls: PGH Bricks and Pavers Crafted Sandstock bricks in ‘Greenway’; CSR Gyprock plasterboard in Dulux ‘Lexicon Quarter’ Windows: Custom windows by Timberware; Aneeta Windows Two Pane Sashless Double Hung windows Doors: Custom doors by Timberware; Custom metal gates by All Fab Qld Flooring: Honed and polished concrete floor; polished blackbutt floorboards; Ceramiche Keope Percorsi Extra tiles in ‘Pietra di Vals’ from Metro Tiles Lighting: Havit Tivah White Up and Down Wall Pillar Lights; Domus Mini-eye step light; Tovo Kingston recessed downlight; Ledlux Surface dimmable downlight from Beacon Lighting Kitchen: Miele cooktop, oven, rangehood and dishwasher; Ilve teppanyaki cooktop; Abey Piazza double sink; Teknobili Flag tap from Reece Bathroom: Astra Walker basin, Icon mixer and Olde English tapware; Kado Neue freestanding bath, Laufen Pro A toilet and Ram Yeva floor-mounted bath mixer from Reece Heating and cooling: Jetmaster Universal fireplace insert
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02 A concrete ceiling supported by slender white steel columns helps to create a ‘free plan’ in the new living areas. Artwork: Laura Patterson. 03 Echoing the leafiness of adjacent New Farm Park, the home’s interior exhibits a tangible connection to the outdoors.
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04 The historic Queenslander’s qualities are retained throughout, resulting in a captivating house that responds to its local context.
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Gatehouse Garden entry Entry Laundry Pantry Kitchen Dining Living Courtyard garden 10 Lounge 11 Bar 12 Bedroom 13 Store 14 Garage 15 Pool 16 Terrace 17 Family lounge 18 Sitting room 19 Library 20 Study
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Architect Myers Ellyett +61 7 3876 6040 mail@myersellyett.com.au myersellyett.com.au
ALTERATION + ADDITION
Project team: William Ellyett, Jade Myers, Briohny Ellyett, Louise Willey Builder: PJL Projects Engineer: Westera Partners Landscaping: Dan Young Landscape Architect Interiors: Myers Ellyett and Lockhart Interiors
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Ooi House by Kerry Hill Architects
Ooi House by Kerry Hill Architects is a seminal project in Australia’s modern architectural canon. Revisiting the icon more than two decades after its construction leaves the striking impression of a nuanced home inextricably bound to its site.
REVISITED
Words by Brett Mitchell Photography by Peter Bennetts
Can you recall the images of architecture that first left a lasting impression on you? For me, there are three: Magney House by Glenn Murcutt (1984), House in Nipponbashi by Waro Kishi (1992) and Ooi House by Kerry Hill (1997). These modern minimal images persist in my memory despite my own distance from the works. Each project is a specific, highly refined response to constraints and local conditions; but I propose that there is an openness within images of these projects – filled with the viewer’s own imagined experiences – that defies the stasis of their photography. The Ooi House, which is listed on the Australian Institute of Architects’ register of nationally significant architecture, was reportedly never occupied by the commissioning client. For me, family camping trips in and around Margaret River in Western Australia added additional layers to my impressions of the project's architectural image: the cacophony of cicadas clicking in the midday heat, a horizon buckled by ocean swells, and towering forests swaying atop gravelly red clay. When such heady experiences align with specific architectural intent, the architecture, site and experience become charged with new meaning. It is the lived experience of the Ooi House that is critical to understanding the architectural affect of this early but seminal Australian project by Kerry Hill Architects. Hand-drawn sketches in signature blue pencil depict functional aspects of light, view and wind as key concerns, but within the strictly ordered plan there is also spatial delight. The functional north–south living/sleeping arrangement is dissolved by choreographed moments set in motion by the interstitial spaces of the glazed courtyard, sunken reading room and rammed earth hallway. Permutations of space and experience prevent the project from being read singularly as an object in the landscape (for looking at) or a fixed scenographic frame (for looking out of). The plan – as an idea – effortlessly binds the multiplicity of site to building and occupant. The Ooi House contains archetypes and principles found throughout a now-global body of work spanning all scales and types by Kerry Hill Architects; courtyard spaces are but one such motif. The courtyard here, located between the open, pitched pavilion and enclosed private bedrooms, initiates a pinwheeling of space and enables infinite shifts in perspective and alignment. The presence of water creates a still and contemplative space, while views to the sky and out to the forest are mediated by openings in solid earth walls or dissolved by reflections cast onto full-height frameless glass. A dynamic tension between the horizon
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OOI HOUSE
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01 On a treed escarpment above Margaret River, the long, east–west axis of Ooi House captures and amplifies the essence of the place.
HOUSES 129
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and self belies the ordered plan, denying a simplification of experience and/or a fixation on a singular image. In section, the ceiling of the living pavilion rakes skyward toward northern light while providing seasonal shade to the fully glazed living spaces below. This projection of space outward is tempered by the solid and distinct set-down of the adjoining reading room and pond. A further sense of anchoring is provided by the placement of the fireplace into an almost fire pit-like arrangement. The adjacent rammed earth hallway is bookended at its eastern extent by a grid of olive trees, while to the west it steps down to reconnect the house to the natural fall of the land and the wild coastal bush beyond. It is here that a slow flight of stairs secludes the main bedroom to a lower level while maintaining an almost-two-storey interior volume within. To its south, a partially hidden mature tree is revealed through small, carefully positioned windows, encouraging the focused observation of rustling leaves or the texture of bark. The tree’s presence is amplified by the volume of the room, and its reduction to details creates a sense of privacy, enclosure and introspection. Over time the house has changed owners and uses, from a private residence to short-stay accommodation. Homely incursions by belongings and embellishments are apparent – this should not be read as a critique of decorative taste but instead as an opportunity to discuss the robustness of the architecture. Pragmatic compromises are evident; window tinting, shading devices, internal flyscreens and terraced decks have added perceptual barriers to the intense threshold between inside and out. The planting-out of the courtyard and painting of the reading room walls now defines these spaces, evoking a sense of enclosure, in comparison to the lightness of the previously white walls. Likewise, extensive covering of the timber floor with patterned rugs provides protection, but obscures the continuation of material from inside to out, thus redefining the space both visually and as felt underfoot. These additions to surfaces do not negate the power of the underlying architecture, such that the genius loci held by
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02 Reflections of the sky and surrounding forest, cast across frameless glass doors, layer panoramic views to the horizon. 03 Sunken below the level of the living pavilion, the reading room and fireplace hearth sit adjacent to the central courtyard.
HOUSES 129
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both the site and the building is still able to draw one’s gaze, like gravity, to where the river meets the sea. In conversation, the now UK-based owner consistently discussed the architecture by way of experiences and feelings or details of site brought to her attention at the house. It was kindly suggested that during my visit I find a comfortable position to watch the sunset and, with all lights left off, wait for the moon to rise. In the subsequent grey light and shadow of a full moon the house was reduced to the purity of a white-card model. At a position in the centre of the house, connected to all cardinal points, the dwelling’s ability to be both prospect and refuge was reiterated. This home is not a “machine for living” but a place and space for dwelling. While the blue horizon of the Indian Ocean is slowly being concealed from the house by the surrounding bush, the crashing waves are still heard. Unlike many architectural exemplars that have been frozen in time as museums of an idealized architectural value, the Ooi House remains liveable – and memorable – as a nuanced vessel of dynamic space and unfolding experience. When referring back to my original list of iconic projects, I no longer recall them as images, but instead see them as highly considered, experiential architecture that continues to engage with an ongoing present.
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04 At the end of a hallway that follows the fall of the site, an almost double-height bedroom is hunkered into the landscape. 05 Introspective moments are invited by quiet detailing, that creates a visceral sense of calm. 06 Spaces of refuge are garnered between the home's heavy earthen walls and instances of restrained glazing.
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The genius loci held by both the site and the building is still able to draw one’s gaze, like gravity, to where the river meets the sea.
07 Orthogonal windows puncture the western wall, forming a relationship with bordering trees.
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Architect Kerry Hill Architects +61 8 9336 4545 admin_perth@kerryhillarchitects.com kerryhillarchitects.com
OOI HOUSE
Project team: Kerry Hill, Rowena Hockin, Albano Daminato, Robert Allan Builder: Innovest Construction Structural engineer: Scott Smalley Partnership Electrical engineer: CCD Australia Hydraulic consultant: Hutchinson Associates Quantity surveyor: Davis Langdon and Silver
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HOUSES 129
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Clement Meadmore: The art of midcentury design
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The first major retrospective on the oeuvre of one of Australia’s preeminent designers and sculptors, Clement Meadmore: The art of mid-century design, makes a convincing argument that industrial design is an art form in its own right.
EXHIBITION
Words by Philip Goad Photography by Christian Capurro
Clement Meadmore (1929–2005) was one of Australia’s more significant post-war industrial designers and, internationally, the nation’s most successful sculptor. That being the case, it is surprising that the exhibition Clement Meadmore: The art of mid-century design, held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne (20 November 2018 – 24 March 2019), was the first major survey of this brilliant minimalist. In the furniture world, Meadmore needs to be seen alongside other stars such as Grant and Mary Featherston, Gordon Andrews, and émigrés Paul Kafka and Schulim Krimper. But what sets him apart from these designers is the thrilling leanness of his work and the rich diversity of his oeuvre, which includes not just his iconic black-steel rod and cord chairs but also tables, light fittings, complete interiors, fabrics, sculptures, record covers and children’s toys. There is an overriding sense that with every task he set himself, at whatever scale, Meadmore was creating a work of art. In the pursuit of a near-Bauhaus ethos, he asserted that industrial design could be sculpture and vice versa: sculpture might double as “useful” design. This goal (and almost certainly his bitter experience with intellectual property fraud in the mid-1950s) saw him leave Australia in 1963 and head to New York, where he remained for the rest of his life. There, he made his name as one of the world’s leading abstract expressionist sculptors. The Melbourne exhibition, guest-curated by Dean Keep and Jeromie Maver, focused largely on the pre-1963 years. Conceptually, the idea of industrial design as art object drove the curatorial strategy. The Ian Potter Museum’s interiors were strikingly recast in black and white by Alan Pert (Melbourne School of Design) and Dhanika Kumaheri (Parallel Practice). Meadmore’s pieces were placed on white box podiums or planes and housed within the thinnest of steel box frames. Five spaces over
two floors chronologically mapped Meadmore’s career, with fascinating journal and archival material revealing Enid Meadmore’s unwavering dedication to her husband’s practice (including her endless wrapping of sash cord in their Hawthorn workshop). The first room featured works from 1946 through to 1953, when Meadmore left for Europe, working for Terence Conran in London, meeting Gio Ponti in Italy, and getting published in Domus magazine. In this time he became a committed Italophile. The second room highlighted Meadmore’s exquisite Calder-like Calyx light fittings, along with tables and chairs designed after his 1954 return to Australia. Upstairs, the third and largest space focused on his brilliant interiors for the Legend Espresso Cafe and Milk Bar and the Teahouse, complete with giant period photographs and Leonard French’s spectacular seven-panelled mural, The Legend of Sinbad the Sailor (1956, La Trobe University art collection), specially commissioned for the Legend cafe. A fourth space featured a “cloud” of jazz record covers, with music playing and a maquette of one of Meadmore’s outdoor steel sculptures from the 1970s. The fifth and final space included sculpture, furniture, fabric and Meadmore’s designs for Melbourne’s radical Gallery A, where he held a curatorial role from 1959, including his wonderfully experimental children’s toy Rainbow Box (1970), designed for Playpax Toys. If there was ever an argument to transform Keep and Maver’s decade-long research into a stunning book or website, this exhibition made it with the most elegant conviction.
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Clement Meadmore: The art of mid-century design was held from November 2018 to March 2019 at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne.
POSTSCRIPT
01 Designer Clement Meadmore espoused that industrial design could be sculpture and vice versa. 02 The plethora of iconic chairs, tables, light fittings and fabrics exhibited in the collection reflects Clement Meadmore’s prolific career.
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