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DESIGN THAT CELEBRATES THE MOMENT IT’S TIME TO PARTY !

AWARDS PARTY

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Book your tickets to the awards presentation at Two Ton Max in Melbourne on 10 November 2022.

SHORTLIST REVEALED

View the shortlist gallery at eat-drink-design.com

EAT-DRINK-DESIGN.COM

At a Glance

From the

Fresh finds

Products

Let’s go outside

Outdoor products

A collection of outdoor products that are stylish by nature.

Bookshelf 53 Reading

A roundup of new books, ranging from a photographic tribute to the work of Iwan Iwanoff to the first monograph on artist and suburban provocateur Ian Strange.

Retrofit Kit 130 Postscript

This exhibition proposed a “kit” for modifying existing housing stock to meet diverse housing needs.

Working with an Architect Spring Hill House

42

44 One to Watch Pop Architecture

Ryan and Fran engaged Owen Architecture to design a smallfootprint home for their family of five in inner-suburban Brisbane.

First House Southern Highlands House by Benn and Penna Architects

Architect Andrew Benn reflects on his first “real” commission: a one-room studio not much larger than a garden shed.

Formal experimentation and confident material expression underpin the residential designs of this practice.

80 Studio Marta Figueiredo

A Melbourne-based artist uses tactile, expressive forms to explore themes of sustainability and social connection.

122

In Profile

Collective Architects

This Tasmanian studio’s subtle and elegant houses reveal a curiosity about the past, and a commitment to a sustainable future.

Revisited Wright House II by Robin Boyd

Designed in 1962 for two artists, this remarkable Warrandyte home endures as one of Boyd’s most compelling designs.

to

context

to the

being firmly

on the future.

Green House by Steendijk

Alteration + Addition

Qld

by Oscar Sainsbury Architects and Insider Outsider

Alteration + Addition

Island, Vic

Spring Hill House by Owen Architecture

New House Brisbane, Qld

Seagrass House by Welsh and Major

New House Tathra, NSW

Karri Loam by Studio Stooks

New House Margaret River, WA

Bellbird House by Bower Architecture and Interiors

New House Melbourne, Vic

House by Trias

Alteration + Addition Sydney, NSW

Court House by Archier

New House Yackandandah, Vic

Jacaranda House by Architects Ink

New House Adelaide, SA

Musings

Our homes are often woven into our memories of gatherings with friends and family, providing the backdrop to time spent in the company of those we love. Many of us delight in the nostalgia of the smells, the colours and the sounds of our childhood home, our family traditions and the idiosyncrasies that made our home “ours.” Whether it’s a physical home or the intangible idea of feeling “at home,” this is a place of warmth, familiarity and a sense of ease.

In this issue of Houses, we visit a home on Victoria’s Phillip Island that has filled three decades of memories of beachside holidays. The family’s personal ties to this place, and their love for the utility of the original house, designed in the early 1980s by John Baird, has resulted in a purposefully restrained addition by Oscar Sainsbury Architects and Insider Outsider that preserves the ease and informality of life at the beach (page 26).

Memories of past homes have shaped the design of Spring Hill House in Brisbane by Owen Architecture (page 34). Here, the charm of living in small spaces in other cities, and of engaging with their neighbours, propelled the owners to design a home that will be the stage for new memories for their family of five. Make yourself at home, and enjoy reading this issue of Houses.

Alexa Kempton, editor

01 For an immersive experience between art and ocean, visit Australia’s largest free annual sculpture exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea, when it returns to Sydney’s shores. Explore more than 100 artworks by Australian and international sculptors along the iconic Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. This free outdoor exhibition will be on display from 21 October to 7 November 2022.

Artwork: Viewfinder by Joel Adler (2019). Photograph: Henrique Fanti. sculpturebythesea.com

03 Learn about the potential for design to transform our city, our community and our world at Design Canberra 2022. The two-week-long festival program includes more than 200 events, from exhibitions and talks to open studios. A program of house tours offers glimpses inside some of Canberra’s modernist architectural homes. Design Canberra runs from 2 until 20 November 2022. designcanberrafestival.com.au

02 Explore hidden architectural gems at the 2022 Sunshine Coast Open House. Step inside some of the region’s most intriguing buildings and inspiring homes. From 22 to 23 October 2022, the program offers guided tours, workshops, competitions and forums for those eager to learn more about architecture in their local neighbourhood. Image: Family Tree House by Phorm Architecture and Design. Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones. sunshinecoastopenhouse.com.au

04 Watch drawings come into being at Louise Whelan’s exhibition, Portrait of a House. For three years, Whelan documented the construction and evolution of Peter Stutchbury’s Indian Head House at Avalon Beach. Witness the process of making through a poetic trail of memories in Portrait of a House at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum until 16 October 2022.

Photograph: Louise Whelan. magam.com.au

designing better together

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Contributors

Byron Meyer Writer

Byron Meyer is a practising architect working at Narrm /Melbourne-based firm Architecture Architecture. He has previously written extensively for the Robin Boyd Foundation. He also plays guitar in the band Water Signs.

Rebecca Gross Writer

Rebecca Gross writes about architecture and design. She has a master’s degree in the history of decorative arts and design from Parsons School of Design in New York, and is interested in understanding cultural history through the lens of architecture and design. Rebecca writes for Australian magazines, architects, designers and publishers.

Editor Alexa Kempton

Editorial enquiries

Alexa Kempton

T: +61 3 8699 1000 houses@archmedia.com.au

Editorial director

Katelin Butler

Editorial team Georgia Birks Nicci Dodanwela Jude Ellison Cassie Hansen Josh Harris Production

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Georgia Birks Writer

Georgia Birks is an associate editor at Architecture Media. Prior to this role, she practised architecture in Brisbane, assisting in the delivery of a range of projects across Australia. Georgia is also co-curator of the Asia Pacific Architecture Festival and a curator for the Design Speaks series.

Brett Mitchell Writer

Brett Mitchell is a lecturer at Curtin University in the School of Design and the Built Environment. In parallel, he pursues writing, exhibitions and collaborations with other creative practices.

Cover: Paddington House by Trias. Photograph: Clinton Weaver.

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Copyright: HOUSES™ is a 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.

Elemental living

Fresh finds

Sculptural forms, bold patterns and the occasional splash of colour bring a sense of artistry to this selection of new products for the home.

Find more residential products: selector.com and productnews.com.au

01 Joyas en Casa

This tableware collection from Colombian-born designer Natalia Criado draws on the traditions of sculpture, jewellery and industrial design. Joyas en Casa, which translates to “Jewels in the House,” is a riot of delicate, tactile objects, including cutlery, cups, glasses and bowls. nataliacriado.com

03 Quotes curtains and rugs

The Quotes collection from Kvadrat translates the bold, geometric works of Belgian artist Alain Biltereyst into the world of textiles. Quotes rugs and curtains feature patterns that express the underlying geometry of weaving while reflecting on the beauty of the everyday. kvadratmaharam.com

02 Tallow table collection

Part of the debut collection of Chicago-based design studio Refractory, the Tallow table is an exploration of surface erosion and verticality. The cast bronze table comes in a variety of forms, from the petite Tallow Spot Table to the substantial Tallow Occasional Table. refractory.studio

04 Harria vase

Harria is a set of marble vases from Giorgetti, designed by Viviana Maggiolini and Giorgio Bonaguro. The vases have complementary structures so that they intersect to form a single monolithic shape. Each vase contains a removable Pyrex test tube for stems. spacefurniture.com.au

05 Und Messing lighting series

Volker Haug’s Und Messing (“And Brass”) is a lighting series exploring various expressions of brass. The designers jumped straight into prototyping, and the finished pieces are defined by the details that arose from this hands-on approach. Photography: Pier Carthew. volkerhaug.com

08 Alhambra table

Inspired by the Moorish architecture of Granada’s Alhambra palace, this table combines hexagonal, circular and triangular motifs, with legs referencing the palace’s turrets and belltower. Alhambra is available as a coffee table, side table and hall stand. danielboddam.com

06 Harvat mirror

JCP Universe’s Harvat mirror, designed by Damien Gernay, has an irregular, three-dimensional shape, like a drape transforming the viewer’s identity. Inspired by chaos theory, it demonstrates how a tiny change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. jcpuniverse.com

09 Twins light Twins is a light sculpture that explores notions of duality and division. Designed by Italian architect and artist Michele Reginaldi for Firmamento Milano, it features two perfect spheres, at once connected and divided by a coloured plane of glass. firmamentomilano.com

07 Koushi collection

Designed by Kengo Kuma for Salvatori, Koushi is a modular furniture system that builds on Japanese architectural traditions of impermanence, such as the use of shoji dividers. Oak battens connect to form cubes, which can be complemented by fabric and stone elements. salvatoriofficial.com

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12

10 Imi table

Named for the German minimalist artist Imi Knoebel, the Imi collection comprises handmade ceramic side tables that are colourful, shiny and round. The glazes were picked by designer Sebastian Herkner to contribute to a creative atmosphere. pulpoproducts.com

12 Maki chair collection

Melbourne designer Adam Cornish has collaborated with Italian timber furniture manufacturer Cantarutti to create the Maki chair collection. Based on circular economy principles, Maki features warm, tactile plywood elements combined with minimal stacking frames. cantarutti.net

11 Ouranos lighting collection

Crafted in Christopher Boots’s Melbourne studio, Ouranos is a collection of glowing spheres hewn from quartz rock and suspended in brass. Ouranos evokes celestial light, drawing inspiration from the planet Uranus. The collection includes a wall light and pendant. christopherboots.com

13 Simoon

Simoon by Patricia Urquiola is a collection of tables made by UV-bonding 12-mm-thick extra-light glass slabs. The glass surface is coated with a special grit formed of ground Murano glass. Simoon is available in a range of forms in amethyst, light blue and topaz colours. glasitalia.com

STEENDIJK

Striking a balance between old and new, this architect’s own home reinvents the traditional Queenslander with confidence and precision, achieving elegance and openness in a compact plan.

Words by Ashley Paine Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

Located in the inner Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill, Green House is the third project designed by Brian Steendyk to occupy the same section of narrow street –and the second of them that Brian designed for himself. Comprising renovations of traditional Queensland houses, this collection of neighbouring designs reveals the consistency of ideas in Brian’s practice over more than twenty years, including a genuine concern for preserving the suburb’s particular character as one of Brisbane’s oldest residential areas. But Green House also presents a departure: building on the lessons of earlier projects, Brian approached the new house with more willingness – and confidence – to explore bolder, more expressive architecture.

As a result, this modestly scaled home on a two-hundred-square-metre site teems with ideas. Each part is filled with novel design solutions that seek simplicity and sustainability, while each room has its own set of details and custom-designed fittings. It is a full-scale experiment – a veritable testing ground for architecture – in which every piece is rethought from first principles. Concrete blocks are glued together, eliminating the need for mortar, and stainless steel sunshades double as planter boxes to create a green curtain of foliage that filters sunlight. Unsurprisingly, the result doesn’t look like anything else in contemporary Queensland residential architecture. It eschews the notion of style and sits apart from recent Brisbane

designs. What is most impressive about the house, however, is the way in which Brian has brought its complex mix of ideas, spaces and materials together into a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

To no small extent, this unity is achieved through the extensive use of steel – a material that rarely features so prominently in contemporary Queensland houses. Indeed, the presence of steel is notable not only because of the region’s long and romantic association with timber construction, but also because this traditional language has been supplanted in recent decades by a contemporary vernacular in concrete and masonry. But what is interesting about Green House is the way in which steel is employed to reinvent traditional forms, and to reinstate the thinness and lightness that was once so characteristic of architecture in Queensland. In practical terms, steel enables a range of structural and spatial solutions: the two bedrooms and attic spaces in the existing 1890s timber cottage float above the open living areas and bedroom/library on the ground floor, which are unencumbered by structure. Likewise, the corten steel stair appears to hover weightlessly, connecting the lowest levels while maximizing usable space with its slim 10-millimetre-thick walls. A custom-designed spiral stair in even thinner sheet steel provides access to the loft and consumes minimal floor area. As Brian quips, “steel makes magic happen.”

01 Additions unfold around an outdoor room, framed by a soaring steel portal.

02 Open edges create an illusion of expansiveness that belies the home’s modest footprint.

Artwork: Emma Camp.

Green House

built on the

of

and Yuggera

Steel also permits precision, and the components of Green House are designed with millimetre accuracy to make the most of every part of the building and site. This rigour and exactness is typical of Brian’s work, which can often appear like giant pieces of industrial design. Of course, such precision demands care and planning – it is no surprise that this house took three years to complete. It also establishes a strict and rational framework that brings the various new and old parts of the building into a complex whole. But the rigour that underpins the design is not celebrated for its own sake. To the contrary, it is a means to remove or reduce the visual weight and clutter of structure, instead shifting emphasis onto the qualities of the space and the richness of the material palette. Importantly, re-used hardwoods, timber joinery and brass countertops are allowed to maintain their natural variations and patinas. They soften the severity of the steel and glass and contribute to the comfort and character of the interiors – spaces that are warm and easy to live in, not despite the meticulousness of the design, but because of it.

These ideas culminate in the creation of an outdoor room, framed by a soaring steel portal, that protects the living spaces from rain and summer sun while letting winter light deep into the plan. If the notion of an “outdoor room” has become something of a cliché in Queensland real estate, here it is given a unique expression with folded corten plates extended around the garden to contain both sky and landscape. Made from three-millimetre-thick steel sheet, the roof and walls are entirely self-supporting, using folds to eliminate the need for additional structure. Their sculpted surfaces also play in the sunlight, creating patterns of warm orange and dark shadow that draw the eye through the house to the outdoors and extend the perceived boundaries of the interior to the full extent of the site. None of this is by chance. The effects of light on steel, and the reduction of structure to the barest minimum, are calculated experiments executed with care and precision. It is the same exacting approach that has shaped every part of this exemplary project, demonstrating an intensification of spatial ideas and material explorations developed over years. More than this, Steendijk’s Green House is also a demonstration of the inherent potential of the traditional Queensland house itself, and its capacity to be reimagined and remade.

Products

Roofing: Custom Orb in ‘Zincalume’; corten steel

External walls: Corten steel; Austral grey blockwork

Internal walls:Internal Boral grey ironbark cladding with wax finish Windows: Bronzed anodized aluminium framed sliding glass from Alspec; bronze aluminium framed louvres from Breezway Doors: Halliday Baillie door hardware in ‘Bronze’; Lockwood door handles in ‘Satin Chrome’

Flooring: Austral grey blockwork; polished concrete with black aggregate; spiral stair in mild steel with Penetrol coating; main stair in corten Lighting: Aurora pendant from Embassy Living; others from Beacon Lighting Kitchen: Grey ironbark cabinetry;ironbark cabinetry; Bora induction cooktop; Siemens oven and steamer; Astra Walker mixer; brass benchtops

Bathroom: Caroma Titan fittings in ‘Stainless Steel Satin’; floors and walls in Corian ‘Willow’ and ‘Cirrus White’

Heating and cooling:and Haiku ceiling fan from Big Ass Fans; Airfusion Akmani fan from Beacon Lighting External elements: Coral planter from Embassy Living; Bowral Blue bricks from Austral Other: Play tan leather sofa, Dove stool and Cero stool from Embassy Living

03 The main and attic stairs are paired with louvres, drawing air through the house for ventilation.

04 Steel elements minimize structural clutter and reimagine the lightness of the Queenslander.

Sculpture: Gillie and Marc.

05

05 The canopy of the outdoor room provides shade and outlook to the first-floor bedrooms.

06 Greenery tumbles out from planters above the retractable glass doors. Artwork: antique Japanese timber panel.

07 The walled garden extends usable living space out to the boundary. Sculpture: Gillie and Marc.

SAINSBURY ARCHITECTS AND INSIDER OUTSIDER

The rituals of beach life are celebrated in this re-worked Phillip Island holiday home, where new additions have been designed with the same accessible approach to sustainability favoured by the original architect.

Words by Georgia Birks Photography by Rory Gardiner

Everyone has some sort of ritual after returning from the beach. For many, this ritual often involves dusting off sand and taking a quick rinse under the shower to wash off the dried salt from the ocean as we transition out of the elements to refuge. Hollywood, a sensitively updated beach house at Smiths Beach on Phillip Island, honours the unique rituals of each visitor and builds on thirty years of well-loved patterns of living by the coast.

The original house was designed in the early 80s by John Baird, a prominent architect in Melbourne at the time. Baird’s ethos was grounded in resourcefulness and energy efficiency. His designs had an accessible approach to sustainability, which informed his decisions on layout, form and materiality. The original home at Smiths Beach, which has been the holiday home for the Sainsbury family for three decades, was equal parts robust and welcoming, and its bones have stood the test of time. The Sainsburys put Baird’s design to the test over the years, piling in the visitors and surfboards. As the family grew, so did conversations about growing the house. And so it was that Oscar Sainsbury began to work on designs with friend and intermittent collaborator Dave Brodziak of Insider Outsider.

“How do you engage with [a design] that is so resolved and has such a rigorous and uncompromising idea about itself?” Dave asked as a starting point for the design. Oscar and Dave agreed that it wasn’t a

direct idea that drove the selection of materials or the composition of spaces. Instead, it was an evolution of an approach that built on what was useful and efficient –principles that Baird himself would agree with. “If it served a functional purpose then we built on that and [new elements] would complement that,” Oscar says.

On the ground floor, the bathroom and bedrooms remain in their original positions with only a refresh of materials (plywood and vinyl) to ready them for another decade or two of use. One of the most significant changes Oscar and Dave made –and perhaps the most critical – was the reorientation of the stair. By retaining its central position in the home but flipping the point of ascent, they have decluttered foot traffic at entry points, divided personal and public spaces and saved ocean views for gathering spaces on the first floor.

The kitchen, dining and living rooms remain on the first floor and almost mirror Baird’s original layout. These days, it seems unusual for these areas to be elevated, with typical residential briefs seeking to spill living spaces out onto an adjacent lawn or courtyard. But in sticking to their motto of “evolving the functional,” Oscar and Dave have retained these rooms on the upper level, tweaking the layout to increase space and efficiency in many ways. The kitchen and dining areas line the north-eastern edge of the home and host timber windows that are humble

01 New additions emulate the utilitarian form and materiality of the original house.

02 Living spaces are retained on the house’s first floor, maximizing prospect, light and airflow.

03 The original cube-like form gives the house a strong volumetric language, with plenty of spots to dump beach gear.

in scale. These openings are less about views and more about passive design strategies that make the spaces comfortable to occupy. The glazing and louvres flood the home with natural light and catch coastal breezes, while external blinds block the summer heat before it radiates inside.

It’s considerations such as this that demonstrate an approach to sustainability that feels accessible and within reach for most households. “There’s a practical sustainability to [the design].

Rather than trying to do everything in a well-resourced new material, you can make the most of what you’ve got and add to it as you need to,” says Oscar. Around 70 percent of the house’s cladding is existing roughsawn timber that was removed to make way for alterations and additions. Selective areas of new cladding feel poetic as a subtle expression of the continued story of this beach house. New materials such as galvanized steel and iron, plywood and rough-sawn timber are off-the-shelf materials found at any hardware store. This approach ensured multiple efficiencies, reducing costs, wait times and the number of trades required on site. These pragmatic and resourceful design thinking and construction strategies are especially important during an era of unfavourable economic change and accelerating climate crises.

Thirty years of memories at this beach abode, paired with sensitive design and conscious craft, have ensured new additions add value to the house without detracting from its original qualities of robustness and warmth. A contrast to the bland housing stock lining the main road into Phillip Island, Hollywood is honest and humble in nature, an uncomplicated home that revels in its beachside setting. By balancing necessity and nostalgia, the design gives more than it takes. It’s created a home that encourages placemaking – be it in the cubby-like nooks of the bunk beds, the edges of the windowsills or around a table on the terrace. The home embraces individualism, catering to any visitor’s wind-down ritual after a day at the beach. At Hollywood House you can dump the beach gear, wash off the day and be welcomed inside with a warm hug and a hot cup of tea.

Products

Roofing: Half-round steel gutters and Klip-Lok steel sheet by Lysaght in ‘Zincalume’; solarsmart polycarbonate sheet by Suntuff in ‘Opal’

External walls: Rough-sawn board and batten cladding recycled from existing house; shiplap tongue-and-groove cladding by Radial Timber Internal walls: Plywood by Plyco in matt Osmo Polyx-Oil; shiplap tongue-and-groove ceiling linings by Radial Timber Windows: External windows and doors with KDHW frames and argon-filled double glazing; fixed batten sun shading; retractable external blind Flooring: Existing ply sheet ; new plywood and KDHW Lighting: Globes in batten holders; paper-shaded pendants Kitchen: KDHW frame and plywood cupboard joinery; stainless steel pull handles; KDHW and spotted gum decking board benchtop; galvanized steel splashback Bathroom: Wallflex vinyl floors by Armstrong Flooring; wet-area vinyl walls by Altro in ‘Windbreak’; tapware from ABI Interiors in ‘Brushed Nickel’; Vitra WC; Duravit D-Code basin; KDHW timber shelf

05

04 Materials have been reused where possible, including the structural frame, Oregon beams and plywood flooring.

05 A practical bunk room enables a compact home to accommodate extended family.

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SPRING HILL HOUSE

OWEN ARCHITECTURE

A Brisbane family of five disrupts the conventions of the suburban family home, instead pursuing a ‘city change’ that offers a compelling formula for less house, more life.

Words by Kirsty Volz Photography by Toby Scott

The phrase “less is more” was first used by Robert Browning in his poem Andrea del Sarto in 1855, but it rose to prominence in the middle of the twentieth century when it was associated with the minimalist movement in art, literature, music and architecture, becoming particularly synonymous with the work of modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Architect Paul Owen’s design for a super-efficient home in Brisbane’s inner suburbs brings a whole new meaning to “less is more.” What if less house gave you more life? Fewer hours spent commuting means more time with family. A smaller home requires less garden maintenance and has fewer surfaces to clean, leaving you with more energy to pursue the activities you enjoy in life.

The owners of Spring Hill House, Ryan and Fran, moved from a mid-century modern home in a middle-ring Brisbane suburb, The Gap, to downsize in Brisbane’s inner city. They purchased a 160-square-metre block in Spring Hill that was located within walking distance of work and school, and decided to build a new home for themselves and their three teenage children.

Ryan and Fran were initially nervous about approaching Paul, concerned that their small-scale, small-budget proposition would dissuade him. To their delight, however, he accepted the commission. A square-metre rate was established early in the design process and this information was used to drive design decisions. From the outset, Paul knew that the project “had to be the most economical possible, in both materials and construction.”

Much of the efficiency in the Spring Hill house lies in its clever planning. Each space can accommodate multiple functions, with the carport being an excellent example. The ceiling height of this undercroft space is larger than that of a typical carport; it rises to meet the ceiling of the adjacent living spaces so that this expanded volume can facilitate a myriad of activities. Beyond car accommodation, this outdoor room can host gatherings and parties, Ryan uses it to create sculptural artworks, and the kids use it for hanging out. It’s also a perfect spot for playing handball.

Throughout the house, spaces are planned based on activity rather than traditional room layouts. Public living spaces are on the ground floor, while private sleeping, bathing and working spaces are on the first floor. In lieu of a main bedroom, Paul designed spaces for sleeping, studying and getting dressed. Three small but functional bedrooms for the children provide requisite privacy. To overcome any sense of confinement in these rooms, they each have a window that is the entire width of the room. These expansive windows frame an attractive vista from the children’s beds of the sky and neighbourhood vegetation – an unexpected and restorative outlook from an inner-city home.

Thoughtful architectural details maximize feelings of openness in a compact plan. In the children’s bedrooms, the beds float on a datum line expressed by an unusually high skirting board. This simple, cost-effective detail draws the eye and neatly organizes the visual aesthetic of the interior. Ryan and Fran trusted Paul’s expertise with finishes and fixtures for the house. The light fittings, door handles and timber door and window frames elucidate the architect’s touch on this house. The design for kitchen joinery is very functional, and the pantry, which is on display at the entry, is a delightful, shopfront-like proposition to the home. The laundry, efficiently tucked behind the pantry, is perfect for family life. All of the spaces in the house are relatively small, but because they are designed well, they function in a way that improves daily life and are attractive features.

Architectural detailing continues outside. The simple pyramid roof form complements those of the early-twentieth-century cottages that populate Spring Hill, as does the use of lightweight fibre-cement cladding. These cost-effective elements helped keep the project on budget. They were then dressed with architectural details such as timber battens, custom-made gutters and, most notably, an aluminium screen that faces the street. A significant attribute of the architectural intent, this screen is an aperture device, controlling views into the home and out to the neighbourhood. The family can retreat behind the screen for privacy or peer through it to engage with activity on the street.

Behind the screen, a large, street-facing window offers a glimpse of family life unfolding in the kitchen and living room. Fran and Ryan have called this the “Dutch window” in line with a custom they learnt about during their travels in The Netherlands whereby windowsills are elaborately decorated with objects and ornaments for the enjoyment of passers-by. Ryan and Fran have found that their Dutch Window mediates a way to be part of the community and engage with inner-city living.

For Ryan, Fran and their children, the city is their backyard. They borrow greenery from neighbouring gardens and make the most of shared open space in the city. They describe their downsizing journey as “a city change; the opposite of a sea change, the opposite of creating a bigger home.” They have been delighted to find that, through good design, their busy and full family life can be accommodated in a 150-square-metre house.

Products

Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb in ‘Zincalume’

External walls: James Hardie Hardie Flex cladding in Resene ‘Quarter Black White’; custom aluminium screen made by All Fab Queensland

Internal walls: Gyprock plasterboard in Resene ‘Quarter Black White’ Windows and doors: Custom hardwood frames by Timberware

Flooring: Concrete with penetrating clear sealant; blackbutt floorboards

Lighting: Pendant, flex chord and lampholder from Clipsal; Batten holder from Clipsal; wi-fi enabled LED smart lighting from LIFX; Caribou Monaco external spotlight Kitchen: Glazed ceramic tiles from The Tile Mob; carrara marble benchtop from SNB Stone; custom stainless steel benchtop; cabinetry by Elken Kitchens; tapware from Rogerseller; Fisher and Paykel refrigerator, cooktop, oven, dishwasher and rangehood Bathroom: Basins, toilet, shower, shower mixers and towel rails from Rogerseller

Heating and cooling:and Ducted airconditioning

01 The house adopts the form and scale of neighbouring homes, but is set apart by details such as the aluminium screen.

02 The ground floor functions as an open set of rooms to accommodate busy family life.

03 An unconventional shopfront-like pantry is an efficient planning idea.

04 A first-floor living room is a place for retreat, with views over the Spring Hill rooftops.

05 Living spaces are designed as public rooms that engage with life on the street. Artwork: Max Waters.

06 Bedroom windows orient views toward neighbourhood trees, an uncommon vista in the inner suburbs.

07 The carport also functions as an outdoor room, offering flexibility of use. Sculpture: Ryan McDade.

SPRING HILL HOUSE MEET THE OWNERS

WORKING WITH AN ARCHITECT

01 Living spaces foster conviviality in the close-knit family.

02 An aluminium screen permits visual connection between the house and the neighbourhood.

03 The screen obscures views into the house from certain angles, giving a degree of privacy.

Ryan and Fran swapped their large, suburban home for a compact site near the city, and approached local architect Paul Owen with a brief for a small-footprint, small-budget family home. Kirsty Volz spoke to the couple about their downsizing journey and the process of working with an architect.

Photography by Simon Devitt

Kirsty Volz Tell me about yourselves and your downsizing journey.

Ryan The process has been about a city change, the opposite of a sea change. We struggled with our mid-century home on a quarter-acre block for quite a few years. It was too perfect, in a way; it needed to be updated, yet we didn’t want to renovate and change it. Our kids go to school in the city, and commuting from The Gap was becoming a drag. In our new house, we’ve found that good architecture means we can fit everything we need, even on a small site. We’ve got a four-bedroom house with two bathrooms and two living spaces, and we can have two cars. We even have a shed.

Fran Our last house was the biggest property we’d ever lived in, and I think the garden there was one of the driving factors for downsizing.

As much as we loved it, the maintenance would take up hours we didn’t have on the weekends. We were time-poor. We’ve previously lived in tiny, inner-city homes. When we lived in Melbourne, few people in our neighbourhood had a garage, so we interacted with our neighbours when we parked our cars alongside each other on the street, and we loved that.

In Brisbane, people tend to drive their cars into the garage and disappear. We wanted that interaction in this house. I’ve always wanted to live in Spring Hill, although I didn’t think it would be in a new build; I thought it would be in an old cottage. Being close to everything – our work and our children’s schools – that’s freed up hours of my time that would otherwise have been spent driving. The car now has limited use, which is amazing. It’s been life-changing.

KV Did you have any apprehensions about approaching an architect with a small budget?

F One of the first things we said to Paul [Owen] was, laughing, “Our budget is tiny, but please still take us on.” He was so down-to-earth and didn’t blink an eyelid. I think Paul gave us a huge amount of confidence as well. We were absolutely blown away.

R I think Paul loved the challenge of a tight

budget. It was important to him to do something that could meet our budget, and he had the experience and capability to know how we could achieve what we wanted. He’s amazing to work with and works very quickly.

KV What was the inspiration behind the large, street-facing window and the remarkable screen on the facade?

F I love looking at houses and architecture. When travelling through the Netherlands, I was particularly taken by the oversized front windows in houses. They were huge, and they meant you could walk past everybody’s home, peer in and see how they were living and what furniture they might have arranged in the front room. But often, your eyes would be drawn to little objects that they had placed on the windowsill. I liked that this was a way to distract the viewer from looking too far into the house. This idea was part of our very early conversations with Paul. Our street is in the inner city and it is narrow, and we knew we’d have people walking past on their way to and from the local school. The screen means you must stop at a certain angle to look into the house. It gives passers-by the option to look in, like the large Dutch windows, and to choose whether to engage or not.

R The Dutch windows on the canals are very much part of the public domain. They create a shared space, which becomes a democratic space. Our window means we’re on the street and part of the neighbourhood.

KV Can you tell me about the entrance and the undercroft space. How does your family use this area?

R It was intended as a multipurpose space, but it’s probably exceeded our expectations. During the design stage, there was a big decision process about whether we would live upstairs or downstairs. I’m glad Paul persisted in locating the living areas downstairs because there’s so much volume on the ground floor, and we get amazing light.

F The undercroft is incredibly functional. When the shed is open, we use it as a shaded space where we can work and make art. We have Christmas lunch in this space. The other thing we discussed with Paul was ensuring the space can be used by the kids for games such as handball.

KV What advice would you give to someone considering working with an architect?

F The process was incredible to watch. Paul presented us with four different options, and

each one was valid and well resolved. Because of his experience, he was able to develop these schemes within the first few weeks.

R I would say you get out what you put in. Paul was so generous with his time, which allowed us to really participate in the design process. The initial phase was quite intense –we met with him fortnightly for probably two or three months. From there, it came together quickly. The design didn’t change too much from those initial concepts.

KV How did you find working with an architect?

F We’ve always known that working with an architect makes the process of achieving an end goal very easy. There were so many constraints that this house needed to address, and we completed that on a tight budget. It did feel effortless. Paul was on board with getting our kids involved, so we took them on a studio visit. It was very collaborative.

R A major motivation for engaging an architect was the site. It is an inner-city location that needed someone who got the area of Brisbane and who also understood us. I’m really stoked we engaged an architect. It was amazing. I’d do it again – every time. I’d go through the whole process again.

Pop Architecture

Contemporary art is woven through the work of Pop Architecture, but the thread is less about the artworks themselves than the process that underpins them. My conversation with directors Justine Brennan and Katherine Sainsbery veers from the moody mid-1980s suburban streetscapes of Bill Henson to the intricate photorealistic portraits by US artist Chuck Close.

“When we get a new project, we find ourselves looking for art references of that era or a complementary era, rather than looking for architectural precedents,” says Justine.

Based in Fitzroy in Melbourne’s inner north, the practice has been in operation for nearly six years. The sixperson team delivers finely resolved residential projects that are experimental in form and rich in texture and materiality.

The pair came to architecture via different routes. Originally from South Gippsland, Justine grew up in a house of educators and enjoyed the balance of creativity and constraint offered by architecture. In contrast, Katherine says the Sainsbery household was full of conversations about architecture, cities and landscape: her mother had studied town planning, and her father, David Sainsbery, was a director at Architectus for three decades. Today, David lends his expertise to Pop Architecture, acting as consulting senior architect.

The directors’ early career experiences –Katherine at Lyons and Wood Marsh, Justine at Architectus – exposed them to projects of varied scale and scope, and that rigour continues to play out in their work today.

This Melbourne practice is building a suite of finely resolved residential projects that are experimental in form and rich in texture and materiality.

Words by Peter Davies Photography by Willem Dirk du Toit

Their interest in infrastructure and education design subtly shaped the South Yarra House – a singlestorey addition to a double-fronted Edwardian home, with interiors by Beatrix Rowe Interior Design and landscape design by Amanda Oliver Gardens. In this project, a critical intervention was the addition of a large-scale clerestory window at the entry, which floods the interior with light and frames a view of the canopy of a neighbouring eucalypt. “That’s an idea we consider in a lot of our projects, trying to create an arrival space – a bit of that Japanese idea of a genkan, where it’s part mud room, part entry,” Katherine says.

At the rear, a corbelled brick form rises up to a roof terrace. The almost-civic juxtaposition of monolithic brick with slimline steel window frames and balustrade brings a delicate balance to the rear elevation. “We often use the finer elements to take the edge off some of those stronger, more brutal moves,” Justine explains.

Formal experimentation is evident in the Fallow House, too. Located in Melbourne’s south-east, it exemplifies many of the techniques the practice uses to break down mass, exploring twin themes of texture and proportion. Pop Architecture collaborated with Karyne Murphy Studio for the interiors, while the landscape design was by Amanda Oliver Gardens.

The Fallow House facade is a delicate composition of planes, finished in vertical fluted stone tiles. “It’s expressed in a vertical composition, and the grout colour changes horizontally so you read it as full-height panels of stone,”

Angular

in

House

South Yarra House

Beatrix

Interior

monolithic masonry

with

steel

window

House.

Katherine says. “The fluting is beautiful in sunlight – you get this ribbed effect, and it contrasts with the plinth below.”

“The thing that we love about bricks is that you can have a big monolithic surface, but it has a lot of depth and texture, and the way that light can play off it gives a lot of variation,” Justine adds.

Materiality also underpinned the practice’s deft reinvigoration of the Ivanhoe East House. Perched on high ground above Yarra Flats in Melbourne’s leafy inner north-east, the house was originally designed by Hipwell, Weight and Mason circa 1960.

The Pop Architecture team studied the home’s original plans, which featured in Neil Clerehan’s Best Australian Houses in 1961. One element that had not survived the intervening six decades was the concertina screens that enabled the living spaces to be reconfigured. “We introduced sliding panels that were part translucent glazing and part woven cane, which was an original material repeated throughout the house,” Katherine says.

The team prioritized materials that were consistent with the original palette, or playful additions that you could imagine might have existed at the time, such as bright blue taps in the bathroom and Coco Flip pendant lights, which shared the home’s modernist aesthetic.

“There’s so much good stuff in those original Australian modernist homes,” Katherine says. “The functionality of the plan is amazing, the view lines, the natural light – I hope our houses are like that.” poparchitecture.com.au

05 At Ivanhoe East House, careful alterations celebrate the home’s modernist heritage.

06 Pop Architecture introduced glass and cane sliding panels in tribute to an original design feature that had been lost.

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From bricks inspired by coastal storms to immersive outdoor baths, these products are designed to be stylish by nature.

Find more residential products: selector.com and productnews.com.au

01 Hopper picnic table

Belgian designer Dirk Wynants has given the traditional picnic table more leg space. Hopper has slanted legs and tabletop edges – a clear reference to the hop poles characteristic of the Westhoek region. The tabletop doubles as a backrest when the user turns around. livingedge.com.au

03 Joe outdoor sofa

This signature sofa range has been reimagined in an outdoor design that’s made to last with quick-dry foam scatter cushions, water-repellent fabric and a 50+ UPF rating. Comfort is essential for indoor and outdoor living, and the Outdoor Joe range delivers it. mcmhouse.com

02 Follow Me outdoor light

Follow Me, designed by Inma Bermúdez for Marset, is a portable and rechargeable lamp series featuring timber handles, a durable shade and a three-position dimmer. Practical and beautiful, it can provide up to 20 hours of light per charge. robertplumb.com.au

04 8 Side Table by Bentu

A celebration of vibrant terrazzo material, the 8 Side Table, designed by Bentu, is both beautiful and robust. The table’s minimal forms and graceful geometry are underpinned by a simple connection between top and base. Made from up to 50 percent recycled waste stone. remodern.com.au

05 Agape In-Out

Recasting modern classics, Agape takes its designs outdoors, immersing daily bathing and washing rituals in nature. The range includes outdoor-friendly versions of iconic pieces designed in-house and by renowned, award-winning international designers. artedomus.com

Pablo Outdoor for B&B Italia

Infused with Vincent Van Duysen’s signature mix of sophisticated design and restrained aesthetics, the Pablo outdoor seating collection offers uncommon elegance. A teak frame, generously sized seat and loose back cushion balance a strong profile with relaxed comfort. spacefurniture.com.au

06 FS3 freestanding shower

Vola’s FS3 freestanding thermostatic shower is the ultimate minimalist statement. Featuring a built-in hand shower, the FS3 is available in a range of colours, including a marine grade, highquality brushed stainless steel that is suitable for outdoor applications. en.vola.com

Gubi Pacha outdoor lounge chair

In 1975, legendary French designer Pierre Paulin created the Pacha lounge chair as part of a vigorous new approach to style. Pacha looks just as contemporary now as when it was created: an honest, functional piece that brings life and character to any exterior setting. cultdesign.com.au

Archetype

Crafted from Australian clay, the Archetype brick range harnesses a colour palette inspired by nature, from dappled sunlight to coastal storms and expansive skyscapes. The bricks’ cool, frosted appearance subtly differs as the kiln-firing process renders each piece unique. brickworks.com.au

10 Xylem

A modular planting and seating system designed by Adam Goodrum for Tait, Xylem draws on biophilic design principles by ensuring access to fresh air, natural light, plants and nature-inspired spaces. The design can be arranged to form endless configurations. madebytait.com.au

12 Articolo Outdoor collection

Lighting studio Articolo’s debut collection of exterior luminaires elevates outdoor lighting artisanship and design. Complementing Articolo’s library of interior fixtures, the outdoor range comprises eight designs that offer illumination, shadow play and beauty. articololighting.com

11 Sika Design exterior collection

Crafting handmade wicker furniture since 1940, Sika Design migrates outdoors with a diverse range of cult favourites that have been treated to weather the elements. Every maintenance-free piece is hand-painted to match the natural fibre of Sika’s rattan interior collections. domo.com.au

13 Tia sun lounger

The Tia sun lounger, part of an outdoor collection designed by Antonino Sciortino for Baxter, makes for an elegant, streamlined spot to laze in the sun. Tia features a frame of black-varnished steel and can be upholstered in a range of outdoor fabrics. spacefurniture.com.au

THE POWER OF 7 IN 1 A WHOLE SUITE OF COOKING TOOLS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Explore

Bookshelf

Words by Josh Harris

01

01 Disturbed Home by Ian Strange (Damiani, 2022)

Ian Strange is an architectural vandal, a provocateur who burns down condemned suburban houses, paints lurid targets on them, cuts into them, or covers them all in black. The Australian artist has spent the past 15 years using the suburban home as a medium to question how we live, and to probe how economic and environmental forces press in on the suburban idyll. His subjects include gentrification and urban decay, surveillance and isolationism, the USA’s subprime mortgage crisis, and the 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Disturbed Home, the first monograph to bring together Strange’s architectural interventions, features photographs and film stills, preparatory drawings and installation views. There are also two scholarly essays ruminating on the process and impact of Strange’s work. Britt Salvesen delves into the history of houses-as-art and considers Strange’s engagement with (and subversion of ) suburban clichés. Kevin Moore traces Strange’s career from tagger in suburban Perth to international conceptual artist, describing how his tampering with private abodes exploits the “unsanctioned intrusion” of graffiti to distort and disturb conventional attitudes about the meaning of home. Disturbed Home conveys the poignancy and urgency of Strange’s work.

02 Reclaimed: New homes from old materials by Penny Craswell (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2022)

Penny Craswell’s latest coffee table book isn’t just about enviable interiors and eye-catching design – it also has an agenda. Craswell calls on designers and prospective home builders to consider the environmental impact of their build and embrace reclaimed and recycled materials. Focusing on four key materials – brick, timber, metal and reconstituted waste – Reclaimed features 24 homes from around the world that employ re-used materials. At Studio Bright’s 8 Yard House in Melbourne, reclaimed bricks give a new home on an old street a welcome sense of history. At Matt Elkan Architect’s Smash Repair House in Sydney, recycled timber is used for windows and doors, and throughout the interiors. Elkan explains that recycled timber has advantages beyond sustainability: “Older hardwood is usually much more stable than freshly cut timber due to its much lower moisture content.” And for his own home in South London, architect Matt Barnes of CAN made use of a slightly less traditional material: plastic. The bright, po-mo kitchen features alternating blue and grey benches made from old plastic chopping boards and bottle tops. Hopefully, Reclaimed will inspire others to build a house using something that might otherwise end up in the tip.

03

03 Catching Light: The architecture of Iwan Iwanoff –

Through the lens of Jack Lovel (Designed by Studio Baker, 2021)

If Sydney is synonymous with Harry Seidler, Melbourne with Robin Boyd and Canberra with the Griffins, then Perth is the city of Iwan Iwanoff. The Bulgarian-born, Europeantrained architect emigrated to the Western Australian capital in 1950, where he would develop his unique modernist architecture over a 30-year career, helping to shape the suburban landscape and the city’s nascent design culture. This new book of photography from Jack Lovel, who grew up in Iwanoff’s Jordanoff House (1954), lovingly captures some of the architect’s best-preserved works – mainly houses scattered across Perth’s northern suburbs, along with the Northam Library and Administrative Offices (1974), a rare foray by Iwanoff into public architecture. As Stuart Harrison writes in the introduction to Catching Light, Lovel’s photographs capture the progression of Iwanoff’s work from “straightdown-the line 1950s modernism” to the sculptural, expressive concrete blockwork designs that characterized his later work. Realized in full colour, in contrast to the book’s moody cover image, Lovel’s photos are filled with the bright, harsh light that Iwanoff’s architecture used so effectively, “catching it on the outside and playing with it.”

04 The New Queensland House by Cameron Bruhn and Katelin Butler (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2022)

Taking Queensland as its setting and the architect-designed home as its subject, this book tells the latest chapter in the story of the sun-drenched state’s architecture. Picking up on the various threads that make up Queensland’s bespoke regionalism – timber-and-tin weatherboards, mid-century experiments in modernism and a splash of postmodernism – The New Queensland House describes a contemporary architectural atmosphere that has embraced the landscape and the climate. Cameron Bruhn and Katelin Butler (former and current editorial directors of Architecture Media, publisher of Houses) present 28 houses that exemplify the contemporary architectural condition. La Scala by Richards and Spence is a celebration of outdoor living that builds on the example of Donovan Hill’s 1998 C House. Nielsen Jenkins’s Mt Coot-Tha House draws on late-modernist ideas to connect with its bushland setting. And Zuzana and Nicholas’s Annerley House continues the experiments with roof form seen in projects such as Don Watson’s 1980s Campbell House. With an evocative foreword by Brisbane-born novelist David Malouf, insightful essays and thoughtful presentation, The New Queensland House tells its story well.

WELSH AND MAJOR

Perched above an isolated beach on the New South Wales south coast, this joyfully crafted home gathers the character of the place into its architecture, providing a welcome retreat for its owners.

Words by Andrew Scott Photography by Clinton Weaver

The story goes that Curzio Malaparte, standing with a visitor before his house, looked about the vertiginous rocky cliffs fortifying the island of Capri against the Tyrrhenian Sea and explained that the house, Casa Malaparte, was already here; his role was simply to design the scenery.

I can’t help thinking about this surreal inversion while sitting at the table, eating chocolate cake, with the owner and architects of Seagrass House, perched on the rocky incline of a north-facing gully in perfect isolation at the southern end of Tathra Beach.

Of course, back in 1942, Malaparte was being rambunctiously provocative in his usual style. Fast-forward 80 years, and our cultural production is now located firmly in the Anthropocene. It has become self-evident that our greatest collective challenge is to steward our environments; in effect, to design the scenery.

This inversion of the traditional natural/artificial dichotomy calls into question the recent prevalent architectural trend of ethereal structures in perfect, discordant isolation. Seagrass House by Welsh and Major is made in a way that gathers the character of the place into the architecture, in both a performative and scenic sense.

01

The slopes and folds of the house’s protective brick wall respond to the site’s steep topography.

To draw out is to seek some nascent condition and make it explicit. Two drawings by the architects were used to formulate the design of Seagrass House. The first is of a path across the land. It extends from the entrance on the ridge and winds down the site along the contours, joining with a shared path that leads out through the gully scrub to the southern tip of the long white arc of the beach. This drawing is primarily a careful recording of the existing path, with minimal conjecture.

The second drawing depicts an arrangement of furniture that enables pause along the path. This foursquare composition gives order to habitation

with spaces for cooking, sitting, eating and sleeping. It seems evident that the design of Seagrass House results from the combined consideration in these drawings, poised adroitly to address both the specificity of a particular condition and the universal aspects of dwelling.

The resulting house has a compact floor plate of approximately 100 square-metres, with level access from the car door to the kitchen, living, bathroom and bedroom. It is essentially apartment living in the bush, by the beach. The arrangement of rooms around a central stair establishes a loose enfilade that enables individual spaces to be gently articulated, all the while connected to others and the whole. The ceiling billow, fireplace shroud and timber batten screen emphasize this spatial dynamic.

The centripetal plan also enables inhabitation of the very edge of the dwelling, inspired by the built-in verandah of the original cottage on the site. This thickened facade manifests as the magnificent north-east dining table bench seat, an ambiguous timber shelf in the sitting room, the terrazzo kitchen bench, the deep shadow of the bathroom window reveal and the brilliant flatness of the bedroom corner window. These spaces are magical in the way they heighten individual communion with the surrounding landscape, making space for one to be comfortably alone, while the larger spatial order facilitates convivial domestic interaction.

This strategy of a densely inhabited edge is cleverly combined with other architectural strategies typical of the holiday home. The bunkroom, the shared bathroom, the outdoor shower and numerous external living spaces around the dwelling establish amenable accommodation for two, or ten.

Adjacent to the house is the garage and services pavilion. Functioning much like a gatehouse, it establishes security with a large, unadorned timber panel in a brick- and metal-clad wall. On welcome, the panel slides in two parts to reveal entry via the garage – a lovely space, portending an electric vehicle future. Above the garage is a generously sized attic for storage, which greatly increases the building’s bulk. Given the wonderful compactness otherwise established by the house, this space appears a loss of commitment, a kind of spatial hedge against future potential need.

The predominant material of the house is a Krause brick, clay-pressed and hand-mixed to achieve the desired colour palette – one which matches the natural variegation within the exposed, weathered shale of the gully.

But then the question becomes, what might that brick want to be?

Perhaps a lovely sharp-stacked nib wall, or alternating sloped and flat sills, or a fine rowlock parapet course, or a gentle stepping rampart to the small downslope retaining wall, or artful subfloor brick vents, or maybe even a heroic corbel to reach a smooth brick soffit of the eyrie bedroom?

In this chorus of connotations there is a light touch, which manifests as levity. It is this joyful capacity to engage meaningfully with the fundamentals of our art, while making places of utmost utility, which in turn relate so intrinsically to the inherent character of Country, that makes this such a great house. One worthy of the ever-evolving scenery.

Products

Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb in Colorbond ‘Windspray’

External walls: Emperor bricks by Krause in ‘Autumn’; Barestone fibre cement cladding by Cemintel; bead-blasted steel window hoods

Internal walls: Cumaru half-dowel cladding by Porta; plywood undercroft joinery; joinery by MAW

Design in spotted gum veneer Windows: Paarhammer BAL-FZ timber frames in oiled finish

Doors: Solid blackbutt panelled sliding garage door

Flooring: Spotted gum boards; Surface Gallery terrazzo in ‘SG47’ Lighting: Crisp wall sconce by RBW; Skan pendant and Pin 1680 by Vibia; Flos Mini Glo Balls; Nemo Mini Potence Pivotante from Mondoluce; Tovo downlights; Flindt external entry light by Louis Poulsen; Platek Chiodo external wall lights; Eden and Hilltop external step lights from Tovo Kitchen: Terrazzo benchtop by Fibonacci Stone in ‘The Graduate’; joinery by MAW Design in Paperock Solid and brushbox veneer; timber deck rails used as cabinet handles from Whitworths Marine and Leisure; Miele oven, cooktop and dishwasher; Liebherr refrigerator; Falmec rangehood Bathroom: City Stik tapware by Brodware; WC by Caroma; Studio Bagno basin; Finion basin by Villeroy and Boch; Fibonacci tiles in ‘Wintersun’; Madinoz fixtures;

Classic Ceramics tiles in ‘Seta Ghiaccio’; Surface Gallery terrazzo

Heating and cooling:and Wall heating panels by Nobo; slow combustion wood heater by Skantherm

External elements: Murray Rose outdoor shower by Robert Plumb

02 Bench seats invite occupation of the edges of the building, recalling the enclosed verandah of the original house.

03 The clay bricks have been arranged to match the natural variegation of the headland rocks.

04 On an exposed site, the typical deck is rejected, with dining and living rooms instead offering sheltered views of the beach. Artwork: Lisa Jones.

heroic brick

weather-worn

headlands

main level

step-

single-level

separate garage and services

screened gateway

home

BY STUDIO STOOKS

In Margaret River, a skilfully planned new residence interleaves a love for the handmade with a celebration of local materials, resulting in a house imbued with making and meaning.

Words by Brett Mitchell Photography by Glenn Russell

On a forested edge of the Margaret River townsite, a large block was cleared for development. Interest from prospective buyers wavered due to the perceived smallness of the resulting strata lots, but local designer Ash Stucken of Studio Stooks saw potential in an outlook usually reserved for more expensive and expansive bush blocks. Ash and his partner Miranda Geiger purchased a site and set about designing a home that would best capture the essence of its location. The finished result is Karri Loam, a skilfully orchestrated sequence of intimate spaces that intensifies everyday experiences and encourages loose occupation. Miranda describes their desire to design the house as a retreat, and to compose an unhurried arrival sequence: “After stepping away from the street and closing the heavy steel door, we didn’t want to just open up onto views of our next-door neighbours. Instead, we wanted to feel immersed within rammed earth walls, with darker, quieter ground-floor spaces, and then to come up via timber stairs to a light-filled living space. The forest view slowly opens up from behind a ‘timber box’.”

Daily rituals are lived in tune with external site conditions. Meals are prepared and eaten at the do-it-all island bench, a space that is animated by the light-play of forest shadows, or a sunset glow slowly stretching across the bare walls. At night, the house turns inwards, the shifting edges of dimmable lights defining areas of retreat and comfort in the living and sleeping spaces.

There are notable absences: no mirrors over vanities, no television, no fireplace; all excess is purposefully omitted. Karri Loam offers a different sort of luxury, perhaps requiring an adjustment in expectations. This reduction in visual clutter allows a new focus to take place. Over time, Ash and Miranda intend to slowly accrue more “stuff,” and already artworks and homewares from Western Australian makers have found their places within the home.

Ash and Miranda were hands-on in the building process, which has meant that memories and meaning are imbedded in many aspects of the house. Ash recalls making the timber staircase with his dad and finishing the bathroom vanities with friends. They

01 Reduced visual clutter and an unhurried arrival sequence instil a sense of calm.

02 A timber wall containing the kitchen forms a bookend to the living spaces.

worked closely with builder Tom Godden and the trades, who Miranda says “supported our experimentation while providing pragmatic solutions to meet the budget.” The house is filled not with replicable finishes and off-the-shelf products, but individual moments of character. The intent was to be direct with materials and finishes, to accept flaws and allow things to age and patina. Ash describes this as “a different sort of timelessness – one that favours time and tactility rather than just fixed appearances.”

There is evidence of making throughout: rammed-earth walls, rough-sawn marri boards, sanded metal-faced cabinetry, hand-troweled cement render to benches and basins, and clouded patterns of lime-based paint to walls and ceilings.

There is also an inherent concern for environmental, social and economic sustainability, with much of the timber sourced from local mills near Margaret River. “The timber came from one guy with a tiny little mill up at Gracetown,” Ash explains, “and another guy down at Witchcliffe, and much of it was rescued from naturally fallen trees found in local paddocks. We became good friends with a lot of the people and businesses involved in the project – much like my parents did in the 80s when they built their own home, swapping cartons of beer for building materials.” This care and consideration was extended to timber offcuts and leftover stone tiles, which have been artfully refashioned into bedside tables, benches and clothes racks.

In many ways, Karri Loam makes material and atmospheric qualities that already exist more apparent. In spaces that are purposefully pared back, one’s awareness is meaningfully drawn towards the “extraordinary” moments. “Miranda hates the term ‘slow living,’ but we are both always designing for a more conscious kind of ‘being in a place,’” Ash says, and Miranda adds, “A design that makes you more aware of where you are, what you’re doing and how you’re living.”

In this home, it is easy to find oneself feeling rather than thinking. Later that evening, immersed in the warmth of the outdoor bath with a light rain prickling my skin, I watched the clouds slowly part to reveal bright stars above the karri forest. Here, even in the tiny gap of a minimum side setback, an opportunity for connecting daily rituals to the specific qualities of a place has been achieved.

Now, back in the city, I wonder how many other moments in our everyday we might be missing?

Products

Roofing: Powdercoated Colorbond in ‘Dune’; Jarrah rafters

External walls: Karri loam and lime by South West Rammed Earth; rough-sawn jarrah from Whiteland Milling in Intergrain Universal Timber Oil in ‘Coastal Grey’; Dulux Tuscan Paint (textured range) in ‘Eco Chic’

Internal walls: Rough-sawn Marri timber boards; Bauwerk lime paint in ‘Wander’ and ‘Ibiza’; Cerano render by Rockcote; microcement plaster by Milestone Windows: Aluminium frames from Pure Glass in ‘Champagne Kinetic’ matt Dulux powdercoat Doors: Custom-made in house from weathered steel, Georgian wire glass, and Cerano render Flooring: Tolfa travertine from Eco Outdoor; engineered timber by Coswick from Woodpecker Flooring in ‘Ginger’; K80 levelling compound by Ardex Lighting: Supplied by Alti Kitchen: Bosch induction cooktop, integrated dishwasher and electric oven; Faucet Strommen Pegasi M mixer in ‘Gunmetal’; custom solid aluminium joinery and doors by Remington Matters; rough-sawn Marri timber boards; Milestone microcement benchtops Bathroom: Faucet Strommen Pegasi tapware in ‘Gunmetal’; natural lime paint by Bauwerk in ‘Wander’ and ‘Ibiza’; microcement plaster by Milestone; custom Accoya timber bathtub; Tolfa travertine from Eco Outdoor External elements: Compacted local red gravel; Tolfa travertine pavers from Eco Outdoor

Other: Furniture from Remington Matters, Worn Store, and MCM House; custom timber benches and outdoor furniture by Studio Stooks; rugs from Armadillo and Co; ceramics by Cisco and the Sun; linens from Cultiver

BY BOWER

AND INTERIORS

Immersed in a preserved bushland setting in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, this calm and composed new home inspires a restful pace for family life.

Words by Hayley Curnow Photography by Shannon McGrath

Captivated by the natural beauty of Blackburn’s Bellbird area – a classified National Trust bushland just 16 kilometres east of Melbourne – homeowners Nicole and Cameron sought a contextual, single-level home that resonated with its surroundings. The project brief called for a warm, comfortable and sunlit home with spaces to come together as a family and to retreat to in solitude.

Bower Architecture and Interiors’ rigorous briefing process focused on how the clients wanted the home to feel, driving an empathic design approach to support the family’s daily lives. “Nicole and Cameron had no preconceptions about how the house should look, but [they] were steadfast in their desire to honour the landscape,” says project director Chema Bould. With the site hosting 41 established trees, the design team sought to frame the house as a contextual response, reaffirming connections to place at every opportunity.

Shrouded from the street with a generous setback of native vegetation, Bellbird House responds to the location’s natural sightlines, which are dominated by the trunks of established trees and by neighbouring properties. Internally, a series of north-facing highlight windows affords views to the treetops, synthesized in the home’s external expression, where a series of angled roof lines reach skyward. Black-oiled, band-sawn

Accoya cladding forms a recessive backdrop to the silvered green tones of the site’s eucalyptus trees, while highlights of silvertop ash accentuate the home’s open interfaces to light and views.

A low, elemental form clad in Australian limestone gently demarcates the home’s entry and wraps into the interior, bridging transitions between inside and out. Overhead, a timber-lined, raked ceiling dramatically extends the length of the home, connecting each spatial volume with the gentle sway of tree canopies. “The ceiling’s meticulous timber craftwork and detailing creates warmth and a point of focus on arrival,” reflects project architect Jess King. Indeed, the gesture brings natural light deep into the floor plate while articulating a clear path of circulation through the home.

At the centre of the plan, a generous kitchen, dining and living space unfurls eastward to the rear garden, presenting a series of welcoming settings to come together as a family. Lowered ceiling planes maintain a feeling of intimacy and accentuate a secondary, timber-lined “pop-up” window that draws northern views and warming light into the main living space. “At night, we watch the movement of the moon as it tracks across the sky,” Nicole says.

01 The new house is responsive to –and respectful of –its bush surroundings.

02 Sightlines through the house offer the homeowners a continual connection to landscape.

03 Limestone, timber and a neutral colour palette achieve a soothing interior.

To the west, a multi-use room and study offer retreat for the family’s individual pursuits. A veil of metal battens shades the multi-use room from western sun, while a broad picture window frames tranquil views to the front landscape. Across the corridor, the study invites natural light and breezes to permeate the interior, offering an uplifting and generously proportioned setting in which to work or unwind, with the main bedroom neatly set behind. A guest powder room with a solid vanity of recycled messmate timber is tucked behind the entry corridor’s limestone blockwork, embracing a tactile pairing of natural materials.

At the rear, a large rumpus room offers a personalized space for the homeowners’ two kids. This room, Chema explains, “creates a privacy buffer to the bedrooms while still allowing for incidental encounters and crossovers through the home’s shared spaces.” A broad deck creates additional dwelling space to gather as a family or find moments of restfulness within the landscape. The site’s established trees are carefully retained and complemented by a meandering Australian garden designed by Sam Cox Landscape, with more than 1,400 indigenous species planted by the homeowners and Sam’s team.

Extending the project’s sensitivity to place, Bellbird House’s palette draws on locally sourced materials that lend grain to the home and skilfully merge architecture and interiors as a considered whole. Internally, moments of dark, recessive joinery balance the depth of the architectural cladding, offset by crisp white cabinetry and crafted timber accents. Bespoke desks and bathroom vanities draw on recycled timber species hand-selected by the clients, imbuing the home with a strong narrative of place.

Insulated, exposed aggregate floors gently bind together the tones of the home and offer effective thermal mass to support passive solar design principles. Together with natural ventilation, sun-shading, double glazing, and an insulated, fully sealed building envelope, the home has earned an impressive 7.1 star NatHERS sustainability rating, significantly reducing environmental impact over the lifespan of the project.

Though Bellbird House is not significantly larger than Nicole and Cameron’s previous home, skilful planning and porosity with the landscape craft a feeling of generosity and spaciousness. “It’s often the simple things that people respond to in architecture,” Chema says, “[like] natural materials, the play of shadow and light, and tailored views to nature.” At Bellbird House, these simplicities are embraced with open arms, nurturing the family with a home closely tethered to its soothing, natural site.

Products

Roofing: Klip-Lok 406 by Lysaght in Colorbond ‘Monument’

External walls: Accoya vertical shiplap cladding in Woca ‘Black’ and silvertop ash shiplap cladding in clear Cutek from Britton Timbers; natural limestone cladding from Limestone Australia in ‘Biscuit’ with Limeprotec sealer; powdercoated aluminium battens

Internal walls: Natural limestone cladding from Limestone Australia in ‘Biscuit’ with Limeprotec sealer; Tasmanian oak floorboards sealed with matt Aquaseal Ecogold by BergerSeidle; Easy VJ lining boards by Easycraft in Dulux ‘Natural White’ Windows: Thermally broken aluminium window frames and external screens, both in Dulux ‘Night Sky’ powdercoat

Flooring: Porphyry Crazy Paving from Eco Outdoor; blackbutt external timber decking by Britton Timbers in clear Cutek Lighting: LED downlights from Brightgreen; Tuba II wall light by Inlite; Zero 2 LED wall uplight by Lucitalia in ‘White’; blackbutt linear pendant by Lighting Collective; up/down LED external wall light from Davoluce in ‘Black’

Kitchen: Miele integrated freezer and refrigerator; Bosch oven, cooktop and dishwasher; Whispair rangehood; Blanco sink; Scala taps; Reece sink set; solid Tasmanian oak lineal pull by Auburn Wood Turning Bathroom: Recycled messmate vanities; tapware and sanitaryware in ‘Brushed Nickel’ from Rogerseller; Mini Ellipse bench-mount ensuite basin by Claybrook from Rogerseller

04 The central kitchen anchors the home’s social rooms.

05 A pop-up window in the living room directs views toward the tree canopy.

Artwork: Tom Putt.

Beck Street by Lineburg Wang

Music Box by Multiplicity

Always by Kennedy Nolan

Eastham Street by Muir with Openwork and Fytogreen

DD House by Bokey Grant

Corner House by Archier

Inala Apartment by Brad Swartz Architects

Autumn House by Studio Bright

Thanks to our 2022 Houses Awards supporters:

Little Black Cabin by Smith Architects

Inverloch House by Nest Architects in association with Placement Studio

The Hütt 01 Passivhaus by Melbourne Design Studios

Fusilier Cottage by Bence Mulcahy

Bardon Undercroft House by Kieron Gait Architects Courtyard House by Ha Architecture

Caringal Flat by Ellul Architecture

Cascade House by John Ellway

Marta Figueiredo

Words by Rebecca Gross Photography by Jonathon Griggs

Marta Figueiredo’s colourful, tactile creations provoke joy and delight, inviting viewers to interact, engage and play. But beneath the architectural and anthropomorphic forms is a strong sense of narrative, as Marta explores themes such as sustainability, waste and inclusion. “I’m intrigued by the idea of pushing the boundaries of what an object is traditionally thought to be, and I am particularly interested in elements that contribute to a more rich and layered interaction between the individual and the object,” Marta says.

Born in Portugal and living in Melbourne since 2013, Marta has always been interested in making things. She studied architecture in Porto and practised in Paris, London, Portugal and Melbourne, before establishing her own design practice in 2016 to follow her passion for creating objects that present a narrative and viewpoint.

Marta’s first collection, Prima Familia (2018), emerged from her desire to use burel, a traditional Portuguese wool fabric. Local burel factories have recently been revived in the Portuguese mountains, and the fabric’s vibrant colours and tactility inspired Marta to create lifesize totems that abstract the human form. In 2019, The Cossack and Queen joined the family, their exaggerated forms and flamboyant colours prompting people to touch, feel and even hug them. “I was surprised by the emotional connection people had,” Marta says.

This connection inspired her to think about the relationships people – including her sister, who is autistic – have with objects. Marta created Elementary Abacus (2020), a side table with movable and sensorial elements, to offer a playful, inclusive way of interacting with furniture.

The conceptual narratives of Marta’s designs originate from a topic, question or moment in time. In collaboration with musician and sound designer Jonathon Griggs, Marta developed Windgate during the Melbourne COVID-19 lockdowns, representing the “otherness” of architecture in a desolate urban environment. Like a twisted skyscraper, Windgate has tactile surfaces and interactive soundscapes, and it was performed at MPavilion in 2021.

To use the resin waste from Windgate, Marta designed the Stardust lamp (2021). Similarly, the Assembly chair, which was shortlisted for MPavilion 2021, is made with recycled household and industrial plastic.

Marta’s latest piece, Creatures of Light (2022), is an illuminated sculpture offering a narrative about climate change. The three-dimensional tapestry creates the effect of lichen, while black textured surfaces evoke volcanic rock. The vibrancy diminishes from top to bottom, pooling on the floor as a symbol of extinction. Like all of Marta’s work, it invites viewers to interact and engage with both the object

the topic.

Beneath their abstract forms and irresistibly tactile surfaces, the works of Marta Figueiredo explore themes of sustainability and social connection.

01 Marta Figueiredo uses design to explore sensorial experience.

02 The Assembly chair is made from recycled plastic. Photograph: Colin Chee.

03 Creatures of Light is an illuminated sculpture depicting the impacts of climate change.

04 In Elementary Abacus, a side table with movable parts invites interaction.

The Stardust lamp reuses resin waste generated during Marta’s practice.

Southern Highlands House by Benn and Penna Architects FIRST HOUSE

For Andrew Benn, the invitation to design a one-room addition – not much larger than a garden shed – was the launching pad for his fledgling practice. Here, he reflects on the legacy of that first commission.

Words by Andrew Benn Photography by Tom Ferguson

When I attended a Christmas party at my mother’s then recently completed house in 2012, I walked in with few expectations, the last of which was that a chance meeting would lead to the beginning of my independent career as an architect. When I met Lindie and Kerry, who later became the clients of our Southern Highlands House, it quickly dawned on me that I had worked on the design of their vineyard weekender as a student at Beverley Garlick Architects some 15 years earlier. Propelled by a few wines and my youthful enthusiasm for architecture, I soon launched into a description of some of the minute details of their house, which I seem to recall rolled into a passionate monologue about the merits of good design.

This performance was well received as, to my surprise, a few weeks later I received a phone call from Lindie and Kerry, asking if I would be interested in designing an addition to the weekender. The euphoric, if somewhat terrifying, realization that I now had to deliver my first commission beyond working for close friends or family quickly set in: this was “The Real Thing”!

At the time, I was at the tail end of my formative years in architecture, having worked during the 2000s as a graduate in the acclaimed offices of UN Studio in Amsterdam, and Engelen Moore and BVN in Sydney. Prior to this, I had enjoyed some wonderfully creative years at university: an era of long greasy hair, the ascendancy of Frank Gehry, hours lost to Deleuzian diagrams and the last of Harry Seidler’s wildly punishing design crits.

Over these years, I closely followed a growing list of architects whose work I admired, many of whom caught “Rem’s wave” in the wake of Rem Koolhaas’s trailblazing work of the 1990s. Other Dutch architects such as Bjarne Mastenbroek, Kamiel Klaasse and Wiel Arets formed an ideological foundation, which influenced that first project and still informs my practice today.

The scale of the single-room Southern Highlands House was wonderfully suited to a first commission. I was familiar with Beverley Garlick’s original domed dwellings, and I wanted the new addition to have the utmost respect for them. Consequently, it sits separate from the existing pavilions. I was determined that this room, not much larger than a garden shed, would do justice to Beverley’s design while carrying the full weight of my 15-year architectural experience. My eagerness was projected onto the drawings, with every millimetre self-scrutinized to a level of detail

standalone pavilion

that was, arguably, ridiculous. I wonder what the builder thought when I handed him an incredibly thick package of drawings to build from … It was, after all, “only one room.”

I was up before sunrise for my first site visit, which lay at the end of a dirt road near Wombeyan Caves. In the morning mist, I sipped on a coffee from a Mittagong bakery and spotted recent kangaroo footprints visible across the dew-covered site. This morning ritual was best enjoyed when the site was empty, and I was left on my own to absorb the experience.

The essence of the house (first published in Houses 99), sitting as it does within the massive amphitheatre of Burragorang Valley yet with a total footprint of only 50 square metres, is compactness oscillating with vastness The building’s rounded plan was inspired by works such as the circular Villa in the Forest by Kazuyo Sejima, who noted that “a square form would give the sense of a front and sides, discordant with its environment.” The site called for a form that reflected its unbounded nature. The horizontal lines of the corrugated iron facade accentuate the curvilinear form and are shaped into a continuous, verandah-like “belt” that loops around the room and evokes a sense of endlessness.

A balance between just enough professional experience to deliver the project, and not enough to burden my brimming creativity with the realities of practice, was a key component in the design’s originality. Unlike many other rural Australian designs, the building does not “sit lightly” on its landscape. In the cool, high-altitude climate of the Southern Highlands, the heavy base tethers this room to the mountain. The fresh design in a familiar Australian context was quickly recognized by publications – particularly internationally. This coincided with the publicity of Balmain Pair (see Houses 95), another of our early works and my mother’s home from the start of this story, which saw the business take off.

As many of the other projects in this First House series attest, the enthusiasm a young architect brings to the table when they are impatient to start their career can be the key to a great project. Stumbles and anxious all-nighters are par for the course alongside the sense of triumphant creativity, but these practical and emotional trials represent an ongoing emergence into practice. Despite my greying hair, I continue to feel like I am “emerging” in this wonderful profession that keeps you forever young.

BY TRIAS

Delicate and decisive , the reworking of this tall and narrow Sydney terrace is underpinned by astute planning, elegant craftsmanship and a keen focus on a connection to the outdoors.

Words by Rebecca Gross Photography by Clinton Weaver

The streets of Paddington in Sydney are lined with Victorian-era homes adorned with ornamental iron lacework and decorative classical details. But it’s often impossible to tell what lies behind each heritage facade. Originally dark and disconnected from their surroundings, many of these houses have been altered and opened up for contemporary living.

A case in point is Paddington House by Trias. Beyond the charming facade lies a beautifully crafted family home, designed to maximize the impact of passive heating and cooling. The contemporary design references the character of the terrace and its neighbourhood, while creating a calm, light and airy interior with flexible and functional spaces that suit a young family.

With an adjoining terrace, the challenge is to bring light into the floorplan. However, this terrace had the advantage of a relatively shallow footprint (2.5 rooms deep) and four storeys, providing greater access to light and air. Trias retained the front rooms on each level and reconfigured the rest of the layout to improve access to light and a visual connection to the outdoors. “We created a front room, back room and service/stair in the middle, and repeated that layout on every floor,” says Casey Bryant, architect and director at Trias. With

careful consideration of the transition between rooms, the design team has produced an interior that flows smoothly from front to back – from old to new –with the central stair improving the planning, thermal performance and interior connections. “The house is the same size, but we have so many spaces that we didn’t have before,” says the client. “Dependent on the weather, we gravitate to different spaces.”

Large openings and different floor materials provide a quiet division between spaces on the entry level. Timber flooring unifies the front living room and new rear kitchen. Between these two spaces, textured terracotta-coloured herringbone tiles supply thermal mass in winter and have underfloor heating. This central area offers an adaptable circulation space (it’s currently a play area for the clients’ young daughter), as well as a gallery wall where a Paul Davies painting has pride of place. Strip lighting is neatly concealed in the cornice – an approach repeated in every room, keeping ceilings clean and minimal. Trias enlarged the opening to the kitchen and dining, where timber joinery and crafted details add warmth and texture to the otherwise pared-back space. Brickwork visible through the kitchen window offers

01 A skinny terrace in Paddington is reconfigured into a light and airy home. Artwork: Paul Davies.

02 Living spaces are pushed to the rear facade of the narrow house, maximizing outlook and access to natural light.

03 A hit-and-miss brick screen and fine balustrades reinterpret the ornate detailing that is typical of the area.

a glimpse of the composition of the rear elevation. The alternating pattern of projecting bricks gives dimension to this back wall while echoing the original brickwork of the house and its neighbours. “I’m interested in the craft of the brickwork around here. Instead of copying it, we thought about the contemporary craft of brick and masonry we can do today,” says Casey. The pattern gives way to French doors, which reference the Victorian doors at the front of the terrace. Council heritage controls don’t allow for balconies in the area but, by opening inwards, these doors evoke a balcony feel.

The design of the rear facade is integral to the interior experience. The French doors bathe the kitchen and upstairs bedroom in light, and focus the view on a prominent cypress tree in the neighbours’ garden, as if inviting it to be part of the house. Blockwork casts dappled light across the floor and flyscreens allow the windows to be kept open at night for the breeze.

The stairs have been compressed into a more compact form, with a skylight filtering light through the stairwell to the centre of the house. The half-arch beneath each stair references the front doors and windows, and enhances the sense of volume and crafted quality – as do the gentle curves of the sculptural steel banister and the irregularity of the Moroccan tiles on the steps.

Upstairs, the front bedroom is retained and heritage elements refreshed, with a new bedroom added to the rear so that the clients and their young daughter sleep on the same floor. The bathroom, which has been moved to the middle of the plan, continues the tiled floor. The shower/bath has rendered plaster walls and is illuminated by a skylight. Set inside a new rounded dormer window in the attic above, this skylight affords a different aspect of the cypress.

On the lower-ground level, the front bedroom has also been refreshed, the laundry incorporated beneath the stairs and the bathroom relocated opposite. A new spacious room opens to the courtyard and provides a flexible space for the family, guests and entertaining.

With sustainability and craftsmanship integrated into the architecture, Paddington House is designed for the future, yet nods to the past. It’s a relaxed and resilient home that, behind its heritage facade, is filled with light and warmth.

Products

Roofing: Lysaght custom orb roof sheeting in Colorbond ‘Shale Grey’; raw slate roof tiles

External walls: Existing brickwork; Austral masonry GB Smooth Block in ‘Porcelain’

Internal walls:Internal Painted brick and plasterboard in Dulux ‘Natural White’

Windows: Victorian ash hardwood framed windows from H2 Custom Joinery with Cutek CD50 finish Flooring: Victorian ash engineered floorboards from ASH with Bona Traffic finish; Moroccan Bejmat tiles from Bisanna Tiles sealed in Dry-Treat Lighting: LED strip lighting from Havit Lighting; Miles 3.0 Round wall lamp from Est Lighting; Hay Rice Paper Shade Kitchen: Tasmanian oak timber veneer joinery with satin finish; Caesarstone benchtops in ‘Cloudburst Concrete’; Astrawalker tapware in ‘Urban Brass’; Corian sink in ‘White’; Miele built-in oven, induction cooktop, rangehood and integrated dishwasher; Fisher and Paykel integrated fridge-freezer Bathroom: X-bond render from Alternative Surfaces; concrete benchtops from Concrete by Design in ‘Linen’; Tasmanian oak timber veneer joinery with satin finish; Astra-walker tapware in ‘Urban Brass’

Heating and cooling:and Aeratron AE3 ceiling fan; underfloor heating External elements: Decomposed granite from ANL in ‘Deco-Gold Gravel’

pivot

visual

skylight above the first-floor bath

the textured render

of the walls.

attic’s dormer window

full advantage of the outlook to a neighbour’s cypress tree.

ARCHIER

01 The single-storey home twists around a courtyard, forming connections with the landscape while also providing privacy.

Words by Tobias Horrocks Photography by Rory Gardiner

The small country town of Yackandandah in north-east Victoria is located at the confluence of two creeks. The area’s Traditional Custodians were dispossessed by European settlement, which was spurred during the mid-nineteenth century by a gold rush, and the town’s population quickly swelled to a high of 3,000 in 1862 (today, the population is around 2,000). This brief surge left a built legacy of weatherboard shopfronts that remain today, lining the main street and anchored by a pub at each end, the whole nestled into a valley surrounded by picturesque hills.

Chris Gilbert, a founding director of architecture practice Archier, grew up in Yack (as it’s known by the locals). As a child, he often rode his bike over the rise that now contains Court House: a sloping site, located behind the 1864 courthouse, a five-minute walk from the main street and across the road from the public pool. Court House is Archier’s second house in Yack, but the award-winning Sawmill House, which the practice designed for Chris’s brother Ben, is tucked away from view. Now, Archier had the chance to make a more public contribution to Yack, and Chris leapt at the opportunity.

The design of Court House responds to the prominence of the site with an elegantly simple courtyard plan. North-facing windows draw winter sunlight into living spaces, and the central courtyard provides practical separation between public and private zones, while also pushing bedrooms away from the street and providing private outdoor space. This clear and rational organization is paired with minimalist details such as a flat roof, long verandahs and cleverly concealed gutters. Given these crisp architectural details, you would be forgiven for thinking that Archier is primarily interested in refining the craft of construction for aesthetic ends. According to Chris,

In a gold rush town in north-east Victoria, a new home on a prominent site refuses to defer to the colonial past, demonstrating an alternative, unapologetically contemporary way of responding to the landscape.

that isn’t Archier’s only – or even most important – goal. “It’s as much working from methodology as it is aesthetic,” he says. “The way the roof works with the glass plane, for example, is about maximizing the system’s potential.”

Designed for clients who are passionate about environmental sustainability, the house follows Passivhaus principles that prioritize highly insulated, highly sealed buildings and low energy consumption. Archier has employed Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), prefabricated sandwich-like panels composed of thick polystyrene lined with sheets of Oriented Strand Board (OSB, a form of chipboard). The SIPs lock together like Lego, forming structural walls and a rigid roof plane. SIP systems drastically reduce the need for steel and conventional timber framing, speeding up construction on site. Archier gave the OSB a simple coat of white paint internally, elevating the utilitarian material to textured decoration. Vertical timber cladding externally is sourced from local species. Angled concrete blades act as columns for the otherwise cantilevered verandahs, and, for a house comprised primarily of lightweight polystyrene (especially so, if you include the insulation embedded into the floor slab), the heavy corners provide a welcome tactile and visual gravitas.

At the same time as orienting the house for north light and squeezing it between the invisible constraints of a pair of easements, Archier aligned the perfectly square plan with the brick courthouse in front, giving the landmark a clean, contrasting backdrop of timber and glass. The local council, however, took some convincing. Chris was determined to demonstrate an alternative way of responding to landscape, to build something unapologetically contemporary that wasn’t simply “recessive to the traditional architecture of the area,” as the heritage advisor had recommended. As Chris asked him at the time, “What is it that you’re trying to preserve?” Instead of designing something that disappears from view or defers to a colonial past that was defined by violence and the displacement of Indigenous people, he wanted to do something that represented his generation’s values and aesthetic; something open and sustainable.

Since its inception, the practice has had a strong focus on construction and manufacturing. Court House is one iteration in the ongoing pursuit of a rational and efficient building system, and Archier has now established a fabrication arm called Candour, which will produce insulated panels as part of an end-to-end construction platform, including structural facade and glazing. This will allow future projects to be even less reliant on steel than Court House. Chris borrows a phrase from economics – “reducing the transaction costs” – to explain the efficiencies that lie in making their own system. Archier is the kind of practice that builders naturally adore, and the collaboration at Court House was so successful that the builder has since commissioned Archier to design his own house.

“We learnt from this project, and my house, and Ben’s house. As a studio, we are super interested in improving construction methodologies and processes to get to a better future. This is not primarily an aesthetic pursuit, if you know what I mean,” says Chris. For Archier, the Court House is a stepping stone to a better thermally, materially and fiscally efficient building and procurement process, but it is also an exemplar of rational planning and minimalist design. And importantly, it challenges conventional thinking about the preservation of, and value ascribed to, this country’s colonial built heritage.

Products

Roofing: Klip-lok Classic 700 and galvanized Custom Orb sheets by Lysaght ; 215-mm structural insulated panel system by Radial Timbers in ‘Silvertop Ash’ External walls: Blackbutt fascia; cladding in ‘Silvertop Ash’; concrete off-form blade wall columns; galvanized mesh; 115-mm structural insulated panel system

Internal walls: Murowash paint from Murobond in ‘Sand’; Contours timber lining boards by Porta Windows: Frames by Binq; double glazing by Australian Glass Group Doors: Murowash paint by Murobond; SG15 honeycomb-core door by Hume; unlacquered brass hardware from Lockwood; timber-framed doors, tilt turns and lift slides by Binq; internal sliding door handles by Steel Road Custom Furniture

Flooring: Hiperfloor concrete in low-exposure salt-and-pepper grind and 20-grit polish

Lighting: Highline brass pendant by Archier; Cooper brass pendant by Coco Flip; LED track lights by Brightgreen

Kitchen: Solid stainless steel plate benchtops; Lugano tapware from Par Taps in ‘Raw Brass’; Fisher and Paykel appliances; Monte Carlo rangehood from Whispair; laminate cabinetry in ‘Green’ and melamine cabinetry in ‘Black’ by Laminex; vertical timber lining by Porta; Blumotion with tip-on door and drawer hardware by Blum Bathroom: Terracotta tiles from Middle Earth Tiles; Inax tiles from Artedomus; tessellated tiles from De Fazio Tiles; tiles from Classic Ceramics in ‘Green’

Heating and cooling:and Central ventilation unit LWZ 370 Plus by Stiebel Eltron; floor-mounted reverse cycle by Mitsubishi

Other: Cruciform columns and front path by Sheringham Construction; Number 14 chair by Bern Chandley (designer) and Chris Summons (builder)

02 The home’s structure is used as both texture and ornamentation.

Artwork: Mieczysław Górowski.

03 Two freestanding islands in the kitchen encourage social connection.

04 The studio enjoys a courtyard outlook, yet is practically separated from the busier living zones.

Artwork (R): Rod Farr.

06 The prominently located house makes a distinctive contribution to the street.

Angled concrete blades form columns at the edge of the verandah, adding heft and gravitas.

08 A Structural

Insulated Panel (SIP) system reduced structural weight and time during construction.

ARCHITECTS INK

Composed of a series of separate yet carefully connected volumes, a future-proof family home in the Adelaide suburbs responds intimately to its site.

Words by Stephen Ward Photography by Sam Noonan

Stretching across a generous block in Adelaide’s leafy inner east, Jacaranda House has a solid street presence that belies the spatial dynamics and careful attention to private life that can be found behind its front facade. Working closely with the owners, Architects Ink has designed a family home for five that replaces a former dwelling, while retaining features of the site such as established trees, swimming pool and tennis court. These existing elements provide links to one of the owner’s childhoods and act as foundations around which the new built form is organized.

The public face of Jacaranda House, which is designed as an arrangement of sculptural white brick volumes, is a composition of balanced asymmetry. The lower podium is defined by a wall that protects from the western sun and gives privacy from the street. The upper volume, which contains the children’s bedrooms, is gently slipped back to articulate the different blocks. Square openings of different sizes are dotted playfully across the facade, interrupting the geometry and hinting at the occupation of space within. The garage – a singular timber element that folds inwards, pointing to the front entry – becomes part of this composition.

01 The design harnesses light to accentuate a sense of openness.

Artworks (L–R): Robert Hannaford, Richard Maurovic.

02 Skylights connect the occupants to the outdoors and highlight the interior textures.

The home is approached via platformed steps that lead to a large, pivoting door of fluted glass. From the entry, a street-like gallery is revealed. This gallery, which penetrates the whole house on an axis leading to the rear garden, provides the first clue to the organization of the house: it expands dramatically in volume, linking to the upper floor, and then contracts again, leading to other volumes on each side. These volumes, which are used as a parents’ suite, living spaces and utility areas, are set at different levels determined by the slope of the site, with the shifts helping to define them as separate but connected parts.

The focus on light and spatial dynamics is a characterizing feature of the home. Skylights w ith hidden frames give a sense of openness to the elements, while sunlight accentuates the sculptural qualities by washing down

Jacaranda

walls, highlighting texture and tracking shadow lines across the day. This aspect is at its most dramatic and unexpected in the ordinarily pragmatic powder room. In this case, the small space, containing just a toilet and a basin, extends up through two floors to create a vertical shaft to the sky –an exaggerated and powerful experiment in volume and light play.

Courtyards are designed to be an extension of the interior: external rooms to be used, but also focal points framed from within. The first of these is almost secret – attached to the parents’ suite at the front of the house and looked into from an intimate and quiet reading room. Divided by dense tropical planting, the courtyard expands the parents’ bathroom to the exterior, where an outdoor shower is altogether private, despite being located close to the home’s entrance.

It isn’t until one is deep in the house that its namesake becomes evident – an original jacaranda tree, now enclosed within a north-facing courtyard. The tree provides a focal point from numerous rooms at ground and first floors, offers dappled shade, and adds texture and a burst of early summer colour through its flowering canopy. A third courtyard is located upstairs and connected to the children’s living area. Screened by a perforated brick wall that acts as both enclosure and privacy filter, this terrace helps to retain the integrity of the house’s solid form.

The back of the house opens expansively to the landscaped garden, with a finely finished floating concrete canopy defining a transition space between inside and out. An integral part of the composition and structure of the house, the canopy spans the width of the block, connecting swimming pool, living spaces, outdoor entertaining and, finally, a pavilion-like rumpus room nestled into the slope of the site. Connectivity is paramount, but the separation of these spaces is carefully planned to enable individual areas to be used discretely or in combination.

The emphasis on solid, robust materials is all-pervasive, giving the home an almost monastic quality – a sense of serenity and permanence without adornment. The unifying masonry of some 100,000 bricks provides seamless continuity from inside to out, while burnished concrete floors and stairs combine with limestone benchtops, local Kanmantoo stone paving and timber to provide natural texture and warmth. Subtle coloured patches in parts of the floor recount the fall of jacaranda flowers during the concrete pour and burnishing process. Counterpoints, such as softly coloured joinery and terrazzo elements, are immaculately detailed and crafted, enriching the experience of daily life rather than appearing extravagant.

A generous home, Jacaranda House can entertain parties but quickly return to the patterns of family life. Characterized by its geometric arrangement of form and space, it is very much a home for living in – one that is personal, harmonious in its robustness, and designed for now and generations to come.

Products

Roofing: Klip-Lok Classic sheets by Lysaght in Colorbond ‘Shale Grey’; off-form concrete External and internal walls: Bricks by PGH in ‘Crevole’

Windows: Anodized aluminium frames by AWS

Doors: Custom anodized aluminium pivot front door with narrow reed glass insert by Pagel Glass; anodized aluminium sliding doors by AWS

Flooring: Burnished concrete Lighting: Itka pendant and Dioscuri wall lights by Artemide Kitchen: Timber veneer joinery in ‘American Oak’ by Admor Dimensions; limestone benchtops by CDK Stone in ‘New Savior’; oven and induction cooktop by Siemens; rangehood with custom enclosure by Falmec; refrigerator by Sub Zero; Icon tapware by Astra Walker in ‘Urban Brass’

Bathroom: Lincoln pull handle by Lo & Co in ‘Brass’; Corian solid surface vanity in ‘Glacier White’ and ‘Verdant’; limestone vanity in ‘New Savior’ by CDK Stone; timber veneer joinery in ‘American Oak’ by Admor Dimensions; Icon range accessories by Astra Walker in ‘Urban Brass’; custom brass mirror surround; pink terrazzo from Fibonacci in ‘Pavlova’; terrazzo from Signorino in ‘Green’ and ‘Grey’; Silkstone Elbe bath by Faucet Strommen

Heating and cooling:and Hydronic in-floor heating; reverse cycle heating and cooling; louvre windows by Breezway

External elements: Crazy stone paving in ‘Kanmantoo’

Other: Beetle chair by Gubi; outdoor Jak chair, Jil table and Seam dining table from Tait

06 The powder room extends up through two floors, creating dramatic light play in the small space.

Square openings in the facade add a sense of playfulness and connection.

A floating canopy defines the transition space between the rear of the house and the garden.

Core Collective Architects IN PROFILE

Born in Melbourne but drawn to Tasmania, Core Collective Architects is a practice that works across borders: geographic, typological and temporal.

Words by Luke Slattery Photography by Adam Gibson

At Hollow Tree House, so named because a hollowed trunk on this 1830s Tasmanian rural property once served as a post box, Core Collective Architects removed sheaths of aged wallpaper to reveal, and subsequently retain, colonial-era paintwork layered like a palimpsest. On one section of the wall, a worker had scrawled his name before applying the wallpaper, leaving a ghost-like presence that was discovered by Core Collective and their collaborators almost two centuries later. “We stripped away the paper but we left his name,” recalls practice director Ryan Strating. “For me that’s what makes history real – the feeling of the person. The people who put it together.”

Core Collective Architects’ work on that twostorey Georgian sandstone homestead (2019; see Houses 137) – a combination of restoration, structural intervention and conversion – saw the Hobart-based practice named joint winner of the Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage Architecture at the 2020 National Architecture Awards. More heritage work has since come their way, particularly on the grand old homesteads spread across Tasmania’s north. Yet the tag “heritage architect” sits uneasily with Ryan, and a close look at Hollow Tree House reveals why. While stripping

away the accretions of time to lay bare the building’s original Georgian bones, the practice also adapted the old structure and materials to accommodate a distinctively contemporary kitchen. Bespoke furnishings and extroverted Italian lighting were chosen by the design-savvy client, and the stables converted into guest rooms. Though most of the twentiethcentury additions were removed, a 1950s green terrazzo hearth was judiciously retained in the kitchen.

Much like British architect David Chipperfield, who enjoys working on restoration projects not as a “restoration expert” but as a modern architect, Ryan’s architectural allegiances are with mid-century modernism, particularly the “robust simplicity” he values in the work of Roy Grounds. Heritage, as a form of recaptured time, holds little interest for him. His attraction to Tasmania’s Georgian legacy is not so much romantic as analytical. “My curiosity is more about how they put things together, and about the durability and longevity of materials, than their antiquity or ‘oldness’,” he says.

The practice’s work on Hollow Tree House deepened its appreciation of pre-modern building technologies and materials, and informed the design of Ryan’s own

02

01 Ryan Strating and Ceridwen Owen established Core Collective Architects in Melbourne in 2002.

02 Old and new have been elegantly integrated at Hollow Tree House (2019), a converted Georgian sandstone homestead.

03 The bespoke furnishings and extroverted Italian lighting are distinctly modern but also complementary.

04 A palimpsest of colonial-era paint was revealed when layers of wallpaper were stripped back.

home, Cascade House (2020; see Houses 141). “I like simple, robust forms that will age gracefully; and I like to feel confident that the building will not flake, peel, leak, distort or require significant improvement for a couple of centuries,” he says.

When Ryan first saw the site – thought to be the backyard of the old Female Factory commandant’s cottage, with vestiges of a convict-picked sandstone wall – he imagined a house of concrete and stone emerging from the landscape. It was the potential of working with deep geological time that most intrigued him. “I thought the building should be solid and elemental like a cave, with generous openings for light; that it should be grounded in the landscape and offer refuge and comfort.” From the ground floor, surrounded by textured timber and smooth, mottled renders, a concrete staircase leads upstairs to a living room with expansive views through wrap-around windows. The sense of prospect is offset by a mood of retreat and enclosure due to the combination of timber, concrete and rendered brick walls.

Ryan studied architecture at Deakin University, and graduated with a strong allegiance to the emerging environmental imperative. “How do you make a building responsive to the environment – achieve high thermal performance and reach sustainability goals – and still make it beautiful, elegant, comfortable, calming? That was the challenge as I saw it,” he says. After a stint at Woods Bagot, he began a deeper exploration of environmentally sensitive building at a time when it was yet to shake off the “nuts and berries” aesthetic of the 1970s. “There was a lot of mud brick, heavy timber and inelegant materials,” he recalls.

05 Designed for Ryan’s own family, Cascade House (2020) reflects the practice’s love for simple, robust houses that will age gracefully.

06 Timber, concrete and rendered brick walls contribute to a sense of retreat and enclosure.

07 The entry to Cascade House is lined with pillars formed from local sandstone.

“I thought the building should be solid and elemental like a cave, with generous openings for light; that it should be grounded in the landscape and offer refuge and comfort.”

– Ryan Strating on Cascade House

08 Venus Bay House (2006) is a robust and resourceful house with views over a banksia and tea-tree forest. Photograph: Derek Swalwell.

09 The “almost industrial” interiors at Sunnybanks House (2016) are passively warmed in the Tasmanian winter. Artwork: Nick Goodwolf.

10 Sitting low in the landscape, Sunnybanks House wraps around a protected courtyard.

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In 2002 he established Core Collective Architects in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick with Ceridwen Owen, a graduate from the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. Ceridwen was completing a doctorate in sustainable architecture at the University of Melbourne and had been offered a position at the University of Tasmania. Ryan, at the same time, had decided to move to Hobart “purely out of love for the place. Everyone said it would be commercial suicide.” And so, almost by osmosis, Core Collective became a Tasmanian-based practice. Ceridwen and Ryan’s ambition was to marry sustainable building to the ideals of elegance and simplicity, humanity and habitability, shared by early modernism and classicism. They certainly weren’t looking for heritage conversions. But the work came their way in the form of the cavernous Press Hall at the Art Deco-era Hobart Mercury building, which the practice transformed into the light and open space that would become Franklin restaurant and Pigeon Whole Bakery. The material palette of trowelled and off-form concrete, steel and Tasmanian oak is a celebration of the building’s existing fabric.

Core Collective Architects thinks of each project as a collaboration with a client rather than the imposition of a design ethos on a client, and most clients find the practice through word-of-mouth. Sunnybanks House (2016; see Houses 119) followed these serendipitous lines: a chance conversation

its bluff,

the

Dromana

Lorna

in Sydney with a couple contemplating retirement in Tasmania led, over the course of a few years, to a commission on an elevated site overlooking the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. The clients wanted a house designed to accommodate their love for music and the many album covers they’d framed. “The idea is that the building should allow you to hear and feel this music and see this artwork all together, in concert,” Ryan says. The building sits low into the landscape, with a green roof, expressively arrayed steel inside and out, and a protected courtyard. The windows, all triple glazed, allow the broad – almost industrial – interior space to be passively warmed during sunny stretches of the boisterous Tasmanian winter. The smaller square puncturing windows to the wild south-east recall those of Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp. Two coastal residences in Victoria reveal different, yet related, responses to the constraints and possibilities of site. Venus Bay House (2006), on 18 acres of banksia and tea tree forest, rises from a north-facing dune to take in panoramic views through a continuous band of elevated windows. The building is necessarily robust, built to meet extreme fire risk construction codes, with an irregular facade of patchwork-like corrugated iron. The interior features blackbutt timber salvaged from the St Kilda pier kiosk, which burnt down in 2003. Dromana House (2018), meanwhile,

is organized around a more formal contrast between a bluff, street-facing exterior of corrugated iron and spotted gum and the glazed northern facade, which frames ocean views that extend the length of the house.

Looking back at Core Collective Architects’ 20-year evolution, Ryan says Hollow Tree House marked a turning point. He is now inclined to see the heavy yet harmonious colonial Georgian aesthetic as a precursor of a type of “textural modernism” that is equally robust, and enduring. Instead of the faceless glass box appended to a heritage building, the practice is pursuing a more elegant integration between old and new – a subtler response that brings out the contrasts between building styles separated by two centuries, and the affinities too.

But over and above nuances of style, aesthetics and even environmental performance, the team is drawn today to a more fundamental question when designing a new building or converting an old one: “What does the heart want?” corecollective.com.au

13 The team at Core Collective Architects: Emily Ouston, Kathrine Vand, Ceridwen Owen, Georgina Russell and Ryan Strating.

CRITICAL PROVOCATIVE DIVERSE TRUSTED CHALLENGING

Wright House II by Robin Boyd

Designed by Robin Boyd in 1962 to replace an earlier house that had been destroyed by bushfire, Wright House II united a robust, fire-resistant material palette with an expansive spatial language. The lovingly preserved house endures as one of Boyd’s most compelling designs.

Words by Byron Meyer Photography by Dianna Snape

Artist Penleigh Boyd is suggested to have done his best work painting plein-air on the banks of the Birrarung/Yarra River, in the bushy outer Melbourne suburb of Warrandyte. His son, architect Robin Boyd, spent his earliest years here, scrambling around the garden of a picturesque cottage his father had designed and built near the river before he tragically passed away in a car accident when Robin was four years old. Warrandyte would have an enduring hold on Robin Boyd; over the course of his life, he designed and built at least seven houses in the area (excluding Small Homes Service projects), all of which were for artists. Many of the early houses followed a “Warrandyte idiom” characterized by rough-sawn timber and locally sourced stone. Following a disastrous bushfire that swept through the area in January 1962, Boyd was among those called on to rebuild. In the houses that followed, there was a startling shift toward a fire-resistant material palette and a more expansive spatial language. The second home designed for Joyce and James Wright was one such design, and it ranks among Boyd’s most compelling.

The first home Boyd designed for the Wrights –a long, skillion-roofed structure perched on a steep northfacing slope – was completed in the late 1940s. It was reduced to ashes in the fire, save for two stone walls. The second design, which remains today, incorporated these vestiges and substituted the timber wall cladding of the Warrandyte idiom with steel tray decking. The long side of the house’s rectangular mass is oriented north-east, looking out over Warrandyte State Park and parallel to the topography. A new stone wall was added along the short north-western side, but otherwise the entire perimeter of the house is wrapped in glass, affording views from most rooms into the beautiful bush setting. The large, single plane of the steel deck roof seems to float, and it extends out to rest on slender steel columns held off the building to provide deep, shading eaves. The fire-resistant skin of stone and steel was carefully detailed to ensure flying embers from future bushfires had nowhere to lodge. Wright House II was completed in December 1962, with Graeme Gunn undertaking the working drawings.

Inside, the house is ordered as a cruciform. On first glance at the plan, this arrangement might seem somewhat staid. However as soon as one enters and moves through the house, its brilliance and drama quickly become apparent.

01 Wright House II was one of a handful of houses designed by Boyd for artist clients in Warrandyte.

Artwork: K. Stuart.

One feels cosy and held in each room, but there is also a sense of flow and generosity. We can imagine how the spaces really came to life during the Wrights’ rambunctious parties.

The Wrights were both commercial (graphic) artists who worked from home and loved entertaining. Consequently, in addition to the typical domestic requirements for cooking, living, bathing and sleeping areas, they needed a home studio, as well as formal living and dining areas. As the Wrights did not have children, fewer bedrooms and less spatial separation was required, which permitted greater freedom in how the different spaces could relate to each other. James Wright reportedly gave Boyd a sketch plan that, while crude and very different to Boyd’s final design, did include some of the more unusual room relationships.

An internal, sky-lit kitchen stands in the centre of the cruciform, enclosed by sliding doors with fibreglass insets (echoing Japanese shoji paper). The four arms of the cross are zoned as entry and laundry, sleeping and sewing, dining and studio, and finally living. Large sliding doors also project out from all four corners of the central kitchen, such that one is able to link and separate rooms as desired – or stroll right the way around. The cruciform arrangement thus offers continuity between the spaces, while granting each function its independence when required.

The plan could also be read as a riff on the nine-square grid, a classic architectural trope stretching back to the work of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. Three of the four corners nestled under the roof are unenclosed, serving as entrance court, service court and verandah balcony. The fourth corner is brought into the glazed envelope and extends down as a double-storey void that connects the upper living spaces to a lower-level music and reading lounge. One of the two remnant stone walls reaches up through this void and screens the stone staircase behind. The staircase side of the wall is unfinished, combining with planting to create a beautiful, earthy transition space. In contrast, the lounge side is rough-plastered and painted white, its clean abstraction illuminating the interior.

The volumes of the main living spaces are defined by vertical and horizontal planes that float apart from each other, an architectural language Boyd often employed to

02 Expansive glazing frames views of the bushland and is sheltered by a flat roof supported by slender columns.

03 The house features a fireresistant stone and steel skin and is carefully detailed to deter embers.

04

create a wonderful play between connection and containment. One feels cosy and held in each room, but there is also a sense of flow and generosity. We can imagine how the spaces really came to life during the Wrights’ rambunctious parties. The lower floor was designed as an independent suite to accommodate guests, and it serves equally well as a home office for the house’s current owners.

04 On the first floor, a cruciform plan creates distinct zones that are well-equipped for entertaining. Artwork: L. R. Parker.

05 Sliding screens allow occupants to link or separate living, dining and cooking zones as desired.

Artworks (L–R): Jan Riske, Stan de Teliga.

Heavy gauge steel roof sheeting (considerably thicker than is commonly available nowadays) allowed for larger spans and thus sparser structure than was common for residential construction of the day. The Canite ceiling is set out in full-size, staggered panels with exposed, brass flathead nail fixings whose spare and precise spacing make the ordinary lining appear careful and craft-like. The chimney flue of the lower lounge fireplace passes through the higher living space and keeps both areas toasty.

The sliding doors are floor-to-ceiling and retract flush into wall cavities, their ceiling tracks concealed within double beams. Well ahead of their time as a design detail, they appear as seamless planes in the spatial composition. This integration is made possible by the carefully composed synchronicity of structure and space so evident in all of Boyd’s work. A previous owner is reported to have spent the first six months of their stay complaining about the lack of

Original plans by Grounds, Romberg and Boyd Architects, 1962.

06

separation between the bedroom and dining room before realizing the flush pull in the opening was not merely a decorative feature.

The Wrights later commissioned Boyd to add a separate office studio to the property, which was completed shortly before Boyd’s unexpected death in 1971. The house has had three subsequent owners, each passing down a set of the original working drawings. Modifications have been minor and are mostly limited to the kitchen fitout. The current occupants express that they have always felt more like custodians than owners, and remark how content they felt despite being confined to the house for many months during Melbourne’s COVID–19 lockdowns. The house has always felt generous to them.

The coherence of site, structure and space evident in Wright House II, and the simplicity of its overall parti, seem both hard won and effortless. Realized in an understated, natural palette and with robust detailing that preserves the direct expression of fundamental elements, the design feels relaxed and unselfconscious. But what really makes the heart sing are the varied scales and spatial play yielded by the language of floating planes. There is a quiet sense of serenity and connection to place that evidently nourishes and responds to the unique lives of those who’ve been fortunate to live here.

Author’s note: Tony Lee was consulted during the writing of this article. The author wishes to acknowledge and thank him for sharing aspects of his deep and ongoing research into Boyd’s work.

Original sections and elevations by Grounds, Romberg and Boyd Architects, 1962.

06 Two stone walls from the first house survived the fire and were retained for the stair.

07 A dramatic void at the north-east edge connects the two levels. Artworks (L–R): Ola Lau, Joan Miró (signed print).

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Architect Robin Boyd Builder Joseph Versteegen of P. M. Versteegen and Sons

Retrofit Kit: Design tools for making our homes accessible

REVIEW

This Melbourne exhibition explored how our existing housing stock can be altered, changed and refitted to better meet the diverse housing needs of the Australian population.

Words by Louise Wright Photography by Peter Bennetts

In March, two years of ongoing research around retrofitting existing housing stock to better suit more diverse needs was presented in the exhibition RetroFit Kit: Design Tools for Making our Homes Accessible. At a 1:1 scale, a showroomlike installation demonstrated how Melbourne’s housing could be modified and the implications for the millions of Australians whose living needs are not currently being met.

Housing disadvantage comes in many forms and its solutions are often complex, with dwelling design rarely considered. But this exhibition and the body of research behind it elevate the power of design, deep architectural knowledge and small changes. Retrofitting is a critical strategy for architecture in addressing the mismatch between the diversity of our society and the relative homogeneity of our housing stock.

Led by associate professor Maryam Gusheh, senior lecturer Catherine Murphy and professor Nigel Bertram, the exhibition marks stage two of a three-stage project towards an actual house retrofit. Called “Better Life @ Home,” the project is part of the Monash Urban Lab research program at Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) and is being undertaken with the support of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Masters of architecture students carried out research into Melbourne’s housing stock and typology and engaged with a client, Ben Gauntlett (Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission), who brought a lived experience to the Disability and Discrimination Act regulations for buildings. These two types of knowing were brought together to push and pull design ideas for what could be altered, changed or refitted.

In the MADA Gallery, the visitor occupied the architectural possibilities. Studies of domestic zones identified as Entry, Foyer, Garage, Kitchen and Bathroom were built as a series of connecting spaces that independently communicated their critical elements of retrofitting while also being arranged as a whole house. The whole brought an extra dimension to the exhibition, especially at the opening, when we all gathered in the kitchen for the speeches.

The visitor passed through these zones, looping around a peripheral and extra-wide circulation route that

at times ramped up and down. The students designed and constructed the rooms using rigid cardboard panel walls (Durra Panel) and purpose-made furniture elements in pine – real enough, but also unreal and temporary in the language of the exhibition. The experience was supported by expertly tuned typography and graphics, which were overlaid onto walls and the floor, by MADA lecturer Warren Taylor. Using the language of architectural drawings, these graphics showed how the garage might be used as a bedroom (indicated by a bed plan on the floor), where a toilet might be located, and so on.

Each space demonstrated a range of concepts that could, relatively simply and in a kit-like way, be applied to existing housing: a garage door that admits light, thereby increasing amenity and possibilities for multi-use; looped circulation that removes the dead end; a large and highamenity bathroom; and a lower, table-style kitchen bench.

A takeaway brochure was provided for each space, succinctly explaining in words and diagrams the suitability, functionality and amenity of the elements in sustaining the dignity of the occupant. Dignity was a guiding principle reflected in the non-institutional translation of the regulations. Each brochure was part of a larger publication of the case studies, echoing the structure of the elemental and the whole.

The built spaces were the primary exhibition language, while the typological housing stock research occupied a second order as posters on the gallery wall. The research aligned design strategies with common house types – small and large detached dwellings, walk-up flats, town and row houses, and garage houses. This fascinating information, curated by MADA lecturer Tom Morgan, was presented as mapping and a visual catalogue. Constituting a valuable documentation of dwelling types and their spatial distribution in metropolitan Melbourne, it reveals the potential impact of retrofitting across our urban fabric.

RetroFit Kit was a compelling, embodied experience, where the visitor was not looking “at” but being “in” in a way that allowed the potential of architecture to speak. RetroFit Kit: Design Tools for Making our Homes Accessible is part of a collaborative research project between Monash Architecture and the Australian Human Rights Commission and was exhibited at the MADA Gallery, 22 to 30 March 2022.

01 The installation allowed visitors to experience the kit-like elements for adapting existing housing.

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