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Australian Residential Architecture and Design

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Designed by Contech Architects Built by NRG Building Photograph by David Sievers

For Ellul Architecture, designing Sandringham House required a compact plan with big ambitions. Beyond just looks alone, it had to feel like a dream modern home with maximum internal space for a young family to grow. The design sensibilities of Axon™ Cladding by James Hardie brought drama and detail without the durability worries of timber.

A home so perfectly executed, it runs rings around its timber counterparts.

Axon™ Cladding

Sandringham House by Ellul Architecture

From the Editor 08

Musings

Contributors 10

Fresh finds 13 Products

Green scene 49

Sustainable products

New products that support an ethical and environmental agenda.

Bookshelf 53 Reading

Local design is championed in these new publications, which delve into residential design in Aotearoa New Zealand, Tasmania, Sydney and bayside Beaumaris.

Portrait of a House 130 Postscript

Louise Whelan’s photography and film project documents the craft, care and collaboration that underpins Peter Stutchbury’s Indian Heads House.

House for BEES Working with an Architect

42

44

80

Homeowner Sarah approached architecture firm Downie North with a brief for a sustainable and practical family home.

Foomann Architects One to Watch

This studio untangles constraints to yield quiet, environmentally responsive and thoughtfully detailed work.

Elliat Rich Studio

Often mythical, the work of this Alice Springs-based designer seeks to spark connection between all things.

82

Chinaman’s Beach House by Fox Johnston

First House

Conrad Johnston recalls his studio’s first residential commission, built on a precipitous Sydney site.

Steendijk In Profile

111

122

For two decades, this Brisbane studio has been crafting inventive, well-detailed houses underpinned by a passion for making.

Marie Short House by Glenn Murcutt

Revisited

This seminal work, designed by Glenn Murcutt and built in 1974, endures as a model for responsive, responsible design.

Adaptable and intuitive, these houses are attuned to evolving use, accommodating the ebb and flow of visitors and responding effectively and delightfully to seasonal change.

Bass Coast Farmhouse by John Wardle Architects

16

26

Hopscotch House by John Ellway Architect

House for BEES by Downie North

New House Wonthaggi, Vic 54

Elsternwick Penthouse by Office Alex Nicholls

34

Alteration + Addition Sydney, NSW

62

Caringal Flat by Ellul Architecture

Apartment Melbourne, Vic 94

86

House in the Dry by MRTN Architects

New House Tamworth, NSW

Apartment Melbourne, Vic

Bedford by Milieu by DKO with Design Office

Apartment Melbourne, Vic

70

Alteration + Addition Brisbane, Qld 102

AB House by Office Mi–Ji

New House Barwon Heads, Vic

Grove House by Clayton Orszaczky

Alteration + Addition Sydney, NSW

Musings

As summer begins and the end of the year approaches, many of you might be awaiting a change in pace and eager to assume a recumbent pose, like our cover stars. Flux is a recurrent thread in this issue of Houses, with homes that encourage their owners to delight in seasonal change, and the ebb and flow of friends and family. Office Mi–Ji’s AB House in Barwon Heads (page 94) employs layered rooms and twists in the plan to create an intriguing beach house that oscillates between privacy and connection. In Brisbane, John Ellway Architect’s Hopscotch House (page 26) registers daily and seasonal change like a sundial, spurring its occupants to move around the house depending on fluctuations in sun, breezes and seasons. The end result is, Dirk Yates writes, like choosing where to place a picnic rug, but in a house. Reflecting the different ways we choose to live in Australia, in this issue we also visit three apartments: a fastidiously reworked 1950s studio that revives the original architect’s vision for sociability in small-footprint living (Ellul Architecture, page 62); a new development that offers a customizable floor plan in anticipation of a diverse internal life (DKO with Design Office, page 70); and a multigenerational apartment that meets its owners current needs while anticipating future change (Office Alex Nicholls, page 54).

Put your feet up, find a comfy spot and enjoy reading this issue of Houses.

Alexa Kempton, editor

Write to us at houses@archmedia.com.au

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Print: architecturemedia.com Newsletter: architectureau.com/ newsletters_list Find us @housesmagazine

01 Discover domestic life in rural South Australia through a photographic exhibition of two farmhouses at the State Library of South Australia. This photographic series by Alexandra McOrist offers glimpses into the histories of two now-empty farmhouses, formerly occupied by settler families. McOrist weaves details of archival magazines and newspaper articles into each photo, adding historical context but ultimately leaving the narrative up to the viewer’s imagination. Until 29 January 2023. Image: The best of times, the worst of times. Photograph: Alexandra McOrist. slsa.sa.gov.au

03 Celebrate the legacy of the anonymous maker in this ceramics exhibition. Artist Kristin Burgham moulds ceramic forms from discarded objects such as bottles and boxes, acknowledging the anonymous makers whose objects populate our homes. Legacy will be on show at Craft Victoria’s Vitrine Gallery from 31 January to 4 March 2023. Image: courtesy of the artist. craft.org.au

02 Explore a collection of architectural homes in Sydney’s picturesque suburb of Castlecrag. Led by local architect Ben Gerstel, the walking tour takes you down the streets of this historic garden suburb, which is scattered with architectural homes designed by Harry Seidler, Peter Muller, Hugh Buhrich and more. Tour runs 10 December. architecture.org.au/tours

04 Immerse yourself in modernist sculpture at the first Australian exhibition of the work of Barbara Hepworth. Developed in consultation with the Hepworth Estate, the exhibition charts the shift in Hepworth’s approach from figurative to abstract forms. See Barbara Hepworth: In Equilibrium at Melbourne’s Heide Museum of Modern Art from 5 November 2022 to 13 March 2023. Image: Sculpture with Colour and String, 1939, 1961, by Barbara Hepworth. courtesy of Heide Museum of Modern Art. heide.com.au

Materially Different

Timber veneers to bring dimension to any space

Joinery & Walls Eveneer Almond by Elton Group Project Leichhardt House Interiors Porebski Architects Photographer Tom Ferguson

Contributors

Anthony’s work explores the quieter, experiential moments found in buildings. He is drawn to architecture that stirs emotion through scale, form, colour and texture. Anthony has developed a portfolio of projects that are not clean nor simple, but rather emotive, personal, layered and considered.

Chloe cut her teeth practising architecture in her North Queensland home town of Bowen. She has since lived and practised architecture in Brisbane and Lima, Peru. She is now based in Sydney, where she works for BVN across multiple typologies in both architecture and interiors.

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 Goran Rupena Design Janine Wurfel janine@studiometrik.com

Advertising enquiries All states advertising@ archmedia.com.au +61 3 8699 1000

Print management DAI Print Distribution Australia: Are Direct (newsagents) and International: Eight Point Distribution

CEO/Publisher

Jacinta Reedy Company secretary Ian Close General manager operations Jane Wheeler General manager digital publishing Mark Scruby General manager sales

Michael Pollard

Published by Architecture Media Pty Ltd

ACN 008 626 686

Level 6, 163 Eastern Road South Melbourne Vic 3205 Australia T: +61 3 8699 1000 F: +61 3 9696 2617 publisher@archmedia.com.au architecturemedia.com

Endorsed by The Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.

Sheona Thomson Writer

Sheona is a Brisbane-based design educator and course coordinator in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at QUT. A regular contributor to Architecture Media titles, she values the opportunity to report on local designers’ inspiring work.

Anthony St John Parsons Writer

Anthony is an Australian architect who runs his own practice in Wangal Country, Sydney. His modest body of work has been repeatedly recognized by the Australian Institute of Architects.

Anthony is a frequent critic and guest tutor at the universities of Newcastle and New South Wales.

Cover: House for BEES by Downie North. Artwork: Margie Carew-Reid. Photograph: Clinton Weaver.

Member

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ISSN 1440-3382

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.

Anthony Basheer Photographer

Chloe Naughton Writer

Fresh finds

From tactile cast metal handles to design classics in contemporary colourways, these new products will add a distinctive finishing touch to your home.

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

01 Dip Wall Hook

Crafted through slip casting, the Dip Wall Hook delights in the texture and natural colour variation achieved in the glazing process. Designed by Ashlee Hopkins and Thomas Parbs, the hooks feature a soft, concave form and fine edges. Available in six colours. j-a-m.com.au

04 Herman Miller x Hay

The Herman Miller x Hay collection comprises twenty-first century reinterpretations of eight mid-century Eames classics. Featuring considered new colour palettes and updated materials, this collection combines timeless design with a contemporary point of view. hermanmiller.com

02

Wästberg x John Pawson

Celebrated architect John Pawson’s first Wästberg lamp combines rectilinear and curved elements in one quietly monumental volume. Notched cut-outs contribute to the lamp’s distinctive profile and shape the way light is cast from the dimmable light. wastberg.com

05 Casts by Edition Office for Bankston Designed by architecture practice Edition Office, this limited edition collection of cast metal door hardware celebrates subtle, refined character and intuitive functionality. Elegant, minimal forms invite touch and, thanks to thoughtful design, are a joy to operate. bankstonarchitectural.com.au

03 Dulux connect Dulux’s Colour Forecast 2023 comprises three palettes that reflect our desire to bond with the people and places we love. The Connect palette gathers warm, earthy colours: think moss, wasabi and burnt charcoal. Styling by Bree Leech, photograph by Lisa Cohen. dulux.com.au

06

Sundowner

by Jørn Utzon for Lyfa

Lyfa has relaunched Sundowner, an iconic pendant light first designed in 1948 by Jørn Utzon. A special edition has been added to the range, featuring a sandstone-inspired colour on two of the four shades that pays homage to Utzon’s house by the Mediterranean sea. fredinternational.com.au

09 Urania collection

A collaboration between Hegi Design House and New York- and Florence-based architect Pietro Franceschini, Urania features expressive sculptural forms. The eight furniture pieces are upholstered in velvet and boucle, yet their bulbous forms look as if they were cast in stone. hegidesignhouse.com

07 Coppibartali

Designed by Mario Nanni, the Coppibartali light comprises distinctive glass cylinders that allow the design to function as a wall, table and pendant light. The aluminum detailing –a patented Viabizzuno chain system – ensures the light is as elegant as it is versatile. viabizzuno.com

10 Surround by Laminex

Five new profiles have been added to the Surround by Laminex range, including a profile inspired by the Breton shirt, a classic staple in French fashion. All Surround panels are now certified as moisture resistant, making them suitable for laundries and bathrooms. laminex.com.au

08 Occhi Maxi wall sconce

Part of the Occhi collection, the Maxi wall sconce explores bold contrast through its pairing of circular and linear forms. A solid cast glass disc sits against a discreet backplate, creating a halo-like glow, while the gently tumbled satin frost face subtly refracts light. articololighting.com

Caesarstone Porcelain. A new point of view.

Since 1987, Caesarstone has inspired design freedom in millions of homes worldwide. Now, we’re introducing new porcelain surfaces that expand our portfolio of premium colours, leveraging our legacy of craftsmanship and

innovation to give you even greater flexibility, indoors and outdoors.

Caesarstone Porcelain marks a leap in technology, functionality, and design with surfaces that deliver a new degree of durability, strength, and beauty in the heart of your home.

BASS COAST FARMHOUSE

BY JOHN WARDLE ARCHITECTS

Words by Rachel Hurst Photography by Trevor Mein

When Gertrude Stein wrote “A rose is a rose is a rose,” it wasn’t because she’d mislaid her thesaurus. Stein’s work explored the conceptual power of poetry, and her message was that the name of a thing immediately summons the symbols and emotions we associate with it. If this review simply said “a house is a house is a house,” readers (and editors!) might feel a little cheated, but it would go to the heart of this conceptually rigorous work in regional Victoria by John Wardle Architects (JWA). With its instantly recognizable silhouette of wall-roof-chimney, Bass Coast Farmhouse is almost a cartoon of our collective image of “house.” But it joins a lineage of iconic houses that approach the Platonic ideal: from the classical typologies of Roman courtyard villas and Palladian palazzi, to more recent models such as Herzog and de Meuron’s House in Leymen (1997) and Glenn Murcutt et al’s evocations of Australian farm buildings.

In contrast to JWA’s normal additive design process, this house is exactly as it was proposed to be – from concept to detailed execution. The design is about the power of reduction and responds to another lineage: this is the clients’ third residential commission for the practice. The previous two, Fairhaven House (2012) and Freshwater Place Apartment (2016; see Houses 119), were designed to embrace panoramic views. Instead, Bass Coast Farmhouse turns inwards as a hollow square, almost perversely denying long landscape views in favour of a farmyard court complex. There is good sense to this tactic: it’s stark country. Close to a rocky shoreline, it’s a perfect retreat for the surfing client and family. Entirely off-grid with extensive solar and water collection, this is a place to hunker down and relish self-containment.

01 The farmhouse’s external form remains faithful to the building language of rural structures.

02 A courtyard plan provides enclosure and protection on an exposed coastal site.

Composed and confident , this new residence in regional Victoria distils the fundamentals of the rural farmhouse into a richly detailed home that encourages its occupants to relish slowness and self-containment.

4–14 5

Wonthaggi, Vic Site 660,975 m² Floor 374.5 m² Design 10 m Build 24 m Extended

Five rules govern the design, buttressing its ethos of empathy with this austere environment: constant enclosure; a single concrete floor; an undercroft defined by the rise and fall of the land; three types of windows; it is a farmhouse, pure and simple.

The plan is guided by the rules of enclosure and the fundamentals of the farmhouse (for example, orientation on the diagonal compass points, a kitchen overlooking the entry, double entry porches and no embedded garage). But the “ground rules” generate volumetric drama. Influenced by the work of architects Lina Bo Bardi and Paulo Mendes da Rocha in Sao Paolo, JWA has built down, not up, using the undercroft as a potent circulation experience. The floor plate follows the slope of natural ground level: while the house sits on terra firma on most of its four sides, the courtyard plunges toward an underbelly that “leaks out” below a double cantilever toward the ocean. Two stairs connect back to the main level. If that all sounds complicated (as it would have been to build), the result feels entirely resolved and thrilling in the experience.

The rules of reductionism and repetition discipline the building formally and economically. Extraneous elements like gutters are detailed into apparent oblivion, materials restricted to a tight palette of concrete, spotted gum and galvanized roofing; and “a window is a window is a window.” The result is a mute (but familiar) form in the landscape that opens to reveal a highly articulated interior.

Bass Coast Farmhouse is undeniably generous in scale, but intelligent handling controls its functionality around the courtyard. Embracing the symmetry of the square, the design clusters sleeping and living into wings that can be closed or opened to the inner or outer light as required. The contrast of dark, dappled or illuminated corridors makes a virtue of the longer journeys. A bridge allows the clients to cut between the living area and main bedroom and enjoy the spatial drama of the inside-outside void. There’s a wicked confusion of design references in the detailing – are we in an elevated sheep run or Scarpa’s Castelvecchio? – and a teasing visual proximity of main bathroom to lounge. It’s the one moment when the gabled roof is broken to flood the void with sunlight, and a large window alcove invites contemplation of this cultivated abyss.

Slowness is deliberately built into this house. Just opening it from its dormant state takes meditative (and physical!) effort. The shutters are operated by bespoke steampunkesque handwheels that mechanically generate electricity to open them: the slow exposé awakens the house and self to place. The living room is subtly attuned to temporal rhythms, seasonal and historic: fifteen metres long, with different furniture settings for a winter hearth or summer lounging space, it’s a latter-day Elizabethan Long Gallery. The house is an evolved vocabulary of design gestures: timber linings and joinery that blur into architectural intarsia; surprise practical wet areas; draped steel shelves and seamless cupboards. As ever in Wardle’s work, there’s a delight in the kinetics of daily life –from animating the exterior envelope, to the theatrical descent of a concealed television or the neat tuck of concertina flyscreens. Is God, or the Devil, in the detail? Certainly the practice is committed to this kind of dazzling resolution and has courted the best in the construction industry to achieve it.

Awaiting occupation by its owners, the farmhouse feels expectant, immaculate and archetypal, even as it begins to gently weather into its setting. This house sits confidently between past and future heritages in residential design. In John Wardle’s assessment, it is perhaps the acme of the practice’s domestic work. With such purity of concept and execution, it belongs in the lexicon of Australian architecture. But without doubt this memorable project demonstrates the essence of “house,” and that a paradigm is a paradigm is a paradigm …

03 Screens and shutters are moved by handwheels, turning their operation into theatre. Artwork: Timothy Cook.

04 A refined but restrained interior is wrapped in timber.

New house

family (holiday house) + 1 powder room

Bass Coast Farmhouse is built on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation.

Five rules govern the design, buttressing its ethos of empathy with this austere environment: constant enclosure; a single concrete floor; an undercroft defined by the rise and fall of the land; three types of windows; it is a farmhouse, pure and simple.

Section 1:400 05 m

07

05 The house is sited on a natural rise, creating a bunker-like undercroft.

06 A cutaway in the roof adds to the spatial drama of the undercroft.

07 A bridge across the void is a thrilling shortcut from the main bedroom to the living spaces.

Products

Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb

External walls: Spotted gum tongue-and-groove cladding from Matthews Timber in WOCA exterior oil; concrete by Insitu in Class 2 off-form finish

Internal walls: Spotted gum timber veneers from Timberwood Panels in Osmo Polyx matt; plasterboard in Dulux ‘White Duck Quarter’; Inax Fuka and Yohen Border tiles from Artedomus

Windows: Custom solid spotted gum with fixed Viridian Energytech clear glazing by Overend Constructions and Pickering Joinery; Aneeta black anodized aluminium sashless windows with Viridian Lightbridge clear glazing; custom solid spotted gum timber shutters by Overend Constructions

Doors: Custom spotted gum timber (solid and veneer) by Overend Constructions

Flooring: Machine-burnished concrete topping screed slab; solid spotted gum tongue and groove from Matthews Timber; coir matting by Birrus Matting Systems

Lighting: Produzione Privata Aquatinta and IPY from Ornare; Lampada from Artedomus; various from Light Project Kitchen: Blanco Claron sink; Sussex mixer; Fisher and Paykel fridge/freezer and dishwasher; Condair rangehood; Lacanche oven and cooktop; custom shelves and concrete island by Overend Constructions; custom steel benchtop by Sharpline Bathroom: Sussex tapware; Concrete Nation bath; Agape wall basin; Set in Steel monolithic concrete vanity; Sepp concrete basin from Wood Melbourne; Overend Constructions basin frame and steel rod towel rail

Heating and cooling: and Sanden Eco Plus hot water system; Daikin bulkhead split system from Griepink and Ward; Cheminees Philippe fire box from Wignells; in-slab heating by Nissle Eichert Heating

External elements: Overend Constructions custom steel and concrete features; The Pool Company custom pool with Sunbather automatic cover

Other: Bespoke timber elements by Overend Constructions and Charles Sandford Woodturning and Joinery; custom cushions by Martel Upholstery

08 The main bedroom at the western corner of the house enjoys panoramic views of the landscape.

09 Bunkrooms accommodate extended family.

10 A generous entry is equipped for the removal of muddy shoes and coats.

Architect John Wardle Architects +61 3 8662 0400 enquiries@johnwardlearchitects.com johnwardlearchitects.com

Project team John Wardle, Diego Bekinschtein, Megan Fraser, Andy Wong, Luca Vezzosi, Adrian Bonaventura, Maya Borjesson Builder Overend Constructions Engineer OPS Engineers Landscaping Jo Henry Landscape Desigin Sustainability consultant Greensphere Mechanical services Griepink and Ward Electrical services and solar PV system Burra Electrical Geotechnical and bushfire consultant Ark Angel

HOPSCOTCH HOUSE

BY JOHN ELLWAY ARCHITECT

Words by Dirk Yates Photography by Toby Scott

John Ellway has a knack for naming things. The shorthand name for his practice, JEllway, offers a practical and playful nickname that brands the architect and the practice, and is easily transferrable to hashtags. This style of nomenclature – perhaps a conceptual residue from John’s time working in wayfinding and product communication before he became an architect – also extends to the labelling of projects. In the practice, there is no Indooroopilly House, Schulz Extension, or XX House – names fit for an office filing system with the sensibility of the White Pages. Instead, we get Terrarium House, Cascade House, Three House and Twin Houses – titles that evoke the design qualities that are particular to each project rather than the client’s driver’s license or the architect’s oeuvre.

So, we come to Hopscotch House, a name that conjures ideas of squares and numbers chalked on concrete, and giggling children hopping and twisting as they follow the arbitrary rules of the game. Looking at the plan of the house, you can see how the skip-hop of hopscotch has been instilled in built form: the arrangement of rooms and courtyards, which

extend from the existing timber worker’s cottage, is reminiscent of the children’s game, while also elucidating design principles that the architect has set for the project.

An unconventional design response can elicit a playful interaction between architect and client that is not dissimilar to children negotiating the rules of a new game. There is often a mix of earnestness and absurdity in this relationship that allows for revelry over the banal. One such project that comes to mind is House VI (1975) by US architect Peter Eisenman, in which the design concept, based on the interaction of voids and solids, necessitated that a non-structural column be inserted in the middle of the dining table without connecting to the floor. This provocative design, which intentionally ignored the specific requirements of the client or even the need to provide salubrious accommodation, is nevertheless playful in the ways it challenges those who live there. In both Hopscotch House and House VI, enjoyment can be found in perceiving and experiencing the spatial narrative negotiated by the architect with the owners.

01 Sliding, stacking doors and casement panels allow the house to be open to light and breezes.

02 New rooms are designed as garden pavilions that are pulled apart to enfold several courtyards.

Inspired by the simple joy of a children’s game, this home’s stepped composition of rooms and garden courtyards creates an intuitive, flexible home that is readily connected to the outdoors.

people.

Alteration + addition Brisbane, Qld

Site 405 m²

Per m² $4,900 Family

Unlike House IV, however, the principles of Hopscotch House are primarily social and environmental. Light and air flow freely and are easily modulated by the building (with sliding screens and opaque windows), the landscape (a vine grown across a gabled trellis for shade, and the shedding of leaves of a deciduous tree to admit winter sun), or the way the house is occupied (occupants moving along the couch to where the sunlight is or isn’t). There is a dynamism to the house that is compelling and delightful. The homeowners will want to spend more time in particular rooms depending on the time of year, and to move to certain areas of a room depending on the time of day. It’s all simple stuff and it relies on the owners embracing the changeable qualities of the sun, the breezes and the seasons. It feels a lot like choosing where to place your blanket for a picnic, but in a house. There is an old-fashioned quality in this house. It’s not the technological equivalent of the Gameboy; there is no PassivHaus certification or triple-glazed windows. It doesn’t need to be. This is subtropical design at its best: intuitive, flexible and readily connected to the outdoors. The house simply responds to Brisbane’s predominantly benign climate by controlling breezes, employing concrete floors for coolth, and drawing in winter daylight to warm interiors. There are solar panels and rainwater collection but, like the flushing toilet, they don’t get a special mention – they’re simply necessities. The

Floor 120 m² Carport/shed 28 m² Design 22 m Build 11 m

materials are modest – being primarily timber, corrugated metal sheet, brick and rendered concrete blocks – and are therefore relatively consistent with the existing building. The kit of doors and windows that repeats throughout the extension has an economy of construction comparable to the Queenslander vernacular that is pragmatic and economical rather than kitsch.

A unique aspect of the design is that, although the existing cottage is double-fronted, the new work is only one room deep. Rather than being one long, thin, north–south extrusion, the new rooms step from east to west and enfold several courtyards, each with distinctive plantings and uses depending on their solar orientation. There is a lush entry garden, a Mediterranean terrace adjacent the dining table, a greenhouse fernery, and a service court for propagating new plants and making your way to the shed. Consequently, the extension functions as a series of garden pavilions rather than a set of partitioned rooms in a house. While being relatively unique in plan, the design expresses fundamentals of architecture that are not new. Instead, it is a revival of sensibilities that were common before the intensive use of energy through heating and airconditioning. The design of Hopscotch House is driven by a simple shift in the way we understand housing, emphasizing not the rudiments of accommodation but rather the enjoyment of occupation. It’s as simple as child’s play. Delightful!

Hopscotch House is built on the land of the Turrbal and Yuggera

There is a dynamism to the house that is compelling and delightful.

The homeowners will want to spend more time in particular rooms depending on the time of year, and to move to certain areas of a room depending on the time of day.

03 The house registers sunlight’s daily and seasonal movements.

04 Deciding whether to sit in the sun or the shade is like choosing where to place a picnic blanket, but in a house.

05 Mesh screens will support vines as they grow up and around the addition.

06 A new entry leads directly into the living spaces, preserving privacy for bedrooms.

07 A neighbourhood garden at the front of the house offers greenery to the street.

05 06

Roofing: Corrugated Custom Orb by Lysaght in ‘Natural Zincalume’; clear toughened glass by Viridian

External walls: Handimesh by Earlybird Steel; fibre cement sheet by James Hardie; existing timber cladding in Dulux ‘Natural White’ Internal walls: Concrete block by National Masonry in ‘Grey’; cement render by Rockcote Render; blackbutt hardwood ceilings in Bona Natural finish

Windows: By Allkind in Dulux ‘Natural White’; Whitco awning locks in white powdercoat

Doors: Timber frames by Allkind in Dulux ‘Natural White’; Centor brass rollers and guides and white powdercoated drop-bolts

Flooring: Hamlet bricks by Austral Bowral; hardwood decking by Feast Watson finished with water-repellant decking oil; nilexposure matt-grind concrete

Lighting: Cesta wall, table and globe lamps by Santa and Cole; PH 5 pendant by Louis Poulsen

Kitchen: Stainless steel benchtops and integrated sink by Bridgeman Stainless in No. 4 finish; satin 2pac in Dulux ‘Natural White’; blackbutt island with Evolution Hardwax Oil by Whittle Waxes; Blum Tandembox drawers and hinges; Fisher and Paykel appliances; Grohe tapware; Inax Sugie tiles from Artedomus

Bathroom: Corian benchtops in ‘Cameo White’; Blum drawers and hinges; Grohe tapware; Argent and Grohe toilets; Duravit and Lindsey Wherrett basins; Linear Standard towel rails in matt white; Inax Sugie tiles from Artedomus Heating and cooling: and Ducted airconditioning by Daikin; 28-panel solar array with Enphase inverters

External elements: National Masonry grass pavers in grey; Hamlet bricks by Austral Bowral

Other: Wells dining table and Title bed and coffee table by Mast Furniture; custom lounge upholstery in Instyle Calibre ‘Aesthetic’ fabric; Jasny dining chairs by Nomi

Architect John Ellway Architect mail@jellway.com jellway.com

Project team John Ellway, Hannah Waring Builder Robson Constructions Engineer Ingineered Landscape architect Studio Terrain Landscaping Werner Weis Landscapes Building certifier Bartley Burns

HOUSE FOR BEES BY DOWNIE NORTH

Words by Ben Peake Photography by Clinton Weaver

When designing a home, the architect-client relationship can be complex and delicate, but also immensely rewarding. Its success relies on an initial trust on both sides, a dedication from the architect to understanding the specific values of the client, and a collaborative process between both parties that identifies the shared values they wish to instil in the design. With no pre-defined or off-the-shelf outcome, a values-driven design process can make anything possible; therefore, that process is one of collectively finding the right thing to do, both for the client and for the site. By going on this journey together, the architect and the client have a shared responsibility for the outcome.

It’s clear that this is a process that Cat Downie and Dan North of Downie North have created with their client, Sarah, and her family when designing an extension to their home in Sydney’s Mosman. The modest addition creates a new area for living that is both comfortable and generous, and its title – House for BEES – is both a reference to the family’s names (Barney, Eddie, Evan and Sarah) as well as a tribute to the design intent of being focused on the garden and its hive for native bees.

The new extension’s angled roof is formed as a single, expressive plane that creates a generous volume, which drops down to reinforce a horizontal

view of the garden through two walls of sliding doors. A strategically placed north-facing clerestory window brings direct winter sun into the living room to fall across joinery, accentuating the space created between the old and new roofs.

Downie North has deployed a classic indoorsoutdoors design move that helps improve everyday activity by making the garden more visibly and physically connected to the home. Structural columns sit on the inside of the building line and allow its eastern and southern edges to disappear when the sliding doors are open. These operable facades combine with the composition of the angled roof to orientate you toward the existing vegetable garden. It’s a connection the clients are now enjoying more than before – Sarah describes how the new spaces encourage the kids to pick fresh herbs for dinner.

Within this threshold between inside and outside, the skill and thoughtfulness of the architects is evident. Large timber-framed glass doors slide away easily and completely to stack in the hallway, opening up the entire wall to the garden. The angle and geometry of the roof create a deep eave outside the building, providing weather protection to the windows and a place for operable louvres that ensure the home can breathe in all weather, even when the big doors are closed.

01 The south-facing addition steps up from the existing house and features an angled roof that draws in light and air.

02 Retractable doors on the southern and eastern edges peel open to unite house and garden.

03 A clerestory window admits warming winter sun from the north into the addition.

Compact in size yet richly rewarding to the lives of its occupants, this new living pavilion in Sydney’s Mosman employs porous edges to allow family life to unfurl into the garden.

The overarching design move of the roof form and windows is supported by a subtle design that aims to complement daily life, not control it. A wall of joinery partially separates the kitchen and the living room, concealing the messy areas of food preparation and providing shelving and a screened ledge for the TV. An existing timber table is used as the kitchen island, providing texture and welcome contrast to the new joinery. Cork-tiled floors create a warm and gentle texture underfoot.

Cat and Dan have worked with their client to design a home that is responsive to the client’s brief, environment, and site context while also enhancing everyday living. And yet, this design was undertaken within the constraints of a Complying Development Code (CDC) application. The CDC process in New South Wales defines a permitted building envelope on existing sites – placing limits on size, volume, proximity to boundaries and overshadowing – that does not require separate council approval, avoiding lengthy negotiations with council and neighbouring residents. Consequently, it is often seen as a process of maximization: What is the largest volume of development that can be achieved on a particular site within a predetermined building envelope? Resulting developments often lack architectural ambition and nuance due to the absence of site-specific consideration in their design. But here, in the hands of skilled architects and an informed client, the team has balanced the restrictions of this type of planning application with a design that responds to the built environment context and the landscape opportunities of the garden. This, once again, is testament to a values-driven design approach that focuses on doing what is right, not just what is possible.

House for BEES embodies all the qualities you expect from Downie North. Cat, Dan and Sarah each added to the story of the home’s design, reinforcing the idea that good architecture comes from a collaborative process. Recognition of this collaboration can be found in the children’s bedroom, where a series of three timber sculptures depicts characters that represent the clients, the architects and the builders. Made by a First Nations artist, these sculptures are a tribute to the necessary trinity of skills required to achieve good design, and to a proudly shared ownership of the finished outcome.

Products

Roofing: PREFA Aluminium standing seam roof sheeting in ‘Patina Grey’; Colorbond Klip-Lok in ‘Windspray’

External walls: Dry-pressed bricks from Austral Bricks in Dulux ‘Natural White’; existing brickwork Flooring: Portugal Cork Traditional cork tiles; reclaimed kauri pine floorboards to match existing; solid blackbutt treads

Doors and windows: and Bespoke western red cedar windows and doors from Windoor; Brio brass flush bolts

Kitchen: Custom birch plywood joinery; six-millimetre stainless steel benchtops with integrated sinks; Minokoyo mosaic tiles from Academy Tiles; Wolf 91 cm freestanding dual fuel oven/stove, Qasair Albany Island rangehood, Fisher and Paykel refrigerator

Bathroom: Di Lorenzo Viola Oro mosaic floor tiles; Jatana Interiors Dark Camel wall tiles; vanity, toilet suite and tapware from Just Bathroomware

Heating and cooling: and Heat and Glo 5x fireplace from Jetmaster; ceiling fans

External elements: Site-reclaimed sandstone flagging for garden bed retaining walls; site-reclaimed brick for external paving

Other: Antique rug hanger for clothes drying; B&B Italia Le Bamboozle Sofa; Getama Ring Chairs from Great Dane Furniture; Flos Tab floor lamp, Thonet dining chairs

04 A partial wall of joinery provides practical separation between the kitchen and living areas.

Alteration + addition Sydney, NSW Site 666 m² Floor 210 m² Design 12 m Build 9 m Family+1 powder room

House for BEES is built on the land of the Borogegal and Cammeraygal people.

05 Operable louvres tucked into the eaves of the folded roof provide ventilation in all weather.

Section 1:400 05 m

Architect Downie North +61 2 8386 2043 studio@downienorth.com downienorth.com

Project team Catherine Downie, Daniel North Builder Wrightson and Co Structural engineer SDA Structures Hydraulic engineer ADCAR Consulting

HOUSE FOR BEES MEET THE OWNERS

WORKING WITH AN ARCHITECT

01 In summer, when the doors are open, “the garden feels like it’s in the living room,” Sarah says.

02 The roof tilts up to scoop northern light into living spaces. Artwork: Margie Carew-Reid.

homeowners Sarah and Evan

architects Cat Downie and Dan North from Downie North with a brief for a sustainable home to suit their busy family life. Sarah talks to Alexa Kempton about the process of working with an architect.

Photography by Clinton Weaver

Alexa Kempton Can you start by telling me a bit about yourself?

Sarah I used to work in fashion. It was great, but very unsustainable, and over time I realized that being environmentally responsible was more important to me than looking good.

I love the idea of things being aesthetically pleasing, so then I studied interior design, and I now run a design and decoration business. I also love gardening – I always have loved it.

AK When did you decide to engage an architect?

S My husband Evan and I bought this place in 2014. It’s a Federation-era house, but it had all these strange add-ons at the back, and there was a big backyard that was completely disconnected from the house. We lived in it for a few years and then had children, so we needed to reconfigure the house to suit life with two small boys. We approached a few architects initially. We began working with one architect but, six months into that process, I wasn’t sure about the direction it was going in, and so we started talking to Cat and Dan from Downie North.

AK What made you change course?

S The fit with the first architect didn’t feel right. Cat and Dan understood family living and the need to have different zones within the house. They really got it. Their aesthetic was also more in keeping with my own. During the early stages, I talked a lot about recycling materials like the bricks, choosing environmentally sustainable materials such as cork flooring, and using passive design principles, and they really embraced that brief. Some of my ideas were a bit crazy at times, but they took them all on and then came back with ways to achieve them. They really listened, and they understood both Evan and me, although Evan’s taste is a bit more reserved than mine.

AK What else was in your brief?

S Evan and I both love to cook, but the kitchen that we had before was so tiny. We grow a lot of veggies in our garden. We wanted a big kitchen, and a strong connection to the garden and to the trees around us.

Sydney

approached

AK You mentioned that sustainable design was a key component of your brief. To what extent did Downie North’s design surprise you?

S Enormously. I would never have imagined what we’ve got now. The glazing to the north is amazing, the roof scoops up to allow natural light in from all directions – there is so much going on to manage light and ventilation. The louvres under the eaves are my favourite part of the house. They’re so clever. I’d have them all through the house if I could. The way they passively cool the house when we have the doors shut is incredible. And it’s all hidden. I also love the way the glass doors slide back and disappear by tucking into the hallway. It’s beautiful, and it makes so much sense.

AK It sounds like a very practical family home.

S And in summer it’s just wonderful to be in. We entertain the whole time. When the doors are open and the kids are running from one end of the house to another, there’s a lovely warm feeling. The house has a real ambience. The garden feels like it’s in the living room.

AK Did you encounter any obstacles during construction?

S When the roof structure first went up, Evan worried that the room would be too dark, so we decided to put in a skylight above the

dining area. It does highlight the peach tree when it’s in full blossom, which is delightful. But in hindsight we didn’t need to do it. Cat, Dan, our builder Nathan Wrightson, my design mentor Helen Tunbridge – they all told us we didn’t need it, but we went ahead anyway. We should have trusted them wholeheartedly.

AK What challenged you during the process?

S Inevitably, the money was the biggest challenge. I spent more on variables than I needed to. I think you always get to the end and run out of money. The upshot was that, during the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown, we all got into the garden and did the landscaping ourselves.

AK How did you find and select your builder?

S The building team came to us through Downie North. They were amazing. We all shared the same sense of sustainability and care for the planet. I feel really blessed that we had Nathan on our side. He was calm and measured, and he was happy for me to be on site and to be involved. Eddie, our son, and I cleaned bricks during the summer while the house was being built. I paid Eddie a dollar a brick – and he spent his earnings almost entirely on lollies!

AK What do you think is the most important thing to consider when choosing an architect and a builder?

S It all comes down to personality. Find people you gel with. It’s a hard enough process already, without throwing difficult relationships into the mix. So many people asked me if we were still friends with our architects. Cat and Dan are absolutely still our friends.

AK What advice would you give to someone who is considering working with an architect?

S Do it. There are so many things that you won’t think of until you’re on site and you have to make decisions on the fly. The fundamentals are so important, and by working with an architect, most of those things are resolved before you even start building. It’s a financial hit initially, but it’s worth it. It makes the entire process cleaner and more considered, and the finished result is more rigorously thought through.

AK It’s a bit like a game of chess – thinking so many moves ahead.

S Exactly! They have the foresight to see what might be needed. And to know what won’t be.

AK Would you do it again?

S Definitely. Evan might not. But I would! For sure.

Foomann

ONE TO WATCH

Led by Jamie Sormann and Jo Foong, this studio untangles constraints to yield quiet, thoughtfully detailed and environmentally responsive homes that are finely tuned to the lives of their occupants.

Words by Peter Davies Photography by Willem-Dirk du Toit, Eve Wilson

“A union of utility and simplicity.” This is how Jamie Sormann, co-director of Melbourne architectural practice Foomann, describes the philosophy at the heart of the studio’s compact, hardworking residential projects.

“The result hopefully looks simple, but it’s hard to execute: accommodating a complex functional arrangement and having it feel neat and elegant,” adds co-director Jo Foong.

Foomann was established in 2008, when the former uni friends were several years into their early careers – Jo at B. E. Architecture, Jamie at Maddison Architects. In the years since, they’ve produced a collection of quiet, thoughtfully detailed residential and hospitality projects that are finely tuned to the lives of their eventual users.

When Jo and Jamie talk about their work, their enthusiasm is shared equally between describing the end result and discussing the array of constraints they navigated to get there. For them, defined constraints – whether physical, budgetary or material – usually yield a better outcome.

“There are a whole range of advantages for the city if we live in more compact homes,” Jamie says. “Yet living in small spaces is often seen as a sacrifice. The conventional idea is to take the biggest house you can afford in the suburb that you want. We don’t agree with that at all; we think smaller homes can feel a whole lot better to occupy.”

At a neat 100 square metres, Haines Street House is a good example. Originally designed by Morris and

Pirrotta in the early 1970s, it has particular significance for the practice – it is Jamie’s own home. Tall and narrow, the concrete-block house is arranged across split levels, with an open-tread stair zigzagging through the middle. An initial 2014 renovation reinvigorated the interiors, consolidating some spaces and making it liveable for the two-person, one-dog household.

A 2022 update, spurred by the arrival of Jamie and his partner’s two children, saw the addition of a timberwrapped box atop the roof, housing a third bedroom and second bathroom. The jewel in this latest renovation is the outdoor bath that sits up top, gazing up to the sky. It is whimsical yet practical and, as Jamie describes it, very much in demand. “The kids ask to use it every day – even in winter when it’s raining,” he laughs.

The same rigour is evident in Canning Street, where a new structure bookends an existing cottage. Under a swooping convex roof form, the long, lean new volume accommodates an open-plan living, dining and kitchen zone. The internal rhythm is determined not by enclosed rooms but by a set of bays along the eastern perimeter, each defined by function (desk, fireplace, record collection and so on). The interior experience is modulated by the curving of the ceiling above.

“We like to take natural materials and form them into one beautiful palette. We love the textures inherent in the base materials, rather than applied colours,” Jo says.

02

01 Practice directors Jamie Sormann and Jo Foong.

02 At Haines Street House, a rooftop addition respects the scale of the existing 1970s house.

03 A private deck and outdoor bath are seen from the stair at Haines Street House.

Photographs 01–03: Willem-Dirk du Toit.

03

“

The conventional idea is to take the biggest house you can afford in the suburb you want. We don’t agree with that at all; we think smaller homes can feel a whole lot better to occupy.”

– Jamie Sormann

“You don’t need typically luxurious materials to have a luxurious experience. You can achieve it through good design, through proportions and through craft,” Jamie adds.

These ideas thread through the team’s Ballantyne Street House in Melbourne’s inner north. Retaining the original dwelling as a zone for the kids, the team appended an airy, flat-roofed pavilion to the rear. Once again, constraints drove the solution: the clients sought only as much space as they needed and wanted to keep as much of the garden as possible.

Timber beams and pillars express the extension’s structure, framing windows, shelving and a linear study leading to the parents’ retreat at the rear of the new build. Expansive windows and doors connect to the garden beyond, with wide eaves to help keep the interior cool in summer months.

Sustainable thinking is embedded in Foomann’s work, thanks in no small part to Jo’s recent certification through the Passive House Institute. “It’s changed our approach a little – we have to push the thermal envelope further,” Jo says. “In Europe they’ve been doing Passive Houses for thirty years, but that approach is in its infancy here.”

Jo and Jamie are advocates for better quality design, both in their own practice and more broadly in the profession through their involvement with ArchiTeam, a co-operative of small practices from across Australia. “Whether sustainability is in the brief or not, there are always levels of efficiency we can provide to any client. That’s just what a good building is,” Jamie says. foomann.com.au

04 Canning Street is a compact, 110-square-metre home for a young family. Artworks, (L–R): Carley Bourne, Stanislas Piechaczek; (top): Ash Holmes.

05 A convex ceiling creates different spatial experiences within the smallfootprint home.

Photographs 04, 05: Eve Wilson.

Green scene

From carbon offsets for bricks to chairs that repurpose plastic waste, this range of products supports a responsible way of life.

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

01 Stainless steel tapware

Stainless steel is an incredibly durable and corrosion-resistant material. Vola creates beautiful forms from stainless steel, with textures that echo those of the natural world and manufacturing methods that minimize environmental impact. en.vola.com

04 Responsibly sourced timber

Eco Timber Group is a source of locally manufactured, FSC-certified hardwoods, and it promotes the use of recycled timber and responsible forestry. Its products were used in Baker Boys Beach House by Refresh Design.

Photograph: Christopher Frederick Jones. ecotimbergroup.com.au

02 Sanctuary DC ceiling fan

The Sanctuary DC ceiling fan’s wide-reaching blade span and powerful airflow make it ideal for large, open living areas and covered outdoor spaces. Its three sculpted solid timber blades make it a stylish yet commanding feature that supports natural ventilation. universalfans.com.au

05 Eres collection by Paola Lenti Environmental sustainability, ecological balance and renewable materials are each central to Paola Lenti’s Eres (meaning “earth”) furniture collection, in which linen, hemp, bamboo, raffia, igusa and abacá are the eco-conscious materials of choice. dedece.com

03 Climate Active initiative

This opt-in program allows customers to specify and procure any clay brick made in Brickworks’ Australian facilities as a certified carbon-neutral product. An audit verified by Energetics enables Brickworks to undertake a lifecycle analysis and purchase carbon credits. brickworks.com.au

06 Aeron chair

Herman Miller’s iconic Aeron task chair has been re-engineered to repurpose oceanbound plastic. By redirecting and reforming this material, the company prevents an estimated 150 tonnes of plastic from entering and contaminating oceans each year. livingedge.com.au

09 Raw Earth collection by Bentu Nature is at the core of Nongzao’s Raw Earth lighting collection, and it inspired an innovative manufacturing method that combines soil with biodegradable plant fibres. The collection’s six lighting designs are cast from diatomaceous earth and metallic minerals. remodern.com.au

07 Paragon rug

Meticulously hand-knotted, the Paragon rug is reminiscent of a vintage rug, with a contemporary twist. The Armadillo collection embraces the principles of slow design, advocating for a gentler pace of life that is kinder to the community and the environment. armadillo-co.com

10 Grandeur Living

Grandeur Living is a luxurious, 100 percent wool loop pile carpet that provides natural insulation to keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. The biodegradable wool fibres combine comfort and sustainability to enrich any room. godfreyhirst.com

08 Duet tapware collection

Duet is inspired by the beauty of duality: two ideas collaborating to create something larger and better than themselves through mutual attraction. The collection’s elegantly oblong forms are versatile and functional. Sussex is a net zero carbon emissions company. sussextaps.com.au

High-tech ventilation with the Fanco Habitat Expert

As we build more low-energy homes that are tightly sealed, we need to consider how to provide adequate ventilation in order to ensure our homes are healthy and energy efficient. Opening windows can provide ventilation, but the energy that has been spent cooling or heating the internal air is lost.

The Fanco Habitat Expert is a decentralized heat recovery system that provides a constant source of fresh air to a home, maintaining indoor air quality while also retaining its existing heat.

The unit operates in cycles: First, it extracts air from within the home through the wall for 70 seconds. Then it switches to an intake mode, drawing external air into the unit. On each extraction cycle, the unit retains heat from the outgoing air stream. When it switches to an intake cycle, that heat is transferred to the incoming air. This heat transfer reduces the home’s overall energy consumption.

The Habitat Expert also has a ventilation mode that provides fresh and filtered outdoor air, bypassing the heat exchanger. This can be used to provide a cool breeze in summer time.

The Habitat Expert provides multiple benefits:

– One of the models comes with wi-fi and is compatible with SMART Technology, which allows homeowners to control the unit via smart phone and connect to additional units, including enabling multiple units to work in sync.

– The model with wi-fi connection does not need to be wired to a central point or to another unit, making it much easier to install than models that do. This is a unique feature in the Australian market.

– The system features a high-quality ceramic accumulator, which retains up to 93 percent of heat energy.

– A humidity sensor ensures adequate ventilation, preventing mould and mildew.

– The system has an antibacterial treatment that prevents bacteria generation inside the regenerator.

The Habitat Expert is one of the most sophisticated and energy-efficient solutions to living well and sustainably.

The system provides constant mechanical ventilation while maintaining the room temperature using minimal electricity.

The Habitat Expert includes a G3 filter and can be fitted with an F8 filter (PM2.5 99%) as an accessory. This filter can help to remove finer particles from the air, including smoke, car exhaust fumes and pollen fragments (Environment Protection Authority [EPA] Victoria, 2021).

These pollutants and allergens can lead to respiratory symptoms, particularly for those living with allergies, hay fever and asthma (EPA Victoria, 2018).

Prioritizing energy efficiency and healthy indoor air quality, this ventilation system provides a constant source of fresh, filtered air while also using a heat transfer to reduce a home’s energy consumption.

01 Hawk’s Nest Residence by Contech, with the Fanco InfinityID Ceiling Fan. Photograph: David Sievers.

02 The Fanco Habitat Expert heat recovery system.

National Distributor of:

For more information, visit fanco.com.au/fancohabitat-expert-wifi or universalfans.com.au

Words by Josh Harris

01 Beaumaris Modern 2 by Fiona Austin and Simon Reeves (Melbourne Books, 2022)

Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Beaumaris has changed a lot since the 1950s and ’60s, when dirt roads and sandy tracks weaved between untouched bush and the avant-garde homes of the architects and artists who flocked there in search of an alternative to the usual subdivision. Today, as land values have skyrocketed, many of the experimental, modernist homes that were built in the mid-twentieth century have been demolished, replaced by generic new builds. This followup to 2018’s Beaumaris Modern continues the work of documenting the homes that have survived the waves of development, acting as a pointed reminder of what first attracted people to the suburb. The new book brings 17 additional surviving houses “out from behind the trees,” including lovingly preserved homes by the likes of Peter McIntyre, Anatol Kagan and Geoffrey Woodfall as well as hidden gems by lesser-known architects such as Charles Bricknell and Judith Brine. A few of these homes have been in the same family for generations, but most others have been bought by new owners who appreciated their modernist design and relationship to the surrounding bush. We hope, as do the book’s authors, that Beaumaris Modern 2 inspires the suburb’s next generation to hang on to that modernist heritage.

02

Arent & Pyke: Interiors

Beyond the Primary Palette by Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2022)

Juliette Arent and Sarah-Jane Pyke of Sydney interiors practice

Arent and Pyke don’t do monochrome. Colour is integral to this, their first monograph, just as it is to their work – from the variegated greens that connect a house to its garden to the soft pink that gives a room a rosy glow. The book concentrates on the practice’s residential work, and it celebrates the ways that colour can create visceral joy. “For us, to talk about colour is to talk about memory, but also meaning, energy and emotion,” explain the authors. Each house is introduced with the expected data – floor area, number of bedrooms – as well as the number of colours used. There are 11 colours in the first project, an opulent home by the sea in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where cream-and-grey marble sits alongside rich crimson fabrics. In the next – a renovated Federationera worker’s cottage – there are seven, including the mossy green of the living room sofa, which defines the house’s earthy palette. Juliette and Sarah-Jane, who provide insightful commentary on their design decisions throughout, explain that for them, colour is a continual source of inspiration that can evoke particular moods and shape the experience of a space. Above all, it can create joy.

03

Cape

to

Bluff: A

Survey of Residential Architecture from Aotearoa New Zealand by Simon Devitt, Andrea Stevens and Luke Scott (Independently published, 2022) This sprawling book takes us tramping across the full length of Aotearoa New Zealand, from Cape Reinga on the northenmost tip of Te Ika-a-Māui North Island to the town of Bluff in the deep south of Te Waipounamu South Island. It features 30 houses designed by New Zealand architects, each with a deep connection to the landscape around them. Mountain House by RTA Studio cuts an angular, sculptural figure against the craggy, snow-capped peaks of Kā Tiritiri o te Moana; Light Mine House by Crosson Architects appears as a ramshackle cluster of pods dotted across the rolling sand dunes of Kūaotunu; Reef House by Strachan Group Architects is a tidy nest perched on the clifftop overlooking Tīkapa Moana Hauraki Gulf; and Ophir House by Nott Architects is a modernist sci-fi retreat on the surreal, moonscape-like terrain of the Maniatoto. With photography by Simon Devitt, words by Andrea Stevens and layout by Luke Scott, this is a work of impressive scope that provides an extensive catalogue of Aotearoa New Zealand residential architecture. It is a celebration of place, and of architecture that embraces place. In that way, it is a success, inspiring awe and envy.

04 Tasmania Living: Quiet, Conscious Living in Australia’s South by Joan-Maree Hargreaves and Marita Bullock (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2022)

Tasmania, Joan-Maree Hargreaves and Marita Bullock write, is a place where nature looms large, where cities and towns are diminutive and the open sky “offers an encounter with the immense.” Against this dramatic backdrop, Tasmania Living takes us on a tour of a diverse group of homes, from a restored Greek Revival villa to a Farnsworth House-esque glass holiday home, and tells the stories of their occupants. The authors note that the houses highlight the “art of living quietly” in the natural environment, while demonstrating a sensitivity to Tasmania’s history. They reflect on the brutal realities of colonialism and consider how living consciously on lutruwita/ Tasmania today entails hearing and recognizing the Palawa as the ongoing owners of the land. However, given its focus on “asking bigger questions about our place and purpose,” the book is noticeably quiet on the housing affordability crisis battering the island – a crisis at least partially driven by a market that prioritizes prestige projects over affordable housing.

Despite this blind spot, this is a thoughtful work that encourages contemplation and reflection. It is also a handsome book filled with breathtaking scenery and exceptional architecture.

PENTHOUSE BY OFFICE ALEX NICHOLLS

remarkable

Words by Sing d’Arcy Photography by Rory Gardiner

Starting with a blank canvas is confronting. Starting with one that is enormous and doesn’t even exist, even more so. But rather than being daunted by the task, Alex Nicholls was able to draw on his artistic and tectonic skills to design a multigenerational home on the rooftop of a new Elsternwick apartment building that is a play of composition, colour, materiality and light.

This rare commission for a 350-square-metre penthouse was a choice project for Office Alex Nicholls, especially for its first in Australia. Alex, who practised architecture in the UK and Europe before returning home to Sydney, had met the clients a few years earlier when he had designed a retail space in Tel Aviv for their son. So impressed were they with his work that, when it came time to building their own home in Melbourne, they approached Alex to take on the mammoth task. The first challenge was that the site didn’t even exist. The clients had bought off-the-plan and the building was under construction as Alex began working on the designs. The clients wanted the two top-floor apartments joined into one large, multigenerational home for the family, and part of the associated basement-level carpark space turned into a wellness area. Alex explains that they didn’t want a “typical commercial-developer interior” that comes with off-the-plan purchases.

The clients had specific requirements that needed to be addressed in the design, and the only way that these could be successfully accommodated was through a custom design. Firstly, the home had to be “completely flexible” to work as either a multigenerational home or, if the need arose, two independent units. Secondly, the home needed to be future-proof, allowing the clients to age in place – so accessibility and wellness were paramount. On top of the complex brief, the service stacks of the building were already in place, so Alex had limited ability to change the locations of bathrooms and kitchens. In lesser hands, this commission would have probably ended up being a big, bland box. Alex, however, approached it with far more artistic flair and precision.

The big risk when working with the dimensions of a long and large floor plate and standard ceiling height is that the end result is a flat, pancake-like interior with large swathes of flooring and white ceiling. Alex addressed this issue by conceiving the perimeter

01 The commission was to adapt two apartments into a singular, flexible and future-proof home. Artwork: Ellie Malin. Sculptures: Bettina Willner.

02 Stairs connect the penthouse to two rooftop pavilions. Artwork: Kasper Raglus. Sculptures (L–R): James Lemon, Bettina Willner.

03 A colour-block drawing illustrates how colour has been used to distinguish between zones.

A

brief to reconfigure two top-floor apartments into an adaptable, multigenerational home is met with precision and artistic flair, combatting flat, rectilinear design with colour, composition and light.

04 Half-moon skylights link the apartment and the sky, drawing the eye upward. Vase: Katarina Wells. 05 The apartment’s spatial sequence is gradually revealed, achieving a complex and engaging environment.

walls as “the site” and then the elements of the interior as “buildings.” He therefore avoided the dominant tendency of flatness and made the different spaces read as three dimensional. Office Alex Nicholls works a lot in modelling and prototyping – the models are sculptural artworks in themselves – and this process is evident in the way in which joinery has been designed. Nothing in this apartment is just a box. Alex’s ambition was to create “a rich environment,” observing that “as you age, you want the experience to be complex and engaging.” The spatial sequence of the apartment is therefore gradually revealed, each room offering visual snippets of the adjoining one, carefully weaving connections between large-volume open spaces and smaller, discrete rooms. This idea of complexity and engagement is developed not only through the spatial configuration but also through the use of colour, materiality and detail. Alex used coloured drawings – themselves beautiful artworks – to illustrate how blocks of colour anchor the reading of the spaces, achieving a careful balance of neutral and bold. The neutrals are the floors, ceilings and walls, wrapped in Australian blackbutt, travertine and polished plaster; the bolds are the sculptural joinery elements and the reveals of bathrooms, and fireplaces that are like the silk linings of a fine item of clothing. The two anchor colours are a desert pink and a turquoise blue. Not easy colours to handle well, but once again Alex’s artistic experience in painting informs his approach to design. Floating above these are half-moon skylights that connect the apartment to the sky. These skylights also reduce the pancake feel by drawing the eye upwards rather than horizontally to the perimeter windows. Alex says that skylights were the clients’ idea and, as Elsternwick is noted for its Art Deco buildings, Alex suggested the curved shape. Once again, a complete control of compositional understanding is demonstrated through the dialogue between the void curves in the ceiling plan and the solid rectilinear elements of the floor zone.

This project is big, but it’s not brash. Office Alex Nicholls has tempered any risk of extravagance, allowing for the luxury of space to be the key experience. There is a sensitivity and assuredness in the use of colour, material, form and composition. Alex’s explorative, hands-on approach through painting, drawing and sculpting is a refreshing change from the image-driven flatness that tends to dominate much of contemporary residential design.

Floor 350 m² Spa 100 m² External 250 m² Design 12 m Build 18 m

Products

Internal walls: Polished plaster by Bishop Master Finishes in ‘Satin’

Windows: Exterior sliding doors with PPC aluminium frames from Schueco; internal pivot doors in PPC aluminium from Vitrosca

Doors: Pivot doors from Fritz Jurgens in ‘Satin’; door hardware from D Line in ‘Satin’

Flooring: Honed travertine from Signorino; blackbutt floorboards from Hurford; honed sandstone from Gosford Quarries

Lighting: Lighting from Viabizzuno Kitchen: Honed quartzite from Signorino; Vola tapware in ‘Satin’; 2-Pac joinery from Touchwood in ‘Persimmon,’ ‘Wild Clary’ and ‘Green Turquoise’; custom blackbutt sink designed by Alex Nicholls, made by Wood and Water; custom blackbutt handles from Touchwood Cabinetry

Bathroom: Honed quartzite from Signorino; tapware from Vola; blackbutt joinery from Touchwood; custom blackbutt bath designed by Alex Nicholls, made by Wood and Water

External elements: Honed travertine from Signorino Other: Custom entry bench, designed by Alex Nicholls and made by Touchwood; furniture and lamp from Viabizzuno, Modern Times and Stylecraft

Apartment Melbourne, Vic

Elsternwick Penthouse is built on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation.

Multigenerational family

06

06 A library spine running east to west connects the two living zones of the expansive apartment.

Artwork: Ellie Malin.

Vase: Bettina Willner.

07 Distinctive colours define the kitchen areas, which can be concealed behind pivoting doors when not in use.

Vase: Bettina Willner. 07

08 A west-facing living space named the “evening garden” is designed for indoor-outdoor use. Vase: Kerryn Levy.

08

Designer Office Alex Nicholls +61 404 194 273 studio@officealexnicholls.com officealexnicholls.com

Project team Alex Nicholls Builder Cobild Architect (building) Ewert Leaf Styling Jess Kneebone

CARINGAL FLAT

BY ELLUL ARCHITECTURE

fastidious reworking

Words by Alexa Kempton Photography by Rory Gardiner

As anyone perusing one-bedroom apartment listings today will attest, it’s rare to find one with views in all four directions; near impossible, when you limit your search to those that are accessible to a first-home buyer. Yet that is what architect Ben Ellul found: a 58-square-metre studio apartment in the inner eastern Melbourne suburb of Toorak, in the state-heritage-listed Caringal Flats, originally built in 1951.

Caringal Flats was designed in an era of radical experimentation in urban living, and its concrete construction, cantilevered balconies and large panels of glazing signal it as an example of early modernism in Australia. Its architect, John W. Rivett, was likely influenced by the work of international modernists including Edwin Maxwell Fry, Serge Chermayeff and Erich Mendelsohn as well as Melbourne precedents such as Frederick Romberg, architect of the Newburn and Yarrabee flats (with Mary Shaw) and the Stanhill Flats. Caringal was, however, distinct from its local precursors in form: heritage architect Nigel Lewis describes the uncommon arrangement of the two principal buildings – one six-storey tower of studio apartments and one curving, three-storey building containing twelve two-bedroom apartments – as “without equal in Melbourne.” Of particular interest, Nigel notes, was the provision on top of the curved building of a recreational rooftop space, which served as a communal outdoor garden and children’s play area for residents (it has since been removed). The rooftop was accessed by a bridge from the tower, which, together with the cantilevered stairs and balconies and their tubular steel handrails, lend the building a confident, graphic sensibility. Ongoing work to preserve the state-heritagelisted building has recently restored its vivid coral pink walls and pale blue eaves, carefully matched to remnant paint scrapings taken under Nigel’s guidance. These distinctive hues honour the original intent of the architecture, celebrate it as a landmark and make it all the more extraordinary in a suburb otherwise dominated by sprawling mansions.

Ben’s apartment is one of six in the tower, each one occupying an entire floor. His objective was to strip back the dilapidated interior fitout and install in its place a functional and livable plan that would suit him, his partner Genevieve and their Italian greyhound Vincenzo.

In the reworked plan, the majority of the space is dedicated to a living and dining zone, which makes the most of a large wall of west-facing windows that frame views of the city. Flexibility is paramount in compact spaces, and it is evident here: Ben

01 Occupying an entire floor of Caringal’s six-storey tower, the studio frames an expansive view of the city.

02 The door between the lift lobby and the apartment has been removed to maximize light and views.

Artwork: Max Berry.

This

of a studio apartment builds on the legacy of its 1950s heritage, finding opportunities for space and sociability in small-footprint living.

and Genevieve’s desire to be able to entertain has ensured the apartment can comfortably host 14 for dinner, thanks to an extendable dining table and a few extra benches (ordinarily used as side tables), all designed and made by Ben and his dad. A wall of freestanding joinery doubles as a divider between the social spaces and the east-facing bedroom.

Ben’s strategy was to “set a language” for the new work, ensuring it was easy to discern old from new. New elements are uniformly black and built from slender, angular steel, contrasting with the bulbous profile and white finish of the existing features. Two datums provide a continuous visual anchor: no built elements extend higher than the top edge of the window frames, while kitchen cabinets and the joinery wall sit above the skirting boards. This device creates continuity and lightness, enhancing the sense of spaciousness. As is often the case with small spaces, the inner workings are those that have required the greatest precision in planning: the bathroom, kitchen and laundry are stacked around a concealed service core, maximizing amenity without compromising aesthetics.

While the provision of storage was an essential consideration, there is not an oversupply, averting the sense that you might be surrounded by joinery. “I’m conscious of not overdesigning a space,” Ben says. “I believe architecture should be loose enough to adapt to and accommodate change.” Before establishing Ellul Architecture in 2019, Ben worked for seven years at NTF Architecture, where he learnt about designing homes with sufficient space for life’s possessions, from the practical to the precious. “There should be enough space for people to display things, but also enough space to have things behind doors.” For Ben and Genevieve, this requires an ongoing commitment to minimal living, pushing back against the propensity to accrue stuff and, to borrow a phrase from a particular Japanese organization consultant, keeping only the items that “spark joy.”

In a bid to maximize useable space, Ben has converted the interior of the apartment’s garage into a studio. It is practically fitted out, accommodating a large desk and wall-hung shelves, with most of the design and engineering prowess directed at a 2.1-metre-wide, steel-framed glass pivot door concealed behind the existing garage door. This adaptation addresses the growing need for adequate working-from-home space and, Ben hopes, offers a repeatable model for others considering investing in the latent potential of their under-utilized garages.

Despite some initial reservations from other residents, the conversion has activated this previously quiet corner of the site, making chance encounters between neighbours and with visitors more likely – reigniting John Rivett’s original vision for fellowship among residents. Neighbours often pop in to say hello or drop off homemade baked goods, “which has been wonderful socially, and terrible for my waistline,” Ben says. “Thankfully, the 61 stairs back up to the flat helps even it out.”

Products

Internal walls: Easycraft V-Groove cladding; Custom laser-cut 6 mm steel shrouds

Doors: Garage pivot door by Vince Turner Steel Design

Flooring: Tasmanian oak from Surface Floors with Loba finish Lighting: Est Lighting Calibre 75 task lights; Flos 265 wall light from Living Edge; Flos Parentesi suspension lamp from Euroluce Kitchen: Custom 3 mm stainless steel plate benchtop; custom steel joinery frames with Laminex Absolute Matte surfaces in ‘Black’; Phoenix Vivid Slimline tapware; Cerdomus 50 x 50 mm matt white tiles; Fisher and Paykel oven, induction cooktop, undermount rangehood, integrated dishdrawer and refrigerator

Bathroom: The Sunbaker terrazzo tiles from Fibonacci Tiles; Cerdomus matt white tiles; Phoenix Vivid Slimline tapware; Alape Unisono basin and Caroma Urbane toilet from Reece

Heating and cooling: and Mitsubishi wall split airconditioner in custom cabinet

Other: Vintage Featherston Scape dining chairs; Hay Mags Soft Sofa from Cult; custom dining table and benches designed and fabricated by the architect

Apartment Melbourne, Vic Floor 58 m² Garage 12 m² Design 3 m Build 3 m Couple

Caringal Flat is built on the land of Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nation.

05 The garage has been converted into a studio, activating underused common areas on the site.

Architect Ellul Architecture +61 400 860 947 info@ellularchitecture.com.au ellularchitecture.com.au

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BEDFORD BY MILIEU

BY DKO WITH DESIGN OFFICE

Words by Thomas Essex-Plath Photography by Tom Ross

In what seems like merely a moment of inattention, a crowd of large residential developments has emerged from the complex fabric of Collingwood in Melbourne’s inner north. Within this changing streetscape, Bedford Street – designed by DKO with interiors by Design Office, and built by Milieu Property – has, comparatively, an almost discreet street presence. The block of 20 apartments employs the stylistic mode that has become the default for developments in areas littered with formerly light-industrial building stock: a heavy material (typically brick, or at least its semblance) arranged to echo the vestigial classicism and robust forms of storehouses, factories and similar building types. At Bedford Street, this is pursued with adept sobriety and refinement. The ordered patterns of curtain walling at its upper storeys lend it a confident simplicity and rigour that avert the often ad-hoc and flimsy character of the awkwardly stacked forms carved by planning regulations from the tops of apartment buildings.

Though Bedford Street’s contributions to Collingwood’s changing urban grain certainly warrant attention, it is the development’s anticipated internal life – and the design response to this – that dominate its narrative and set it apart from its new neighbours. Recognizing the future inhabitants’ diversity of lifestyles and the value of customization, the design team devised the “ABC model.” Under this system (available for the 13 two-bedroom apartments), the typical customizations offered to homeowners, such as selections between different material and finishes palettes, are shirked in favour of more substantive choices: owners are able to choose between three bathroom and three kitchen layouts. While the overall layout of the apartments remains constant, this option to configure the plan with, for example, an L-shaped or galley kitchen, and one larger bathroom or two compact ones, allows purchasers to tailor plans to their preferences.

This ethos of partial deferral to the identity and agency of future occupants is carried through in the joinery and interior finishes and fixtures. Rather than being a collection of “features,” or having a strongly asserted style, Design Office’s interiors aim to provide a muted backdrop for the unique accoutrements brought by the occupants.

01 A bedroom and a living space each open onto the airy east-facing balcony.

02 Stainless steel accentuates a palette of grey, cream and deep blue in the calm, robust interior.

03 Chosen from the three layouts on offer, this family kitchen reflects the needs of its inhabitants.

A new approach to this apartment in Melbourne’s inner north supports homeowner agency – and family wellbeing – with customizable plans that suit multiple ways of life.

While the “ABC” scheme might appear innovative in its Melbourne context, it sits within a sizeable corpus of comparable architectural work. Such projects share an ambition to address a challenge that confronted architects throughout the twentieth century, especially after the World Wars and the novel demands of mass housing, and continues to this day. On the one hand, architects are required to design for the complex domestic lives of occupants whom they are never to meet. Therefore, they have often sought to ascertain an abstract, typical occupant – and thus, a typical dwelling. Yet, on the other hand, they are perennially reminded that behind the imperatives driving standard or repeatable dwellings are inescapably diverse people with disparate ways of living. This predicament has left architectural history littered with schemes comparable to Bedford Street, but in many cases far more radical.

A spectrum of projects has explored not only plan options, but also modular systems to enable occupants to devise their own plans: movable walls; equipment that can adapt to different users and be changed over time; and basic habitable shells that occupants can lay out as they see fit, using their own labour. These schemes are united by a belief in the value of the residents’ liberty and a recognition of diverse ways of living. Bedford Street should not be evaluated by comparing it to such schemes merely in terms of the degree of individualization possible. Nevertheless, the comparison is useful if only to solicit an important question regarding the impact of the different plan types offered under the “ABC” system: are they significant enough to truly accommodate different ways of living, or are they merely appeals to surface-level consumer preferences?

With these considerations in mind, it is worth noting that the bathroom option that might be considered atypical and most divergent from real-estate box-ticking – that of one large, luxurious bathroom shared between two bedrooms – wasn’t selected by any purchasers. The optimistic interpretation might be that this was because the plan simply didn’t work for the lives of the 13 owners of the two-bedroom apartments, or because the unconventional relationships that it creates between bedrooms was too unfamiliar for Australian eyes. A more pessimistic view would see this as the inevitable result of a decades-long political project to persuade single-household owner-occupiers to view their homes as, first and foremost, a financial asset. The financialization of housing in Australia is so inescapable that, even in scenarios where owner-occupiers are actively encouraged to customize their homes to suit their own lifestyles rather than the spectre of “the market,” they are unable to do so.

Systems like Bedford Street’s ABC scheme aren’t going to untie the political and financial binds impoverishing Australian housing. However, this – and other schemes like it – may at least provide occupants with one more opportunity to treat their new apartment less like an investment, and more like a space for living.

Products

Roofing: Better Exteriors roof pavers in ‘Graphite’; membrane in ‘Dark Grey’ External walls: Lux precast concrete panels in Rekli Formliner pattern and inherent colour mix; Adbri concrete brick in ‘Ivory’ and architectural brick in ‘Steel’ Internal walls: Rondo steel studs; CSR plasterboard in Dulux ‘Natural White’ and CFC sheet with render finish in Dulux ‘Domino’; exposed concrete bathroom ceiling Windows: Capral Suite frames in matt bronze powdercoat; Viridian double glaze units in clear reeded glass and double glazing in ‘Bronze’; Sunex aluminium louvres in matt ‘Dark Bronze’ powdercoat Flooring: Timber in ‘Sesame,’ oak flooring from Imperial Timber Lighting: Modulo Aria Sphera track light in anodized aluminium; Flos Glo Ball mini wall lamp and Oluce Fresnel wall lamp from Euroluce Kitchen: Smeg oven, cooktop and rangehood; Phoenix sink mixer in ‘Brushed Nickel’; 2-pac joinery in Dulux ‘Klute,’ ‘Mangrove Matt’ and ‘Hatstand’; Vitsoe starter shelving in ‘Off White’; Madinoz stainless steel joinery handle and utensil rail; stainless steel benchtop Bathroom: Vivid slimline basin mixer by Phoenix; bathroom tiles in ‘Anthracite’ from Classic Ceramics Other: Wilson s Wilson sofa by Studio Made; rug from Loom; Gubi 2.0 dining table; Hay Revolt dining chairs; Seam dining chair and outdoor cafe table from Tait

Bedford by Milieu is built on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin nation.

While Bedford Street’s contributions to Collingwood’s changing urban grain certainly warrant attention, it is the anticipated internal life – and the design response to this – that set it apart from its neighbours.

04 Open shelving in the kitchen and at the entry provides practical storage for everyday items.

05 The muted palette foregrounds colourful – and meaningful –family possessions.

06 07

06 At street level, brick and metal recall Collingwood’s light industrial heritage.

07 The balcony overlooks inner north Melbourne’s changing urban landscape.

Architect DKO +61 3 8601 6000 info@dko.com.au dko.com.au

Interior designer Design Office +61 3 9417 0001 studio@designoffice.com.au designoffice.com.au

Architect DKO Interior designer Design

Office Developer Milieu Builder Kapitol Group Engineer Stantec Landscaping

Etched Lighting Sphera ESD Consultant GIW Environmental Solutions

THE PINNACLE OF RESIDENTIAL DESIGN

Categories

Jury

Melissa Bright Studio Bright Sioux Clark Multiplicity Kieron Gait Kieron Gait Architects Anthony Gill Anthony Gill Architects Alexa Kempton Houses magazine

Elliat Rich

FURNITURE, OBJECT & LIGHTING DESIGNER

Deliberately broad in scope and often mythical in focus, the work of this Alice Springs-based designer seeks to spark connection between all things.

Words by Judith Abell

Some years ago, I found a recollection from artist Rachel Whiteread, in which she described a lengthy process of making a piece of work resembling the safe, black, furry, childhood hiding space inside a wardrobe. She was seeking to abstract that experience through sculpture. Rachel is an artist whom you might categorize as a “seeker.” Rather than polish the same stone, seemingly making the same piece over and over in different ways, she seeks continually, through different materials, scales and contexts, to express abstract ideas, relationships and thoughts that hover –sometimes for years – just out of reach. Elliat Rich is also a seeker. While Rachel pursued the representation of a sensual, bodily experience, Elliat seeks to express and spark relations. Human to human, human to other-thanhuman, and, perhaps most importantly, connections between all things. For Elliat, it is the reorienting nature of the relationship stimulated by the object that is the desired outcome. She speaks of this as “designing mythology.”

Elliat trained at UNSW in object design, and her career has been framed by a series of awards offering her time, space, promotion or other critical resources for practice development. These include being a finalist and people’s choice winner in the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award (2008), winner of the Australian Furniture Design Award (2017) and recipient of the Northern Territory

Creative Fellowship (2018). She has three arms to her practice: the first is centred around cultural questioning through objects, the second around service (responding to a brief), and the third, Elbow Workshop, is an enterprise she shares with her partner, shoemaker James B. Young. Elliat has continually resisted definition and has not settled within one area of design, developing works from the scale of a delicate glass set for brewing tea (Urban Billy, 2013) to a weighty, one-off chair, rough-hewn from sandstone (Strata Stratum Stratus, 2019).

In 2017, Elliat’s piece Place won the Australian Furniture Design Award. The prize included developing a collection with Stylecraft. Different Thoughts was launched by Stylecraft in 2020, encompassing a credenza, light and rug. Branching out from Place, Elliat also developed a collection for Sophie Gannon Gallery. Here she consciously left her linear working process behind and worked with creative intuition to create Other Places, which captured something of that which she seeks. She describes these pieces as having a kind of sentience, a quality that is impossible to design in, but is alchemic when it happens. Her current search is for a way to develop objects that reflect the “shimmer” in everything, a concept she connected with through an essay by anthropologist Deborah Rose Bird. elliatrich.com

03

01 A portrait of Elliat Rich taken on the traditional lands of the Arrernte people.

Photograph: Martina Capurso.

02 Different Thoughts (2020) uses colour and form to express interrelationships.

Photograph: Haydn Cattach.

03 Tall Place (2018), part of a series of sculptural drawers made in Tasmanian oak. Photograph: Sean Fennessy, courtesy of Sophie Gannon Gallery.

04 Cross Section of Time (2022) for Sophie Gannon Gallery considers the “Earthly exchange of matter and energy.”

Photograph: Fiona Storey.

05 Weaver cabinet for Design by Them (2022) features an electric blue fringe.

Photograph: Sean Fennessy.

Chinaman’s Beach House by Fox Johnston (now Studio Johnston)

FIRST HOUSE

01

01 The house’s eastern edge projects out over the landscape.

Photograph: Justin Mackintosh.

02 Two pavilions, wrapped in copper, are joined by a glazed bridge and stair. Photograph: Simon Whitbread.

A precipitous site, blessed with outlook but burdened by poor access, defined this challenging but rewarding first house. Conrad Johnston looks back at his first residential commission, completed in partnership with Emili Fox.

Words by Conrad Johnston Photography by Justin Mackintosh, Simon Whitbread

This was one of those rare, practice-defining projects that doesn’t so much land in your lap, but slowly takes you over. It was the first big house for our studio, then called Fox Johnston, and it probably took the longest time of all our houses to complete. Not because it was our most complex, but because co-director Emili Fox and I were young and took our time with it, and because the brief evolved so significantly. We started work on Chinaman’s Beach House (see Houses 84) in 2006 and finished in 2011. Initially, the brief was to find an access point for a vacant site on a very steep block in Mosman, beside a public walkway named the Barney Kearns Steps. Our client had purchased three blocks, one of which had no road connection, making it inaccessible to build on or occupy. Our brief was to devise a strategy to give the site road access.

It took a fair amount of time negotiating with council to get the easement over public land, but we succeeded, and that cemented our relationship with the client, who then asked us to design the house.

In solving the access issue, we’d walked the site for almost a year, so we knew it intimately. It’s a beautiful block, which made designing this house exciting. The site had been a sandstone quarry and had amazing views toward the heads of Sydney Harbour, but it was also nestled into the hillside with a northerly aspect. It wasn’t the typical cheek-by-jowl Mosman allotment – instead, it was quite naturalistic, dotted with stone and large angophoras. All the ingredients to make something special.

Our client wanted a landscape-inspired house that catered for large social occasions and extended family visits, but functioned primarily as a private sanctuary. He owned a lot of large-format landscape paintings by Joshua Yeldham, so the idea evolved that the house should have the sense of walking through a gallery.

The steep site meant descending from the road into the home, which begins three floors below street level. It was tempting to rely on a lift to connect the floors, but instead we designed a generous staircase that is pivotal to the experience of the site. And because there are a lot of stairs, we had to make that experience memorable.

The idea is that you arrive at the top platform, look out to the harbour heads, then descend until you’re in a glass box, with the bush around you and the harbour before you. We designed the glass volume as a gallery space that plays with the setting. As you turn with the stairs, you look back and see the rock escarpment dappled with ferns and the large

03 The journey through the house gradually unveils views of Sydney Harbour’s heads.

Photograph: Justin Mackintosh.

The idea is that you arrive at the top platform, look out to the harbour heads, then descend until you’re in a glass box, with the bush around you and the harbour before you.

Yeldham paintings on the walls, echoing the landscape. There’s a real tension to the journey.

A solid stone podium is the building base, with two copper-clad pavilions hovering above it. All the stone was quarried on site. The stonemason was the first trade to start, building walls for a year and a half, shoring up the podium. The staircase was built by a furniture maker, using a cantilevered steel frame and recycled blackbutt treads. We were lucky to work with great craftspeople, and the quality of their work still shows today.

The idea was to have quite robust exterior shells for both pavilions, with a central courtyard between, sheltered from the north-east wind. One pavilion houses kitchen and informal living, the other defines the more formal living space and bedrooms below. The pavilions’ shapes curve like an armchair, as if to embrace the occupants while they take in the views.

A site this steep doesn’t allow you to touch the ground, as such, so we decided to really amplify a sense of projection out over the landscape. The thick concrete floor slabs are deliberately pronounced to celebrate that idea of elevation.

During the project, I’d been to the Amalfi Coast in Italy – an impossibly steep coastline, where residents build what they need from local stone. I think I was pursuing that idea of the house becoming its own landscape within a steep terrain. We’ve recently been invited back by the new owners to tailor a few things to their needs, and it’s gratifying to see how well the house has aged. If anything, it has become even more part of the landscape.

Looking back, I think it was a leap of faith to be so sculptural with the shape, so early in our practice. But seeing it work gave us the confidence to be like that with other projects, and it’s been our approach ever since.

Architect Studio Johnston +61 2 9211 2700

hello@studiojohnston.com.au studiojohnston.com.au

Architect Emili Fox Architects emili@emilifoxarchitects.com.au emilifoxarchitects.com.au

Project team Conrad Johnston, Emili Fox, Felix Junker, Katherine Burdett, Arash Katrak, Zara Lyons Builder Evolve Project Consulting Planning Longitude Planning Structural engineer Taylor Thomson Whitting Hydraulic engineer ITM Design Landscaping Myles Baldwin Design, 360 Degrees

HOUSE IN THE DRY

BY MRTN

ARCHITECTS

Words by Anthony St John Parsons Photography by Anthony Basheer

Regional New South Wales is a beautiful place. Having lived and studied outside the metropolitan cities, I feel a sense of homecoming as I travel to Tamworth – a city in the state’s north, on the land of the Kamilaroi/Gomeroi people – relishing the beautiful wide landscapes, fresh air and friendly conversations with strangers.

The owners of House in the Dry felt a similar magnetism toward regional Australia when, through a simple twist of fate, they chose to settle in Tamworth after spending many years living and working internationally. After falling in love with the site while visiting family nearby, they began a discerning hunt for an architect, ultimately deciding to engage Melbournebased Antony Martin, director of MRTN Architects. Undeterred by the long distance between Melbourne and their new home in north-west New South Wales, the owners were drawn to several of MRTN’s projects, in particular its contemporary take on the Australian shed vernacular, which has been widely acclaimed. When the owners acquired the site, the region was enduring its worst drought in recorded history, and this distressing environmental scenario foreshadowed the naming of the house. The drought became one of the leading drivers in the design approach, with the owners

explicitly seeking a house that could survive in the increasingly unpredictable and oscillating extremes of the Australian climate.

The house is on a dead-end street, littered with hobby farms, and is an unassuming presence among its neighbours; with its dark corrugated cladding and flush hidden doors, it looks more akin to a working shed than a home. There are no visible windows nor even a front door facing the street, only one definitive central opening through to the internal courtyard, offering a subtle glimpse of something special beyond the blank facade.

The house is efficiently ordered around an internal courtyard, and it is essentially split into four different zones: one for the owners’ primary living quarters, another accommodating visiting guests, and the remaining two for the cars and hobby workshop. These four zones all neatly fit under a simple, hipped zincalume steel roof, all at the same pitch and size, giving the building an elegant and cohesive form. In the two living zones, intimate rooms such as bedrooms and bathrooms are modestly sized while the social rooms are generous, yet not so large that they feel too vast for the couple when they are home alone.

Drawing on the legacy of agricultural sheds and the protective form of the courtyard plan, this thoughtfully resolved home in Tamworth is braced for the oscillating extremes of the Australian climate.

On a site of former grazing land, this semi-rural house organizes a home and its sheds into one cohesive building.

sleeping and workshop spaces are separated into wings and arranged around a courtyard.

House in the Dry is built on the land of the Kamilaroi/

New House

Per m² $3,100 Couple + 1 powder room

To manoeuvre between these zones, one is required to leave the comfort of the indoors and to pass through varying interstitial spaces, such as the outdoor room that connects the living spaces with the guest accommodation. These spaces are all individually unique, yet still speak to the house as a whole. Some are open while others are wholly enclosed with flyscreens, blurring the line between inside and out. The raked ceilings, which mimic the pitch of the roof, are purposefully painted a dark colour, giving a sense of volume and indeterminate space while also offering a cool and calming feel.

The material finishes complement the design intent beautifully. Using basic materials such as corrugated iron in a simple and considered manner allows the house to feel at home in the sometimes harsh surrounding landscape and gives it a sense of robustness. The more intimate spaces for daily use are lovingly crafted from local timber, stone and brick. Ceiling and wall junctions have been thoughtfully resolved to maintain the singular roof form, with grand overhangs to rooms where there is desire to control the amount of sun.

The most successful and delightful aspect to the house is its integration into the landscape. There has been a true collaboration between the clients, the architect and landscape architect SBLA to create a harmonious enclave of carefully considered plants and hardscape elements, which nestle in and around the house. The challenge of growing things in an internal courtyard during dramatic seasonal changes, including both droughts and floods, has led to a process of creative experimentation and a true gardening labour of love for the owners. The home’s varied openings create delightful vignettes inward to the courtyard or outward to the surrounding hills and sky. The clever pool fence and low-lying lawn fence keep the dogs and fauna at bay without obscuring the surrounding views. Many people dream of a “tree change,” but few have the courage to pursue one with the conviction of these clients. It’s a bold project, but one that is respectful to its site and to the challenges of the Australian climate. This house is at once a striking and contemporary house by an inner-city architect, yet it is also timeless and intensely local in the ways it pays homage to age-old materials and the land on which it stands. It’s an excellent example of the ways in which collaboration, and the juxtaposition of fresh eyes with ancient landscapes, can lead to unexpected but lovely results.

House 270 m² Covered outdoor 77 m² Sheds 178 m² Design 10 m Build 12 m

Products

Roofing: Colorbond corrugated roofing with galvanized finish; plumbing by KFC Roofing Supplies

External walls: Homestead bricks in ‘Ironstone Red’; Namoi Valley Brickworks installed by Webtex; vertical spotted gum shiplap cladding by Australian Architectural Hardwoods; Uralla local basalt feature wall installed by PJ’s Stonework

Internal walls: Vertical spotted gum shiplap cladding by Australian Architectural Hardwoods; painted plasterboard by Tamworth Plaster Works; Uralla local basalt feature wall installed by PJ’s Stonework Windows and doors: Aluminium frames by Avro Glass; timber entry doors by Hunt’s Joinery Flooring: In-situ burnished concrete by Taggart Industries; Bowral dry-pressed bricks from Gertrudis Brown Renovation range supplied by Austral Bricks Lighting: Architectural general lighting by Ambience Lighting; Aggregato pendants by Artemide; Concerto Symphony pendants from Ambience Lighting; Ross Gardam Polar wall light in custom finish; Noon mirror in ‘Bronze’ Kitchen: Stainless steel Vola sink mixer; Series 6 freestanding range in ‘Classic Red,’ refrigerator, freezer and dishwasher by Fisher and Paykel; Mattita orange mosaic from De Fazio Tiles and Stone; American oak veneer cabinetry by A. D. Hynes Joinery Co; Linear handles in ‘American Oak’ by Interia Bathroom: Sussex Scala range from Reece in ‘Chrome’ and ‘Brushed Nickel’; Valley Plains pottery sink basin; Inax Sugie Series Hanten tiles from Artedomus; floor tiles from Tamworth Tilehouse in ‘Oxide Dark Grey’ from Tamworth Tilehouse External elements: Bluestone honeycomb paver from Amber Tiles Other: Washer and dryer by Fisher and Paykel; built-in sofa from Bo Concept

Gomeroi people.

04 03

03 Timber and tiles offer warm interior contrasts to the robust steel, brick and stone exterior.

04 The house accommodates guests without feeling vast when visitors leave.

05 In the living spaces, ceilings crest and dip to create surprising volumes.

06 Varied openings frame views into the courtyard, or out to the wider landscape.

Artworks (L–R): Michael Herron, Julie Filipenko.

07 Outdoor rooms and covered external walkways function as breezeways.

08 Collaboration between client, architect and landscape designer produced a hardy yet harmonious landscape design.

05 06

MI–JI

This new house on Victoria’s

Words by Alexa Kempton Photography by Benjamin Hosking

As someone who spent much of their childhood in an English seaside town, my recollections of the beach are as much of bracing sea winds and dishearteningly consistent rain as they are of sun-warmed skin and a refreshing ocean swim. One constant was a contemplative beach walk, fossicking for stones and glimpses of the pearlescent linings hiding beneath the tough and impervious seashell. Regardless of the lamentable British weather, the beach was synonymous with a less hurried pace.

The beachside town of Barwon Heads, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, likewise fosters a leisurely pace. It is a place that the owners of AB House have long had an attachment to. After searching for a house in the area for some time, they purchased a property near the golf course. They planned to subdivide the land and build a new home for themselves.

The owners engaged Office Mi–Ji, a young Melbourne architecture practice run by their daughter, Millie Anderson, and Jimmy Carter. Their brief was for a house that would suit them as a second home, with guest accommodation for occasional use. However, early in the planning process, changes in regulations posed a significant obstacle: the council had re-zoned the land for flood risk, requiring new work to be built above the flood overlay.

Millie and Jimmy turned this constraint into opportunity and designed the house to sit one metre above the ground, elevated by a series of steel columns. “The restrictions gave us a starting point and led us to design a house that seems to almost float,” Millie

01 A steel frame elevates the house in response to the flood overlay.

02 The house’s upper volume appears to hover above the ground floor.

03 Skylights along the home’s eastern and western edges admit light while avoiding looking into neighbours’ houses.

03

Bellarine Peninsula is designed for many or few, accommodating the ebb and flow of visitors and withstanding the weathering of its coastal locale.

04 05

04 Vaulted plywood ceilings echo the corrugation of the home’s exterior.

05 Tallowwood and oak timber create a warm, cocooning interior that contrasts with the house’s robust exterior cladding.

Section 1:400 05 m

says. To the street, the house offers an exterior skin of corrugated galvanized steel and corrugated fibreglass, tough enough to withstand the corrosive sea air. It also provides requisite security, ensuring the house can be readily closed up when not in use. Three large pivot doors concealed in the street elevation enable the owners to open up the house to engage with the steady stream of passers-by or to welcome a cooling sea breeze in summer.

Steel columns trace the perimeter of the permitted building envelope: long and linear, it sits politely away from the side and rear boundaries, with a 10-metre setback from the street. Office Mi–Ji has responded to this footprint with both civility and irreverence, at once highlighting and subverting the conventions of suburban planning mechanisms. At the front of the house, the columns contain the building, but at the rear, they feel almost provisional, sitting apart from the building and thereby showing where a twist in the plan allows the house to deviate from the defined envelope. This torsion is fully understood inside the house, where the plan has been arranged as three distinct components within a whole. The front portion functions as a one-bedroom home for the owners, with living spaces on the ground floor and a bedroom, bathroom and study on the first floor. Guest accommodation at the rear comprises two additional bedrooms and bathrooms and secondary sitting room. Joining the two is a bridge, which twists and offsets the alignment of the two wings. Next to the bridge are two cylindrical forms containing a laundry and powder room –follies that contrast with the two square plans. “They look unusual in plan, but they are a point of repose,” Millie says. Jimmy adds, “They’re distinguishing points, idiosyncratic entities that signal the change in section.”

The main volume works efficiently and delightfully as a self-contained residence for two. Living spaces are arranged around a central core, containing the kitchen and stair. Spaces are distinct yet connected: it is possible to call down the stairs from the mezzanine study, or to hear someone in the kitchen while in the living room. An operable timber panel in the first-floor bedroom enables one snoozing partner to hear the familiar sounds of the other making a morning pot of tea. Office Mi–Ji’s strategy was to create a gentler separation between zones in place of the absolutes of opening and closing doors. “It comes from knowing the occupants, of course, but it divides space in a much more interesting way,” Millie says.

Where the exterior is materially pragmatic – sheet metal and fibreglass panels, visible fixings and grate flooring – the interior is a warm cocoon, with tallowwood linings, cork flooring and kitchen joinery in a deep emerald green. The glass in the skylights at the eastern and western edges is obscured by the dropped bulkhead of the first floor, admitting a light that is soft and subdued. The first-floor volume shades the western skylight, while automated blinds on the eastern skylight mediate the heat of the summer sun.

In this seaside town, on a street of otherwise conventional homes, AB House is a hidden surprise awaiting discovery. If you chance a walk by, you might just catch a glimpse through the open door of the polished refuge concealed within the house’s hardy exoskeleton.

Products

Roofing: Stramit Speed Deck Ultra in ‘Zincalume’ and Colorbond ‘Surfmist’

External walls: Ampelite Wonderglas GC in ‘Cool White Light’ and ‘Natural Clear’; Deep Ripple galvanized steel cladding by Ripple Iron Internal walls: Bord birch plywood in Rubio Monocoat; tallowwood, American oak and Tasmanian oak lining boards from Chris Parkinson

Windows: Tasmanian oak frames from Diamond Windows; Breezway anodized aluminium louvre

Flooring: Tallowwood lining boards from Chris Parkinson; Noppe Stud tile from Polyflor in ‘Green Baize’

Lighting: Tolomeo wall lights by Artemide; Sphera lighting; LED units from Unios

Kitchen: Appliances by Miele; stainless steel Franke sink; Astra Walker Icon tapware in ‘Brushed Platinum’; hand-buffed stainless steel benchtops by Ore Designs; 2pac by Pavilion Joinery in ‘Brunswick Green’; island by Pavilion Joinery and Ore Designs

Bathroom: Barestone fibre cement sheet by Cemintel; Tadelakt render by Render It Oz

Heating and cooling: and Hydronic heating panels from Middleton’s Heating and Cooling

External elements: Tallowwood decking board from Chris Parkinson; FRP grating from Monaco Distributors in ‘Green’

Other: Dining table by Alex Rains from Lex Furniture; Australia sofa and Hans Wegner armchairs from Great Dane; the Hammer Chair by Jimmy Carter; LC1 Armchair from Cassina

New House

Barwon Heads, Vic

AB House is built on the land of the Wadawurrung people.

06

06 A north-facing window frames the suburban rooftops and the tall, cylindrical volume of the powder room.

07 Perforated steel screens wrap the study window, which overlooks the street.

08 A timber shutter in the main bedroom enables acoustic connection to living spaces when desired.

09 The upstairs bathroom is designed as a connected sequence of spaces rather than a separate room.

07

Architect Office Mi–Ji +61 417 038 912 / +61 452 055 948 office@mi-ji.com.au mi-ji.com.au

Project team Millie Anderson, Jimmy Carter, Morgan Peterson Builder David Webb Building Solutions Engineer Keith Long and Associates Steel fabricator Ore Designs Landscape designer Bush Projects Landscaper Growing Designs

GROVE HOUSE

BY CLAYTON ORSZACZKY

A sculptural addition to a grand,

house

Words by Chloe Naughton Photography by Jack Lovel

When the owners of Grove House purchased their charming, heritage-listed residence in Woollahra in Sydney’s inner east, they were also investing in the preservation of one of the city’s shared private gardens. The clients had been looking to move for a year and it was this garden that really drew them in. Much like a secret garden, the serene oasis is hidden near a bustling street and provides a buffer for the five residences that share the greenery. The garden is a generator of community and social activity among the residents; a welcome place of respite and retreat, host to many birthday celebrations and communal barbecues. It has been hugely valuable during a pandemic.

A detailed heritage report of the residence identified a building boom in the area in the early 1870s that produced most of the surviving lateVictorian cottages and terraces. The first records of this two-storey Italianate-style house and its matching neighbour are shown on a map dating back to 1887; they were most likely constructed around 1885. Between the 1960s and 1980s, a series of changes were made, including alterations to the rear of the original side extension and the addition of a timber-framed glass conservatory to the back. The side extension was dark and the conservatory’s large expanses of glass offered little protection from the climate, making the back portion of the house uncomfortable to inhabit.

After purchasing the property, the current owners lived there for a year, coming to understand how the building behaved throughout the seasons. The heritage report noted that the later alterations and additions were poorly detailed and detracted from the building’s setting. It supported their replacement with a contemporary and contextual, climate-based response. Having worked with architects in the past, the owners appreciated the importance of engaging a professional practice to realize their vision and make the home more comfortable. They sought the expertise of Clayton Orszaczky.

The brief was straightforward: to restore the connection between the house and the garden –a connection that had been compromised by the later alterations and additions – both visually and physically. The family wanted to improve the utility of the house and create a space they loved. The new addition was to comprise a kitchen, family room, powder room, bedroom and accompanying bathroom.

Early modelling by Clayton Orszaczky revealed a two-storey addition with which the owners immediately fell in love. With a few simple yet clever moves, project architect Rebekah Clayton ensured winter and morning light would be channelled to the back portion of the house, mitigating the once dark, cold and unusable space. Part of the previous footprint was carved out, acting like a light well to funnel in

Victorian-era

in Woollahra offers its owners a decidedly contemporary, cocoon-like home that connects with its own garden and an adjoining, semi-private grove.

03

01 The addition reorients living spaces to open onto a semi-private grove adjoining the site’s western edge.

02 New elements are formally and materially distinct from the existing house, and are anchored by a kitchen bench in off-form concrete.

03 Steel and glass doors restore the garden connection from the existing dining room.

Alteration + addition Sydney, NSW

Multigenerational family

+ 1 powder room

Site 295 m²

Internal 235 m² Courtyards 50 m² Design 10 m Build 12 m

northern light. The insertion of a courtyard provides a pleasant outlook from the kitchen, while offering relief from the neighbouring property along with a service and storage corridor. The removal of the conservatory restores a direct connection to the garden via large, steel-framed glass doors that welcome in natural light. The only interventions to the existing rooms were a lick of paint and some additional joinery.

The owners’ fondness for concrete architecture, which inspired the materiality of their previous house, was born when they resided in Japan. In their new home, they wished for a similar feel but with a gentler response. The curvaceous form of the new top-floor addition is reminiscent of a sculpture in a landscape, with the roof garden as an extension of the shared garden below. The sculptural forms were originally intended to be built from off-form concrete, but the architect proposed a more efficient and less costly construction method: rendered masonry on the exterior with lightweight construction and a concrete-look render to the interior achieves the smoothness of concrete while providing an insulated and waterproof enclosure. Inside, the curved walls hug the inhabitants in a cocoon-like manner. An enormous concrete kitchen island bench anchors the addition and has become the focal point of the home. An ingenious feature is the large, round cut-out in the bench; a container for breadboard, serving platter or ice bucket, its shape mirrors the feature light above.

Grove House accommodates the comings and goings of the owners’ three adult children and accompanying grandchildren, and has experienced a variety of occupation arrangements when family members have stayed for extended periods, including lockdowns and working-from-home. The house caters beautifully for the multigenerational nature of the family, with parts closing off for privacy when required, and the kitchen, living and courtyard providing communal spaces for coming together.

This thoughtful reworking of a grand, Victorian-era house maximizes the uncommon opportunity of a site that adjoins a shared private garden, orienting the additions toward this secluded open space. In restoring the connection between house and garden, Clayton Orszaczky has delivered a home that provides thermal comfort year-round, and has also given the homeowners the opportunity to nurture relationships, both within their own home and with the community of their new neighbourhood.

Products

Roofing: Lysaght Custom Orb in ‘Zincalume’; Nepean River pebbles

External walls: Rockcote Concrete Finish textured render; existing walls in Dulux ‘Whisper White’ and ‘Snowy Mountains Half’

Internal walls: Gyprock plasterboard; Rockcote Concrete Finish textured render; STC microcement; Dulux ‘Natural White’

Windows: Skyrange steel windows in Murobond ‘Carbon’ Doors: Vitrocsa sliding doors in Interpon ‘Dark Bronze’; steel hinged doors in Murobond ‘Carbon’; Niki flush pulls from Designer Doorware

Flooring: Tuftmaster Calgary carpet in ‘Europa 140’; polished concrete with salt and pepper finish

Lighting: JSB Lighting Mono Trimless downlights; Flos Zero Track system from Euroluce; Vitra Akari pendant from Living Edge; Apparatus Talisman wall sconce Kitchen: Off-form concrete bench; Artetech Ombra Carbone porcelain panels from Artedomus; Brodware Halo tapware; AEG oven; Miele cooktop; Fisher and Paykel fridge; Siemens dishwasher; Zip tap in matt black; cabinetry in oak veneer and Porter’s Paints ‘Aniseed’ with 10 percent polyurethane by DSK

Bathroom: Artetech Ombra Carbone porcelain panels from Artedomus; Brodware Halo tapware and accessories in ‘Aged Iron’

Heating and cooling: and In-floor heating

External elements: Eco Outdoor Endicott Crazy Paving

04 A planted canopy provides shade to the courtyard and outlook to first-floor bedrooms.

Grove House is built on the land of Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

05 The original freestanding house was built in c. 1885 and features ornate Italianate details.

06 A sunken bath is lit from above by a skylight. Artwork: Adam Pyett.

Architect Clayton Orszaczky +61 411 148 598, +61 415 231 937 info@coarchitecture.co coarchitecture.co

Builder Out ’n’ Up Heritage architect Zoltan Kovacs

Project team Rebekah Clayton, Michelle Orszaczky

Steendijk

For more than two decades, this Queenslandbased architecture studio has been designing inventive homes characterized by precision, meticulous detail and a passion for making.

Words by Sheona Thomson Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

For more than two decades, Brian Steendyk has been at the helm of architecture and design studio Steendijk, working on diverse challenges and applying his interdisciplinary skill set to product, exhibition and interior design as well as residential and commercial architecture.

Formatively, Brian undertook a master of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in the mid-1990s, which explains the modernist tendencies found in his work. He speaks fondly of his time at Crown Hall with his two thesis advisors, Joseph Fujikawa and the “poet of structure” Myron Goldsmith. Both were disciplecollaborators of German émigré and renowned modernist Mies van der Rohe, IIT’s architecture director from 1938 to 1958. These men were thoughtful and disciplined practitioner-educators whose valuable lessons Brian eagerly absorbed. Goldsmith, an architect and engineer who studied under Pier Luigi Nervi in Rome, instilled in Brian that, through the understanding of engineering, one can achieve the “art of architecture.”

Brian breezily refers to the glass pavilion of Canoe Reach Residence (2008; see Houses 63), in Brisbane’s

riverside suburb of Yeerongpilly, as his “Mies van der Rohe meets Philip Johnson moment.” This quietly grand dwelling is distinguished by an elevated steel and glass volume that projects west beyond the main body of the house toward the river. This is homage with a twist; the elevated pavilion is dressed for its subtropical setting in a layer of external blinds. This project, completed at the start of the practice’s journey, displays tendencies that Steendijk has developed methodically over time. The notions of historic precedents and of compositional balance – both structurally and aesthetically – are integral to Brian’s work.

Home and Studio (2010), an update to an 1875 worker’s cottage, is the first of a series of four that the practice has completed in Spring Hill. The project incorporates environmental considerations and material and tectonic experimentation; respects the old by contrasting it with new interventions; and reinvigorates the urban responsibility to the street through a playful staircase and entry sequence. The cottage was lifted to gain habitable space in place of the stumped undercroft. A narrow strip of glass inserted into the channel beams

01 Steendijk founder Brian Steendyk.

02 At Canoe Reach Residence (2008), a living volume projects out toward the river and shades a central courtyard.

03 In Treehouse (2010), a Corten screen wraps the rear of a worker’s cottage and a new living pavilion.

04 In Home and Studio (2010), a Spring Hill cottage’s undercroft is adapted into shaded living spaces that spill out to the private garden.

05 The house was raised a half-storey, allowing the home to expand while preserving the scale of the street.

supporting the house creates a subtle separation between the airy upper rooms and the grounded realm below.

Over the years, Brian has transformed several Brisbane cottages for contemporary living and working patterns. Each project has offered opportunities to learn about and riff on the challenges of the type and the various constraints inherent in the close-packed inner-suburban contexts, including tensions between privacy and outlook. Respectful innovations have breathed new life into the old without wrecking the context.

Treehouse (2010; see Houses 80), also in Spring Hill, paired an updated timber cottage with a new rear pavilion to expand the home’s footprint, creating a favourable microclimate in the dense context. Corten steel screens, which reinterpret the latticed verandah screens of traditional Queenslanders, are perforated with a custom anise motif. The apertures control sun and are suggestive of light through the trees, veiling the transparent glass boxes of the buildings.

Emblematic of Brian’s multidisciplinary practice, the anise motif has been repurposed to create pendant lights, stools and jewellery. The use of digital tools has enabled this cross-disciplinary experimentation at different scales.

Steel, exploited for its structural economy and fineness of detail, features in many Steendijk projects. At Bellbird Retreat (2018) in Killarney, Corten creates a distinctive and memorable silhouette in the landscape. The protective pleats of steel elegantly span the splaying

form, eliminating the need for combustible roof framing in this bushfire-prone setting. Spaces of prospect and refuge are orchestrated by the placement of three defensive blades of brick, lined internally with glowing plywood. The details are pristine, and the disciplined range of materials and minimal simplicity of the plan belie the richness of the relational experience that this small home establishes with its expansive setting.

A similar approach manifests in a project under construction in another bushfire-prone hillside landscape in Brookfield on Brisbane’s western outskirts. In this unique collaboration project with Glenn Murcutt, a pleated Corten roof shelters two modestly sized pavilions of brick, steel and glass. Wisdom has passed between the two architects in resolving this exquisite and refined dwelling.

Other projects under construction include two homes that are also on sites susceptible to bushfire: one on Tasmania’s Bruny Island and another in Warrandyte, in Melbourne’s north-east. The latter is an extension to a 1949 residence by Robin Boyd.

Arguably, Brian’s work is distinctive because it does not follow contemporary aesthetic tendencies. Exceptionally well-detailed and resolved, his houses often have the freshness of experiments, with ideas prototyped and tested in different applications.

The resilient steel screens and pleated roofs are an example of this, as are other applications of plate steel such as the external stainless steel stair at Prospect Place (2015). Poised on the masonry hardscape, the stair bridges the transition between the old and new floors of the cottage. At Green House (2021; see Houses 148), steel plates form a staircase inserted into the middle third of the front facade, with a cantilevered landing projecting out toward the street.

A signature steel element at Green House is a crimped open cowl awning over a north-facing outdoor room. Brian devised this element to protect the interior from the summer sun, allowing the house to remain open to cooling breezes, even during a subtropical shower. Graduated

06 Prospect Place (2015) explores how the worker’s cottage can be adapted for future use. A flexible ground floor can be used as a workplace or showroom.

07 An external stair bridges the transition from ground to first floor, ensuring adequate separation between residential and commercial use.

At Bellbird Retreat,

08

08 Bellbird Retreat (2018) composes an immediate connection to its bushland setting.

09 Bedrooms pinwheel out to frame private landscape views.

10 A robust palette of brick, concrete and pleated Corten responds to the bushfire-prone site.

the details are pristine, and the disciplined range of materials and minimal simplicity of the plan belie the richness of the relational experience that this small home establishes with its expansive setting.

perforations at the edge lighten the form while disturbing the air to avoid wind pressure build-up. The cowl steps down to wrap around the garden as a zigzag wall, an abstraction of serpentine structures often found in traditional landscape design.

In all Steendijk’s projects, clever orchestration of space and material achieves that modernist legacy of doing more with less. Elements consistently do more than one thing, as seen in the floating edge of the Green House living space, which becomes a garden seat when the room opens up, and the elevated planter, out of which trailing plants cascade to create a curtain of living shade.

Over the years, Brian’s material inventiveness has intensified, along with his deepening expertise in making. He is passionately attentive to the quality of the physical outcomes, both environmentally and aesthetically, and he has evolved his approach to achieve a consistently high standard of fabrication and finish. Steendijk’s buildings are, by today’s inflated standards, relatively modest in their physical size, but the density of ideas encountered within them is remarkable. steendijk.com

11 Elevated planters at Green House (2021) shade the glass and soften the edges between house and garden.

12 An outdoor room is framed by a Corten cowl, allowing rooms to remain open to breezes, even during a subtropical shower.

Marie Short House by Glenn Murcutt

REVISITED

Built in 1974, just four years after Glenn Murcutt began practising architecture, this farmhouse in Kempsey in northern New South Wales is a seminal work, much admired both in Australia and abroad. Modest, flexible and adaptable to climate, it endures as a model for responsive, responsible design.

Words by Katelin Butler Photography by Brett Boardman

In 1973, three years into running his own practice, Glenn Murcutt was becoming a specialist in residential alterations and additions. Reflecting on those early years, he describes having used each project as “a little experiment in design –in dealing with wind and light patterns, in using industrial components, and in reducing the amount of detailing.” Glenn had only completed two new houses – including the Wilkinson Award-winning Laurie Short House (1972–73) in Terrey Hills – when Marie Short, the mother of his previous client, approached him to design an extension to a farmhouse on her property in Kempsey, approximately 450 kilometres north of Sydney. When looking at the cost of the renovation, just before construction was about to commence, Glenn suggested to Marie that it might not cost too much more to design a completely new house. The following week, Glenn presented three-quarters of the working drawings for a new house to his client and builder, and, without need for council approval (as the house was set back far enough from the main public road), they were ready to begin the new build. The resulting house, often referred to as the Marie Short House, has become an architectural icon that has enthused many architects and designers, both in Australia and abroad. Much has been written about this seminal project since it was completed in 1974 – and, almost 50 years later, it endures as a remarkable example of what Glenn describes as “the idea of architecture as a response to the place, and not as an imposition on the place.” In other, more well-known words, it “touches the earth lightly.” Driven by pragmatic concerns for climatic conditions, including orientation, wind patterns and rainfall, the built outcome is a poetic expression of its environment. The modern planning strategies of German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) are palpable in this house – something Glenn himself recognizes. However, Glenn deferred to local

01 The house comprises two pavilions, one for living and the other for sleeping.

02 Two covered outdoor rooms provide an immediate but sheltered connection to place.

03 Marie Short’s brief called for a house that could be taken apart and reassembled with relative ease.

03 The modular design paid off in 1980, when Glenn extended the house by inserting three additional bays into each pavilion.

environmental conditions to determine when these strategies required modification – for example, flat roofs were ruled out because of the region’s heavy rainfall. To strengthen the building’s embedded connection to its setting, its olive-grey exterior recedes into the surrounding flora and its shed-like structure is reminiscent of traditional farm buildings. It’s no wonder that, when it was complete, the house became synonymous with the idea of an “Australian architecture.”

The house is built from local timbers, including coachwood lining boards and tallowwood post and beams “that you could eat, they were so beautiful,” as Glenn puts it. In fact, this timber had been collected by Marie over the years and it formed an important part of her brief for Glenn. With this reclaimed timber, she wanted a house that could be disassembled and put back together with relative ease –during the briefing process, she suggested that there was the possibility of changing its siting in future.

After Glenn purchased the Kempsey property from Marie in 1980, this original design approach paid off. He was able to take apart components of the house to make way for an extension “without losing a stick of timber, nor a louvre. Everything was reused.” The original plan comprised two modular pavilions – one for sleeping and one for living. Glenn’s 1980 addition inserted three extra bays to each pavilion, providing accommodation for his family. The new

Marie Short House plan, 1973–74, drawn by Glenn Murcutt. Reproduced from Françoise Fromonot, Glenn Murcutt: Works and Projects (Thames and Hudson, 1995).

Marie Short House plan with addition, 1980, drawn by Glenn Murcutt. Reproduced from Françoise Fromonot, Glenn Murcutt: Works and Projects (Thames and Hudson, 1995).

02 05 m 1:400

configuration has made the two pavilions more independent than they were originally, allowing for generational separation as required: each wing contains living and sleeping spaces. The linking spine between the two staggered pavilions is punctuated at the central point such that the two communal areas are connected via pivoting doors – and, in the new configuration, this makes the spine less about thoroughfare and more about connectivity.

The ideas of prospect and refuge are completely understood when entering this house: although you can see the surrounding farmland from most rooms, the adjustable, triple-skin facade allows for mediation of the climatic conditions. The house itself is raised on stilts to almost 800 millimetres above ground level to allow air to circulate and cool the building in the warmer months, while also providing shelter for native wildlife (in Glenn’s work, there’s usually more than one reason for every design decision). Kangaroos are often found taking refuge in the undercroft of the house during the hot summer months and, Glenn fondly recalls, during the rain, “the house is surrounded by wildlife.”

There are many lessons to be learnt from the Kempsey house that are resonant with our current world condition. The modesty of the structure, its adaptability to changing needs and its response to climate are all pertinent to the pressing concerns of the environmental crisis. When asked if his intent was to make a sustainable house, Glenn responds, “I don’t talk about sustainability – it’s one part of the responsibility of architecture. I always ask myself what a responsible design response is.” For Glenn, this means in-depth analysis and understanding of a place: sun paths, prevailing winds and other climatic patterns. At the time of designing the Kempsey house, he adds, he realized that “responsibility in building includes putting a building together that can be taken apart, enabling us to reuse the componentry in a responsible way.” In the face of the climate crisis, this consideration for the legacy of our built environment is more relevant than ever.

Of course, not all homes are set in such a desirable location as the Kempsey house, but its design nonetheless offers important reminders about the value of returning to the fundamentals of architecture. When I ask Glenn about

The modesty of the structure, its adaptability to changing needs and its response to climate are all pertinent to the pressing concerns of the environmental crisis.

05 Glass and metal louvres along the building’s edges allow occupants to adjust the ingress of light and air, and control privacy.

06 Pivoting doors link the two living spaces, enabling connection between zones.

07 Most of the timber was locally sourced and had been collected by the client in anticipation of the build. Artwork: Jack Britten.

08 09

08 Service areas are pragmatically grouped as clusters of cells.

09 The house embeds you in nature while also protecting you from it.

10 The pavilions are elevated to assist airflow and offer wildlife a shady place to escape the summer sun.

how his approach translates to the urban context, he refers to the Magney House in Paddington (1986–90), which was “full of restrictions, but those restrictions produced one of the best houses I’ve done. The urban context is about responding to morphology, materiality, scale, proportion – it’s all part of understanding the nature of a place.” He adds, “The more restrictions you have, the better you’ll do.”

Today, the Kempsey house is still owned by the Murcutt family, and it is well loved by those who have the privilege of spending time there. Standard maintenance is required, consistent with a building of its age, but the integrity of the design has clearly stood the test of time, its modular system easily adapting to changing needs. As you move through the hoop-pine- and brush-box-timberlined interior, you are always reminded of your place in the world – the house simultaneously embeds you in nature and protects you from it. There is, perhaps surprisingly to some, real comfort in falling asleep to the noise of rain on the corrugated iron rooftops and the subtle snores of the kangaroos under the floorboards.

Architect Glenn Murcutt Builder R. M. Brenton Engineer Dick Taylor, Taylor Thomson Whitting

Portrait of a house

EXHIBITION

This Sydney exhibition offered an artist’s behindthe-scenes observations of the making of Peter Stutchbury Architecture’s Indian Head House, uncovering the soft edges beneath a tough house.

Words by Penny Craswell Photography by Louise Whelan

Portrait of a House is a visual story of a house, told by a photographer, yet rather than focusing on the end result, the portrait is of its emergence and evolution. This eight-minute film and accompanying stills are by artist Louise Whelan, and their subject is Indian Head House by Peter Stutchbury Architecture. Louise’s footage and photographs consist of a series of tableaus with minimal storytelling that nevertheless offers a powerful sense of place and architecture.

Indian Head House is Peter’s own home in Avalon Beach in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Louise filmed the building over four years, a process that enabled her to capture every stage of its evolution: from diggers on site and carpenters sanding wood to, ultimately, the lived-in home. Peter’s respect for First Nations culture and knowledge is reflected in the opening moments of the film, during which Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison talks about the land and First Nations architecture and art. The film then begins with images of nature, a digger moving a rock, and a guitar player, presented without narration, instilling a sense of meditative calm and a focus on imagery, both still and moving, that continues throughout the film.

Indian Head House has been described as the “tough house with soft edges,” and it is this softness that the film pursues. Peter talks about the house, including the difference between an intellectual and an aesthetic architecture; about being in tune with nature; and about how his partner, architect Fernanda Cabral, highlighted the importance of sociability in the project and heightened his awareness of the social responsibility they have as architects. The film shows how the pair lived on site in a tent

during construction – a suggestion of Fernanda’s that, Peter says, made sense not just financially but also spiritually.

The next section of the film focuses on the local craftspeople who constructed and finished the house by hand, and includes an interview with maker Jeffrey Broadfield. It then returns to Peter, who speaks about his idea of a “palette for the edge” – a notion connecting architecture to the land. As the film’s focus shifts, so too does Louise’s gaze, capturing people sanding wood, polishing metal and levelling off poured concrete, before homing in on details of the coast, a jagged rock, an ocean pool, and the shadows and reflections where one building edge meets another. At times, however, this preoccupation with beautiful details felt esoteric, as if holding the complete story of the house out of reach.

Peter Stutchbury Architecture’s remarkable and much lauded residential designs are frequently published, but Louise’s film and photographs offer something different: an abstract, artist’s impression of the craft, the care and the collaboration on which this house depends. Peter’s houses are deeply rooted in nature and place, using elements of the landscape as important design features. This ethos is a good match for Louise, whose artistic practice focuses on environmental and humanitarian issues, and the aesthetics of memory. In distilling four years of careful observation into a short film and photographic series, Louise has looked beyond the tough building in pursuit of its soft edges. Portrait of a House was exhibited at Manly Art Gallery and Museum from 2 September to 16 October. magam.com.au

01 A summer Sunday lunch on site at Indian Head House with Peter Stutchbury, Fernanda Cabral and friends, 2017.

Architect: John Wardle Architect s / Photography: Trevor Mein