Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 107 December i Houses

It must have been sometime in the autumn of 1990 that I found myself inside Woollahra Municipal Council wondering if the man behind the counter was ever going to approve the small house I was terribly keen to build. It was to be my first project completed independently, designed for a wonderfully free-of-doubt couple by the names of Michael and Zenga. While waiting at the council offices I thought of my friend and early mentor Willie Meyer, a hugely successful and enigmatic architect in Johannesburg, South Africa. Willie, a golden student of Louis Kahn, had ordered a special tailored suit to wear at council meetings. It was black, it was shiny and it was worn in patches. Its trouser legs were so short that when he wore it, four inches…

As architectural photographs often do, the images of Villa Marittima present a bold dwelling with very few signs of inhabitation. What is surprising is that the home appears the same in the flesh. Minimalist living takes commitment, and commitment is what architect Robin Williams does best – both to his ideas and to the way he prefers to live. When Robin designed Villa Marittima he had owned an old fibro beach shack on the site in St Andrews Beach, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, for twenty-six years. He was already in tune with its climate, seasonal changes and context. The site is located down the road from houses by Sean Godsell and Fender Katsalidis, and Robin, like his architectural peers, saw the opportunity in the location. Inspired by the simplicity and…

On a quiet street in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs sits a home that deeply challenges Australian housing typology with its rich layers of architectural history and spatial complexities, so much so that it’s easy to forget this is ultimately “just” a family home. The wonderful smells emanating from the kitchen help, however, and I’m told there’s tequila chilling in the fridge in readiness for a family lunch about to kick off in true Mexican style – once the architects and writers have been cleared out, that is. Mexico, in one way or another, inhabits every aspect of this residence – from its conceptual basis as an “internalized” Moorish courtyard house, down to the very literal, with materials such as the volcanic stone flooring and the built-in furniture using Sabino cypress imported…

As a passer-by, you might not initially notice this house by David Boyle Architect. There are lots of little cottages on its street in Marrickville – some brick, some timber-clad, some rendered. There are sheds and verandahs and an impressively wide range of decorative fences and gates. It seems that many of these structures are homemade – like built versions of craft stalls at a local fete. Then it becomes clear that there is a house on this street that is a bit different. It has red steel poles like the neighbour’s carport, but the timber cladding is vertical rather than the usual horizontal. The front porch roof pulls away at the front wall, and the wall is angled slightly as it gets closer to the huge street tree. From…

Delia Teschendorff Architecture’s Bridge House 2 is one tough character. A melange of light industrial building forms and hard-wearing, mottled red brick, it seems more defensive redoubt than domestic retreat when viewed from the street. Delia Teschendorff describes Bridge House 2 as “honest.” She might be referring to the fact that the building’s architectural expression is “true to its materials” – its structural brick skeleton is legible inside and out and its interior is dressed simply, with naturally finished timber floors and joinery. The building’s honesty, though, is more refreshing than this well-worn trope would do justice to. Located in Melbourne’s Brunswick West, the house sits between a lurid pink corner shop to its south and a one-storey hipped-roof suburban bungalow in red brick to its north. To the east,…

Reconfiguring the backyard as a place of joyous play and restful prospect has been a consistent trope in postwar residential suburban architecture. It represents a reversal of cultural and social priorities over several decades, in which family privacy prevails and the frontispiece adopts a secondary role. In the case of old Queenslanders, back-of-house often comprised a factory of functional work sheds, chookyards, vegetable gardens and, of course, the essential earth closet. In some cases, remnant slit trenches or more elaborate concrete air raid shelters still exist in backyards. No wonder the focus was firmly on the front-of-house display of neat flowerbeds, hedged lawns and crisply painted chamfer boards. West End House, on an 800-square-metre site in Brisbane’s inner south, was redeveloped by Angus Munro of Marc and Co Architects. It…

In the 1960s and ’70s, a group of young architects designed a sixteen-hectare complex in the centre of London that would house, educate and entertain more than four thousand people, after the destruction of the city during World War II. This backdrop of postwar urban regeneration gave rise to myriad utopian schemes that charged architecture an egalitarian ambition. The Barbican Estate, with its trio of brutalist concrete towers and a baker’s dozen of seventeen-storey terraces, mixed with landscaped gardens, lakes, a library, a school and performing arts institutions, offered its residents what has been widely touted as a utopian ideal for inner-city living. This complex was even described by Queen Elizabeth II as “one of the modern wonders of the world.” It took more than a decade to complete and…

01 2016 Houses Awards Entries close 18 March 2016 Register now to enter the 2016 Houses Awards, our annual program celebrating Australia’s best residential projects. Pictured is Planchonella House by Jesse Bennett Architect, the 2015 Australian House of the Year and winner of the New House over 200 square metres category. housesawards.com.au 02 The Big Design Market 4–6 December 2015 Get your Christmas shopping done at this year’s Big Design Market, to be held at Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building. The market will host more than 230 stallholders, including designers Volker Haug, Bridget Bodenham and Beci Orpin. thebigdesignmarket.com 03 MPavilion event program On until 7 February 2016 Designed by Amanda Levete of London-based architecture practice AL_A, Melbourne’s second MPavilion will host a program of talks, workshops, performances and installations over the…

01 Custom orb cladding Welsh and Major enjoys using this quintessential building material because it is easily transportable, robust and simple. The striking form of the Venus Bay House is clad in Custom orb. lysaght.com 02 Birch plywood Sharp, sophisticated and sustainable, this material starts out crisp and beautiful and then ages with honeyed tones over time, as seen here at The Garden Project. It also has the ability to take the knocks and scrapes of family life. wisaplywood.com 03 Saarinen side and dining tables Welsh and Major has never chosen the Saarinen side or dining tables, but interestingly its clients do. Nearly sixty years old, Eero Saarinen’s pedestal tables in various sizes and shapes are still among the most elegant and refined pieces of furniture. knoll.com dedece.com 04 Marseille terracotta…

Designed by Noosa-based architect David Teeland, Stealth House emerges from a gentle knoll on an east-facing slope in the marvellous hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. It is the first house that David’s clients, a retired couple from the Goondiwindi area, have built from scratch. They acquired the property, fifty-plus acres at Montville, in 2007. Slowly, after meeting David in 2009, they formed a vision for a new phase of living. The house dramatically celebrates the opportunity in the couple’s move from the lands beyond the Great Dividing Range to the very different environment of Australia’s subtropical eastern fringe. The clients’ connection to David came through builder Jason Warren, who grew up in Goondiwindi and now has a successful construction company on the Sunshine Coast. Their professional relationship mutually reinforces each…

01 Armourpanel timber panels Armourpanel panels are ideal for flooring, wall panelling and joinery, combining the look of native timber with the durability of a precision-engineered structural product. Armourpanel’s construction method sees its five layers of Australian hardwood sheets bonded in a cross-ply manufacturing process to form a strong, solid, stable panel. bigrivergroup.com.au 02 Ventura polished concrete overlay The Ventura 10-mm-thick polished Portland cement concrete overlay system is developed with technology that means there is no need to use plastics, epoxy, resin or PVC in the mix. The modern, hard-wearing surface can be applied over any existing floor, and doesn’t yellow, split or scuff. concrete-overlay.com.au 03 Kaleidoscope Collection of rugs The Kaleidoscope Collection from Designer Rugs brings together texture, vibrant colours, edgy patterns and geometric shapes. The collection was created…

At the heart of Brisbane’s inner-city suburb of New Farm are some of its older streets, lined in most part by modest timber-and-tin worker’s cottages on small lots. Sited close to their neighbours, these houses benefit from many of the virtues of traditional Queenslanders and yet suffer from the loss of visual and acoustic privacy that such physical proximity entails. In the essay “A First Place: The Mapping of a World,” David Malouf observes that the openness of Brisbane houses fosters the “subtle habits of not seeing, not hearing.” Such discretion is increasingly likely to be overwhelmed as the remnant in-between spaces and former back gardens are subdivided and developed for new houses, or encroached upon as the existing houses are enlarged. Over time, new infill houses have increased in…

01 Could you tell us a little about your family and your background? My husband Andrew and I share an interest in architecture. I worked as an art director in the film and television industry for years and Andrew works as an engineering surveyor in the construction industry. Having enjoyed building our first house, designed by Mackenzie Pronk Architects, we wanted to do it all again when we moved to Marrickville, Sydney. 02 Why did you decide to engage an architect? So much goes into building a new house and to enjoy the process you have to love the design. A good architect can really elevate a building beyond the ordinary. It’s a joy to be able to offer an architect a blank slate and be party to making all…

01 Aura pendant Designed by Ross Gardam, the Aura pendant features a floating disk surrounded by a gentle glow. Available in two sizes and various finish options, Aura is a versatile fixture designed to complement any number of interior settings. It comes with a two-metre cord and dimmable LED globe. rossgardam.com.au 02 Oscar sofa This beautifully resolved sofa from Something Beginning With is ideal for spaces where compact seating is required. The slender shape comes upholstered in fabric or leather. The sofa is made in Australia with a focus on environmental sustainability and durability. somethingbeginningwith.com.au 03 SensoWash e shower-toilet Duravit’s SensoWash e shower-toilet is now available in a new, honed design. Designed by Philippe Starck, the shower-toilet is a symbiosis of toilet and bidet. The new version features miniaturized components,…

The clients of The Edge in Port Douglas, Queensland, engaged Charles Wright Architects to help locate a suitable spot for their dream home. A notoriously difficult site on Flagstaff Hill, high above Port Douglas, was found and purchased and design work was initiated. Attempts by previous developers to build on the site had met strong resistance from local authorities, focused on the preservation of sightlines from the public lookout above the site down to Four Mile Beach. This was a challenging, even daunting constraint that in the end proved surmountable due to some agile and very imaginative thinking. Director Charles Wright worked closely with his clients to develop a brief that took into account the quality and performance of materials and their finishes. They wanted to pursue a contemporary way…

There’s a moment of inspired clarity in the video accompanying the Superhouse: Architecture and Interiors Beyond the Everyday exhibition, which brings to life the content from Karen McCartney’s latest book through the photography of Richard Powers. That moment comes early on in the piece from comedian Tim Ross, who when asked what a superhouse is, deadpans to camera: “The house that gives you envy.” He’s not wrong. For anyone who has ever encountered a superhouse, whether in the flesh or in reproduction, it can leave you slack jawed, gasping and/or drooling. Trying to understand what it is about these houses that elicits such visceral responses might not bring us any closer to a sure definition. After all, it’s highly subjective – a particular form, material or scale that resonates with…

Nowhere better epitomizes Sydney’s harbour-side living than Double Bay. With its network of leafy European-scale streets and cosmopolitan mixture of retail, hospitality and residential development, it stands out in contrast to its highrise peninsula neighbours of Darling Point and Point Piper. While these characteristics have given the area its credentials as Sydney’s choicest location, it is not so renowned for its innovative architecture. Tribe Studio Architects’ project for a family home in a quiet Double Bay street challenges the status quo in its conception, architecture and construction, resulting in an inventive model for contemporary dwelling within a traditional urban context. Unlike the majority of new single-family dwellings built in the established areas of Sydney’s east, House in Double Bay was conceived as a speculative development. This meant the design, construction…

Just off the grittiest end of King Street, where the chimney-stacks of Sydney Park dominate the skyline, sits a street that personifies the diverse Newtown experience. Large, freshly painted two-storey terrace houses with sleek balconies and Scandinavian-style mailboxes face single-storey, slightly grimy residences adorned with colourful flags. At the end of the row a small, unassuming terrace is built snug to its neighbours’ boundary walls. I checked my phone twice; yes, this was the right place. When I visited the house for this review, I expected it to be unoccupied. But after emerging from the poorly lit hallway at the front of the retained original terrace, I was surprised to see the tenant, her two teenage daughters and their Siamese cat all within a single frame, staring back at me…

In his 1947 book Victorian Modern – the first real attempt at a history of Australian architecture – Robin Boyd championed Harold Desbrowe-Annear and Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin as pioneers of modernism in Melbourne. The suburb of Eaglemont had been fertile territory for both Desbrowe-Annear and the Griffins. As early as 1904, Desbrowe-Annear had prefigured the modern functionalist plan with his design for the Chadwick House, with its cellular but interlocking living spaces. Down the road, the Griffins continued the pursuit of the open plan in 1922 with Pholiota – an innovative, single-roomed house with surrounding alcoves, built for themselves, on one of two progressive garden suburb subdivisions that they’d designed and implemented during the war. At the time of Victorian Modern’s release, Boyd was not yet a…