Innehållsförteckning för Issue 123 August 2018 från Houses

A garden is one of the most compelling symbols of home. The design brief for this project was a large house; however, the architects responded with a strategy for a large garden. Here, a new flamboyant family home is set in an exotic coastal garden that preserves and intensifies a former domestic garden on the site, grounding and immersing the family and their domestic rituals in a terraced, episodic sandstone rock terrain. The house is designed to be engulfed by its garden, but it is also seen as an extension of it – archaic, cave-like, a reoccupied ruin – with aspects of nature finding their way inside through random stone floors, planted roofscapes and creepers negotiating its exterior walls. There is also an allusion to the larger landscape gesture of…

Nicholas Skepper and Zuzana Kovar established Brisbane-based Zuzana and Nicholas in 2013. With both directors having completed PhDs, this practice has an emphasis on research, testing architectural ideas and how things are made. There is a multi-modal approach to practice, from writing and exhibitions to commissioned architectural work. There is a subtlety to the residential projects by Zuzana and Nicholas that stems from considered restraint and a genuine understanding of context and site. Commended in the Alteration and Addition under 200 m2 category, the Monash Road House involves the clever reconfiguration of an existing postwar Queenslander house through minimal interventions and new insertions. The series of considered and in-depth design responses are promising of an exciting trajectory for this emerging practice. From the Houses Awards jury. Architect Zuzana and Nicholas…

Takagi is a leading Japanese water solutions company with over 1.3 million customers in Japan. All Takagi products are made in Japan and are high quality, compact, and easy to use and maintain. Takagi has recently entered the Australian market and is focusing on its Clore model, a built-in filtration sink mixer featuring a simple and stylish design. Takagi has created the industry’s first-ever built-in filtration sink mixer, with a five-layer filter that removes chlorine and reduces other contaminants for cleaner tap water. With Takagi’s built-in filtration system, the sink mixer saves space because previously all filtration systems were designed as a separate system from the tap. The product has a 4-star water rating under Australian regulatory standards and includes a two-year warranty guarantee. Takagi has also received the Parenting…

There is some magic being woven on a heavily treed site in Kew, Melbourne, the home of Make Architecture. A black-clad barn within this bucolic idyll on the banks of the Yarra is the place where a particular stream of carefully considered, highly crafted architecture is conceived and pieced together by founding director Melissa Bright and her skilled team. And what of that architecture? The word “paradise” comes from the Persian words pairi, which means literally “around,” and daeza or diz, which can mean “wall,” “brick” or “shape.” Combined, pairi-daeza translates as “walled garden”: a traditional vision of paradise. Since its founding in 2006, Make Architecture has been crafting an architecture of paradise in the broader urban landscape of Melbourne and beyond. Walled gardens composed of bricks feature prominently in…

In a peaceful precinct of Melbourne’s Northcote, bounded by Merri Creek and Oldis Gardens, the blackened form of Ross House rises boldly between quaint, single-storey bungalows. Designed by Ola Studio, the double-storey family house thoughtfully addresses the inner-city suburb’s characteristic heritage overlay, mimicking the roof pitch of its neighbours to establish an interesting rhythm of hips and gables that sit in harmony with the streetscape. Architect Phil Snowdon explains that Ola Studio and its client shared a “collective interest in an architecture that could clearly define the various realms of the house in an elegant and sculptural gesture,” developing a captivating, artistic approach to the house harnessed by a strong material logic. Its seemingly impenetrable facade is the result of a bespoke, textural treatment of vertical aluminium extrusions with a…

Occasionally there are houses we encounter that seem to reach out and grab our imagination with an unshakeable grip. These houses may simply embody the qualities we’re looking for; sometimes, however, they capture the imagination due to elusive, undefinable qualities that we want to explore and make part of our own story. On a broad, quiet street in Melbourne’s Fitzroy North, just such a house tugged at the clients of Andrew Simpson Architects, who were living contentedly around the corner from the dwelling with no intention of uprooting – unless, of course, this dream house went on the market. It isn’t hard to imagine how the house exerted such power. Nestled within the gentle curve of the oak-lined street, its deep setback and unusually wide block soften the imposing tuck-pointed…

Kerry Clare Kerry is co-director of Clare Design with her partner Lindsay Clare. Lindsay and Kerry were jointly awarded the Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal in 2010 and have more than forty awards for built works. Their practice is now based in Sydney and on the Gold Coast. Kerry is on review panels for the City of Sydney and Randwick and Waverley Councils and teaches at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Newcastle. Albert Mo Albert is a director of Melbourne-based practice Architects EAT. Albert was a chapter councillor for the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects and maintains guest critic positions in various architecture schools across Australia. His work has been recognized by awards and in articles in both Australian and international architecture…

Sited on and leaning back into a dramatic north-facing escarpment, Cabbage Tree House powerfully anchors inhabitation and mass. With stepping volumes and a plan that expands broadly to the north, the house offers a variety of spaces for activity in, around and under it. Large sliding openings admit the surrounding landscape and adjacent terraces orchestrate a compelling way to inhabit the striated rocky ledges of the site. A limited palette of materials and an acceptance of as-found finishes means that the house is animated by texture, sunlight and landscape. Luxury is found in voluminous, expansive rooms and openings rather than lavish appointment or finish. Thermal comfort is prioritized by careful orientation and ample earth-connected mass. Privacy and communality are deftly managed in the plan of the house, with a central…

Nightingale 1 is the beginning of an ambitious experiment that aims to shift the status quo of apartment design in Australia. It is the commitment and self-belief, plus the tireless campaigns, that make this project so successful, sustainably. Nightingale 1 achieves all the standard environmental sustainability benchmarks; however, it is the social and economic elements that make it a sustainability masterpiece: generous communal amenities, useable public space, alternative finance structure and clever and efficient construction techniques. The project also attains carbon-neutral operation using a fossil fuel-free embedded network. In addition to all its design and sustainability credentials, the building and its apartments are elegantly designed and comfortable. The glam-without-the-glam detailing is omnipresent – there is delight in the rawness of the materials and textures as soon as you enter the…

NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M 2 NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M 2 HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M 2 HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200 M 2 APARTMENT OR UNIT GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE SUSTAINABILITY HOUSE IN A HERITAGE CONTEXT EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE See your house here next year. Registrations for the 2019 Houses Awards will open in November 2018. housesawards.com.au…

Each alteration is a ‘retelling’ of the building as it exists at a particular time – and when the changes are complete it becomes the existing building for the next retelling” – Edward Hollis, The Secret Lives of Buildings. Every house has a story. Treetop Studio by Aileen Sage Architects tells one of evolution and is the product of a growing family. The terrace house in Sydney’s Paddington was purchased in 1988 by the client, Julien, and at the time perfectly fulfilled its requirement as a bachelor pad. Over the course of thirty years the house has undergone significant change, to now accommodate a family of four, including Lars the dog. The most recent addition to the family resulted in the conversion of Julien’s study to a nursery, which subsequently…

It’s fitting for a house that hatched a revolution to be somewhat revolutionary itself. Pymble House by Russell Jack of Allen Jack and Cottier is a heroic Sydney School project that has been something of a well-kept secret between the neighbours, the sports star who commissioned it and the architect who has occupied it for the last quarter of a century. When the house was competed in 1972, Allen Jack and Cottier was asked by its owner, Geoffrey Forsaith, not to publish it. In the late 1970s, Forsaith, a former cricket player and friend of Kerry Packer, headed up Packer’s breakaway World Series Cricket. As he was team manager, Forsaith’s Pymble House became a stage for the secret deals and wild parties that ushered in the controversial new test series.…

The Cabbage Tree House is a remarkable, complete Australian house that authentically and poetically embraces its landscape setting on Sydney’s northern beaches. Anchored in a rock shelf, the masonry structure leans back into the hillside as a “physical manifesto of the character of its place.” Internally, the home has cave-like qualities. It is a sanctuary away from city life and is connected to the landscape. The scale of the building is broken down into smaller spaces of retreat and seclusion – all with views into vast bushland. Exposed concrete, steel and brickwork give the impression of permanence and longevity, as well as having thermal mass benefits. The home is intended for comfort in all seasons: it captures cool breezes from the east in summer and is splayed to the north…

A familiar Queensland worker’s cottage has been transformed into a luscious, planted oasis. John Ellway has deftly exploited the site’s natural fall by inserting living spaces underneath the raised original cottage. This move has deconstructed the classic verandah arrangement to create a wonderful, breezy and vine-covered entry and external vertical circulation. The design of the Terrarium House is attuned to its subtropical climate, promoting cross-ventilation with a sunken living space protected from the harsh Queensland sun. The compactness of the house is its triumph; circulation flows seamlessly from one space to another and not one inch is wasted, with notable Japanese influences. A double-height space above the dining area gives the impression of space, without deterring from the intimacy and warmth of the home. This alteration and addition has been…

While the site and existing building aren’t noted for their individual heritage contribution or significance, they fall within the fine-grain precinct of the Woollahra Heritage Conservation Area C15 of inner Sydney. Accordingly, this project was subject to precinct and form controls. The building’s neighbours are the outbuildings of larger, individually noted heritage buildings fronting major streets either side of the lane. The original building (c. 1980) has been carefully considered and predominantly re-used by the architects in a confident manner, but with a light touch. The architects stated that their aspiration was to forge a small piece of country in the city. The principal changes were the insertion of a central rectangular courtyard into the modest 113.3-square-metre floor area, the deliberate positioning of enclosed living areas on the laneway frontage…

What was the design thinking behind the development of Fisher & Paykel’s new Integrated Column Refrigeration range? Mark Haydon: While we were developing these new refrigerators and freezers we really listened to the architecture and design community in terms of our design approach. Ultimately, our aim is to provide architects and designers with the freedom to choose how they adapt these products to seamlessly integrate with their kitchen designs. Is it possible to customize the refrigerators and freezers? MH: One of the first choices architects and designers make around customization is width, with the freezer available at 457 mm, 610 mm or 762 mm wide, and the refrigerator available at either a 610 mm or 762 mm wide. This makes it easier for them to decide on the products’ configuration…

Some fifty years since the publication of Robin Boyd’s The Australian Ugliness, architecture and suburbia still have an uneasy relationship. The Australian suburbs have traditionally been seen as the void between the architectural production of the inner city and the venerated bush house. Binary House by Christopher Polly Architect bridges this divide physically and conceptually in a radical re-take on the suburban brick bungalow. The clients, who were from Melbourne, wanted the classic Sydney beach lifestyle without the hefty price tag. Eschewing the expensive eastern suburbs, they opted for a modest honey-coloured brick-veneer bungalow in Woolooware, twenty-four kilometres from the city. The home is located in the Sutherland Shire, a district that embraces both the beach and the bush. The clients commissioned Christopher Polly to transform the 1960 house into…

A nine-metre-high section of the facade of the brutalist Robin Hood Gardens housing estate by the late Alison and Peter Smithson, supported by scaffolding and silhouetted against the Venetian sky, is a mute testament to the architects’ utopian ideals. Designed in the late 1960s and completed in 1972, they regarded it as “a demonstration of a more enjoyable way of living … It is a model, an exemplar, of a new mode of urban organization,” as Peter said in a 1970 BBC documentary. Indebted to Le Corbusier’s Unité d’habitation (Marseille, 1952), the estate features two eight-storey curved blocks that provide housing for 250 families with each flat overlooking a central park. The wide, high-level access decks, described as “streets in the sky,” were intended to foster community spirit. But disillusionment…