Innehållsförteckning för Issue 126 February 2019 från Houses

In 2018 I was a category judge at the World Architecture Festival Awards in Amsterdam. I was extremely proud to see that a high number of the shortlisted projects were houses designed by Australian architects. The rest of the world appeared to be really interested in, and excited about, what we’re up to over here. From Western Australia to Tasmania’s Bruny Island, the homes in this issue of Houses form yet another collection of exemplary residential architecture that celebrates the host of ways we live in this country. I’d like to officially welcome our new associate editor Gemma Savio. Gemma is a graduate of architecture from the University of Newcastle and has been a director of her own architecture practice for the past five years. Stephanie McGann, who has worked…

Katelin Butler Could you tell us a little about your family and your background? Jon Swann We live in inner-city Melbourne, have two children, Thomas and Sophie, and I am an executive with the Grill’d Group. My partner Lisa and I wanted a place for my family to feel present in the moment. I’d always had this vision of watching Tommy and Sophie walking up a hill from the water with flippers under their arms or fishing rods over their shoulders. I wanted our family to enjoy a different existence from our city lifestyle and have greater connection with the environment. KB What is your connection to Tasmania? JS We have used Hobart as a great place for offsite strategic planning meetings for the executive team. During our visits, we…

Japan’s residential architecture has long been the content darling of international design bimonthlies, guaranteed as it is to immediately appeal, fascinate and/or shock. These are the kinds of homes readers want to see in print and the types of projects that make an editor salivate because they look so damn good on the page. There’s something about modern Japanese houses, a very particular materiality and spatiality that render them intriguing to anyone who hasn’t lived in one. But Japanese architecture goes far beyond gimmicks and certainly deserves to be seen as something more than a novelty, which is the idea behind Japan: Archipelago of the House. This is a touring exhibition curated by three French architects and a photographer and its first English-language iteration (organized by architect Julian Worrall) was…

Many grand old warehouses of inner Sydney have been artfully converted over the past few decades into open, flexible and exciting homes. One such example in Sydney’s inner west was split into three family residences some fifteen years ago. Living in the northeast corner, with one level of modest bedrooms and one level of open-plan kitchen/living/dining space above, a young family has grown to love the home’s character. Over time, however, these infinitely flexible but never private living arrangements presented a challenge for children wanting independence and a parent wanting to be musical at home. So Welsh and Major Architects was commissioned to design an extension that allows space to host sleepovers, prepare for exams, learn an instrument or simply get invested in a quiet book. Defying the ubiquity of…

01 Piatra Grey surface Piatra Grey is one of a number of Caesarstone surfaces offering a deeper, bolder colour palette for the kitchen. Caesarstone produces dramatic quartz surface finishes in deep black, bold charcoal and midnight grey for benchtops and splashbacks. caesarstone.com.au 02 Nikola Tesla Switch Designed by Fabrizio Crisà for Elicia, the Nikola Tesla Switch is a downdraft induction cooktop featuring a central ring with a cast iron effect and a glass circle. Sitting completely flush with the cooktop surface, the glass circle cleverly conceals the extraction system. elica.com 03 Integrated wine cabinets Euro Cave’s Inspiration range of integrated wine cabinets has an understated, elegant design with a unique ventilation system that means no visible ventilation grid is required. The cabinets come in four sizes with the option of…

I became an employer early in my practice. I wanted to be able to work on multiple things and therefore needed others to draft for me. Essex House is the only project by Austin Maynard Architects (then known as Andrew Maynard Architects) that was created while I was in practice on my own. My clients, Kerrie and Matt, were friends of friends and were two of the most relaxed and generous people I had ever come across. They gave me a simple brief and left me to it. This is an incredible privilege for a young architect, although I did not recognize it at the time. Like many first projects, Essex is the result of a tug of war between a tight budget and almost boundless architectural enthusiasm and it…

In alterations and additions to heritage houses, there is a transition point between old and new that needs to be addressed. It may be subtle or stark, a seamless integration of volumes or a dramatic contrast of space. At Regent by Smart Design Studio the transition point is an interlocking composition of softly curved elements that fuse the old and new together to create continuity of space. The Victorian terrace in Paddington, Sydney, is home to a professional couple with two young boys. To achieve more light, better use and flow of space and an improved connection to the outdoors, Smart Design Studio replaced a previous addition with a new extension and resolved the interior layout. The extension is made up of three interlocking, stepped contemporary volumes that respect neighbouring…

Judith Abell Writer Judith Abell is a writer, designer and artist, consistently working at the junctions between these disciplines. Judith currently works for the City of Hobart as a public art coordinator, while maintaining her sculptural art practice and her freelance writing work. She is also art features editor for Island magazine. Tom Ferguson Photographer Tom Ferguson is an architect who has managed to segue into a career in architectural and interiors photography. He believes that photographs should tell the whole story of a building, from intimate details through to heroic moments. Gavin Green Photographer Gavin Green is a Melbourne-based photographer and artist. His practice exists at the intersection of architecture, interiors and portraiture. Gavin regularly collaborates with architects and designers, bringing an analogue warmth and considered stillness to his…

01 Beaumaris Modern by Fiona Austin, Simon Reeves and Alison Alexander (Melbourne Books, 2018) The rich mid-century modern heritage of Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Beaumaris took some heavy blows in 2018. First, the local council dropped a comprehensive independent heritage survey, instead going for an opt-in system in which owners have to nominate their own houses for protection. Next, a significant 1962 Chancellor and Patrick-designed house was demolished. This book, then, which celebrates the mid-century houses of one of Australia’s key modernist hotspots, could not be more timely. Thoroughly researched and featuring stunning photography, old and new, Beaumaris Modern lovingly presents some of the best examples of architecture that sprung out of those heady postwar years. It also offers insights from owners and fascinating biographical details about architects, both famous…

Artist Eliza Gosse studied architecture at the University of Sydney before transferring to a degree in fine arts at the National Art School, where she is currently undertaking a master’s degree. Her interest in architecture, particularly its contribution to Australia’s suburban condition, underpins her work. Her thesis interrogates the impact of migration on Australian residential architecture and design and its contribution to an evolving cultural identity. Eliza attributes the architecture of the era to the cultural richness introduced through the postwar European immigration to Australia. Considering the inspiration for her work, Eliza fondly recalls childhood visits to her grandparents’ 1970s project home surrounded by native bush in Gosford, New South Wales. She identifies these visits as foundational to her paintings, which represent houses (of similar stock to her grandparents’ house)…

You might often find designs described as having a “pared-back palette,” but this conceptual installation by Melbourne interior design practice Hecker Guthrie takes “pared-back” to the extreme. Titled The table is the base, the installation uses just two elements – the Parsons table, originally designed by Jean-Michel Frank in the 1930s, and terracotta. The installation is the winner of the National Gallery of Victoria’s 2018 Rigg Design Prize, which is awarded triennially to a contemporary Australian designer from an invited group of participants. The theme for the 2018 prize is “domestic living.” Ten designers and interior practices were invited to each create an installation that addresses the theme, within a forty-square-metre space. The idea for Hecker Guthrie’s installation emerged from identifying the recurring element that is the foundation of domestic…

“My motto is hands-on work,” says Japanese designer Jin Kuramoto. It perhaps stems from his childhood spent making plasticine models and disassembling things with a screwdriver. As a high school student, Jin spent time working with carpenters, so it’s no surprise that he has taken a hands-on approach to design. “I always make lots of prototypes by using layered materials,” he says. “Sometimes we find very new things accidentally [created by] our hands.” This tactility is visibly evident throughout Jin’s work and in his design philosophy. He says that he is most inspired by materials. “To hear the material’s voice is the most important thing for the object. I want to maximize the material’s properties through my design. Sometimes the materials teach me new values.” Jin studied design at college…

To imbue new architecture with the graceful qualities associated with age and history is a common ambition among architects, though perhaps more often espoused than attained. Aspiring to a timeless sense of permanence and solidity is laudable, if it avoids the obvious pitfall of historical pastiche, but actually achieving this requires both strategy and technique. B. E. Architecture has put more than twenty years into this pursuit across a range of project types, focusing primarily on housing. The firm has amply demonstrated, through its diverse portfolio, that there is both a science and an art to that most prized of sustainable characteristics: the holistic building that intrinsically resists the future impulse to renovate, remodel or even outright erase through demolition. This is only achieved through the creation of enduring value,…