Innehållsförteckning för Issue 144 February 2022 från Houses

It’s tempting to call this house alteration “slow architecture,” since its big idea was incubated over a few years, as its creators scoured the Sydney property market for a smallish place with potential. Architects Jemima Retallack and Mitchell Thompson took a single-storey Federation-era semi and radically transformed it into a hidden oasis, where galley kitchen, dining and living rooms all converge around a central garden. The additions are minuscule, but delightful. “We’d seen a lot of small houses in our search, and they all have a common problem – the rear section is small and dark – so we’ve thought a lot about how to fix that. Instead of tacking over-scaled rooms onto the back, which sadly is a typical response, we started playing with the idea of removing as…

Applying texture to a wall surface can bring a whole new dimension to a home’s interior. And now there’s a new way to achieve this with the launch of Surround by Laminex, a highly versatile decorative wall panelling solution. Surround by Laminex panels are crafted from MDF and come pre-primed with water-based paint, so they can be installed straight away and simply finished with the desired paint colour. There are eight profiles to choose from, which can be used to achieve a variety of looks, whether you’re aiming to make a bold statement or create a timeless backdrop. Highlights include Batten 100, a modern, masculine take on classic timber panelling that features defined boards separated by deep, straight-edged grooves; Demi Round 40, a softly curved profile that lends itself particularly…

At some stage, many of us have dreamt of joining two houses into one. When the house doesn’t seem to be big enough to take what life throws at you, that dream of adding extra space by expanding up, down or even sideways – particularly if you’re in a growing family – is one that many of us can easily relate to. Alisa and David had lived in one of a pair of small Federation-era, semi-detached worker’s cottages for a number of years before the opportunity to expand into the twinned, adjacent dwelling arose. When they decided to properly amalgamate the two houses into a coherent whole, they approached Hannah Tribe of Tribe Studio to bring out the best in their pairing. Set under a pitched red-glazed-terracotta-tiled roof, the semis…

Poinciana House, situated in Brisbane’s inner south, is Nielsen Jenkins’s trans-formative reworking of an Edwardian timber bungalow that orchestrates the experience of a scenic location into the patterns of daily life. The bungalow’s east-facing street frontage addresses a calm pocket of street enriched by significant landscape trees. The spreading shade of a mature poinciana, the house’s namesake, creates dappled patterns across the footpath. The site falls away from the street and, in this direction, the distant prospect is to the western ranges, glimpsed through tall trees that reach up from the gully behind the house. “We had this wonderful idea of being able to ‘borrow’ views of other backyards,” says practice co-founder Lachlan Nielsen. Western views through the green gully and out to the mountains are edited carefully into the…

Have you ever seen photographs of Australia’s pink lakes? No, the images aren’t photoshopped, and no, nobody tipped a truckload of musk sticks into a pond. These are real, naturally occurring bodies of water in blushing shades, from fairy floss to bubblegum. The pink is caused by a pigment in certain species of miniscule algae that thrive in inland salt lakes. The pigment is triggered by a combination of salt levels and sunlight. Essentially, when the conditions are right, the algae flourish in the briny bath and produce betacarotene, giving the lakes their eye-catching colour. This rare phenomenon occurs all over the world, particularly in late summer. And in Melbourne’s summer, an architectural installation in the rear garden of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) will re-create this natural wonder…

When an architect meets their client and discussions take place, the transformative process of architecture begins. For Brisbane architect Paul Butterworth, initial conversations with his clients about the need to remedy the shortfalls of their Queenslander centred around what not to do. Deciding not to build a back deck nor raise the house and build underneath, they settled instead on the powerful idea of creating a fern house. The landscape-focused response was proposed to improve amenity inside while also creating a sheltered gathering space that was tuned to the suburban site and the tropical roots of its owners. A garden sanctuary, a climatic regulator, a light diffuser, a children’s play space and an inviting “welcome home,” the fern house has proven to offer more than was ever thought possible. Paul’s…

Lewis Miles and Chris Thorp of Sydney-based practice Miles Thorp believe in hardworking architecture. The two originally met while studying architecture, first teaming up on the design of a temporary pavilion for the Sydney Architecture Festival at Circular Quay. Having gone their own ways after university, they reunited when Lewis was commissioned to work on a house extension and asked Chris to help him on the project. The practice evolved from there, with additional projects coming on board until they were able to launch Miles Thorp as a full-time business. The strength of their practice lies in their collaborative and sometimes combative approach to solving design problems – they welcome differences of opinion as part of a conversation that ultimately leads to better projects. “We’re not always in agreement but…

When we think of coastal living, we tend to focus on pleasant images of blue skies and calm seas. The reality of building a home on the continental edge of Australia presents a number of very real and very challenging conditions. Renato D’Ettorre Architects worked closely with its client to design an exhilarating house on the Illawarra coast in southern New South Wales that embraces the best aspects of living by the ocean while also acting as a solid refuge against the winds and storms. Renato says that every project “starts with the client” and, in the case of K House in Kiama, the clients had very set ideas about how they wanted their future home to be. Coming from a Mediterranean heritage, the clients – a mother and her…

Paddington is an inner-city Brisbane suburb defined by charming timber-and-tin houses dotted across an undulating landscape. The spaces between these houses are seasonally punctuated by bursts of purple and red from flowering jacaranda and poinciana trees. Paddington’s historic charm, thriving hospitality scene, proximity to the city and low density make it a popular suburb. Evelyn, designed by Myers Ellyett, is found tucked in behind Paddington’s renowned antiques corner. Evelyn comprises a thoughtful restoration of a 1911 timber cottage and the addition of two new perpendicular pavilions, creating a home in a courtyard configuration. The restoration of the original house involved repairing timber VJ boards and reinstating the original stucco external cladding. Internal spaces were reorganized in a sequence that now flows from public areas at the front of the home…

01 Teatro Magico Featuring curving legs inspired by the movement of soft fabric, the Teatro Magico table is designed by Italian architecture studio 967 Arch for Saba. The sinuous curves cast different shadows as the light changes. Legs can be single or paired and are complemented by a simple round or oval tabletop. sabaitalia.it 02 Duo and Sollo Nick Rennie has collaborated with Made by Pen to design Sollo, a large pepper mill (pictured, in jacaranda), and Duo, a pair of smaller mills. They are hand-turned in Australia and use Crushgrind technology, renowned for its fine and coarse grind capabilities. madebypen.com 03 Geometric pendants This pendant’s distinctive look combines simple geometric shapes with a recycled product made from discarded glass shards. Lights can be arranged as single pendants or in…

The streets and laneways of Brunswick are full of clever urban infill projects. A walk around the neighbourhood reveals some innovative insertions and adaptions to one of Melbourne’s more diverse suburbs. It’s a challenging and rewarding context for an architect to work in, and MRTN Architects’ addition is a mini tower house that’s a little microcosm of urban life. House for Eva and Matilda is just that: a home for business owner Eva and her daughter Matilda. The site is small – just under 90 square metres of former backyard, subdivided and supported by an appropriate zoning that allows for mixed-use development. Small, mixed-use zoning is a bit of a lost art; it’s the type of planning approach that supports dwindling typologies such as the shop-top house, the small factory…

Edition Office’s projects commence with a process of abstraction. Contextual and conceptual relationships are distilled into a discrete set of design ideas. These are represented in the form of models and diagrams, which then serve as touchstones during the long, messy and contradictory process of producing a building. This process serves the practice well – it is evident in the conceptual rigour apparent in all its projects and in the legibility of each concept or set of key relationships at various scales, from grand formal gestures to detailing. Napier Street Apartments – Edition Office’s first multiresidential project, located in leafy Fitzroy, Melbourne – is no exception, presenting a distinctive formal language to the street that is intensified throughout its internal common areas and apartments. Mute and restrained, the Napier Street…

The ocean is endlessly fascinating. The immense horizon, the power of crashing waves and the calmness that being by water brings all add to the magic. It can be both violent and beautiful, dark and inspiring, loud and calming. It may seem obvious, but a story about Coastview Apartment by Andrew Burges Architects must start with the ocean. The outlook furnishes the apartment with a breathtaking and ever-changing backdrop, and the view to the water was the whole foundation of the emotionally driven project – the design of a home for a single occupant. Walking through the front door is like entering a theatre in which the ocean takes centre stage. It’s a hard act to follow. Yet practice director Andrew Burges, architect Camilla Phillips and the team have delicately…

Hidden down a driveway, behind a grand colonial house in South Hobart, is a modernist urban paradise built by architect Bill Shugg (1925–2009) for his family in the early 1960s. This wonderful, understated home was masterfully designed to adapt to constantly changing modes of occupation, which has allowed it to be the heart of family life for nearly 60 years. Kenneth William (Bill) Shugg was an influential figure in Tasmanian modernist architecture and a strong advocate for urban design and the environment, with a keen eye for detail and an interest in community. He was encouraged to study architecture by his aunt, Margaret Keitha Findlay (1916–2007), who, in 1943, became the first woman in Tasmania to qualify and register as an architect. Bill was a student in the postwar Commonwealth…