La Trobe University Library by Kosloff Architecture

La Trobe University Library by Kosloff Architecture

Text description provided by Kosloff Architecture architects. The library typology has changed tremendously over the past 5 years. We worked closely with the leadership group of the library to create an interior that supported a conceptual shift from ‘collection’ to ‘connection.’ This project fundamentally involved the reworking of an existing shell to create a new library for the community of La Trobe University, Bendigo.

Spread across three levels, the scope included an entry gallery, consultation rooms, ASK La Trobe information pods, postgraduate lounge, board room and integrated display of the seminal ‘Sandhurst’ book collection (the main book collection is elsewhere in the building. The client was keen to challenge the concept of a traditional library. We embraced the possibility of a new typology with a focus on facilitating community ‘connection’, rather than just spaces for book ‘collection.’

Working within an existing shell is always highly challenging. The project budget was extremely constrained for a fitout of this nature and scale, and a clear hierarchy of investment needed to be established in order to deliver the functional aspects of the project without detracting from the overall concept. Rather than seeing this as a problem, we chose to see this as an opportunity to leave parts of the interior undefined and full of possibility, suggestive of a future imbued with optimism.

Our aesthetic approach was to leave key elements such as the existing ceiling infrastructure and vermiculite coated steel structure untouched and unadorned. The new architectural interventions were treated as installations clearly distinguishable from the shell, with autonomous objects separated from the ceiling and floating from the floor. Cascading pods adorn the grand stair from the main entry, formed by semitransparent, glass structures that house the secured book collection.

Their blurred spines contribute the only colours of the space, reimagining them as artefacts surrounding the central stair that links the levels. Arrangements of clear, mirrored, and reeded glass create a kaleidoscope of reflection and transparency throughout all levels, blurring the figures of occupants as they make their way up through the interior. It felt fitting to us that a newly defined library space might literally be a reflection of itself.

La Trobe University Library Project Details

WODONGA, AUSTRALIA

Architects: Kosloff Architecture
Area: 3150 m²
Year: 2021
Photographs: Derek Swalwell
Client: La Trobe University
City: Wodonga
Country: Australia

written by : Hana Abdel
12 Jan 2022
published in : archdaily.com

Gallery of La Trobe University Library by Kosloff Architecture

Yandoit Cabin by Adam Kane Architects

Yandoit Cabin by Adam Kane Architects

Adam Kane Architects designed Yandoit Cabin as an eco-home for an artist to live and work within the surrounding gumtrees.
Situated in north-west of Melbourne, the house is tucked into the bushland and carefully composed of a series of grids. Yandoit Cabin locks these together with low-maintenance materials to create a form that works with the surrounding environment. Crucial to the build were self-sustainable factors allowing for off-grid living and minimal impact on the site.

The materiality of the external cladding is accentuated by the simplicity of the form, while the burnt umber tones of the building complement the natural palette of the surrounding bush. The metal cladding reflects and absorbs the light and patterns of the sky, enhancing the aesthetics of the cabin. The result is a building in constant flux – with revolving reflections of the transition from day to night, the home becomes a piece of sculpture accentuating its environment.

The sculptural qualities continue with the asymmetrical shape, that sees the cabin sit sympathetically yet confidently within the gum trees. The south side of the building is dominated by a block of concrete that begins to format the space, with the block visually grounding the house and giving strength to the metal façade. Functionally, this concrete mass acts as the entrance to the house, and creates a separate area concealing the bathroom and private courtyard.

In the living area, the grids of white-washed plywood can be opened to reveal the kitchen, laundry, and storage. The clever use of timber concealment ensures the space is clutter-free, creating a peaceful environment allowing the artist to reflect on the environment just outside. The minimal interventions are highlighted by concrete walls, floors, and sharp black steel accents.

While the project is to an extent closed off from the external landscape, with only a select few openings, it is strongly connected with nature. A skylight dominates the centre of the internal irregular forms, as the angles of the ceiling converge towards light that rushes inwards.

A bedroom in the mezzanine sits below the asymmetrical roofline, accentuating the height of the interior living space. Contrasted with the sense of enclosure and protection, the beam of sun from the skylight becomes an intense beacon providing connection with the outside world, while the strategically positioned windows frame views of the bush outside.

The orientation of the cabin ensures passive solar heating and cross ventilation are maximised, taking advantage of sunlight for heat and lighting. The use of concrete floors and walls generates thermal mass, meaning only a wood-burning fireplace is needed to heat the home. With the design ensuring the home functions sustainably off-grid, durable minimalist materials prevent the demand of constant upkeep in the wild weather conditions.

Minimal of impact yet remarkable in effect, the Yandoit Cabin is a sculptural reminder of the beauty of the natural world and to need to preserve it.

written by : EMMA-KATE WILSON
11 Jan 2021
published in : thelocalproject.com.au

Gallery of Yandoit Cabin by Adam Kane Architects

Secret sanctuary Malvern Garden House

Malvern Garden House by Taylor Knights

Malvern Garden is a ‘modernist relic’ of concrete and glass forms the heart of this renovated 1930s heritage home by Taylor Knights, where sanctuary means lush gardens and open, airy spaces secreted away in a busy Melbourne suburb.

The way we live our lives has changed considerably over the past century, yet our cultural notions of the “home” have remained broadly the same: a refuge for ourselves and our families and a repository for the objects that we value that represents elements of who we are. The concept of the home as a refuge dates back at least to the Victorian era, with a growing awareness that individuals and their children needed protection from the chaotic metropolis. The advent of modernism at the turn of the twentieth century, however, introduced a contradictory tendency, that of prospect: the home became a place from which occupants could apprehend the world and connect with nature.

Designed by Taylor Knights, this elegant renovation of a 1930s heritage home in a leafy pocket of Melbourne is at the intersection of these two competing inclinations: it is a sanctuary, hidden from the street with a multitude of different spaces to inhabit, and it is a glazed pavilion that dissolves into a lush garden, saturated with light and air.

Positioned on a steeply sloping site that falls from west to east, the original house was comprised of a series of cellular rooms with a discrete kitchen at the east end, high above the garden below. The brief for this young professional couple and their (soon-to-be) three children was to reposition the living areas to provide better connection to the garden beyond and to update the heritage fabric to suit the demands of a modern, growing family. The bedrooms upstairs – remnant of a 1980s renovation – were to be reconfigured, with new bathrooms and ceilings to take advantage of the volume within the existing attic space.

The lower ground was to be updated to accommodate visiting family members and friends in a manner that provided them with privacy and separation from the rest of the house. A home office would be accommodated within the mix, enabling both parents to work part time or work from home as required.

The key design strategy was to reposition the kitchen and dining areas in a new pavilion-like structure at the north-western corner of the site. Projecting out from the highest point of the land, the addition could open directly onto the garden at grade and benefit from an abundance of eastern and northern light over the course of the day. Formally, the pavilion appears almost as a modernist relic – a glazed volume sandwiched between two off-form concrete slabs, with native grasses shimmering over a concrete parapet. Stepped ziggurat mouldings in the opposing cast concrete corners of the pavilion conjure references to Venetian modernist Carlo Scarpa, while a deep aperture in the concrete ceiling of the kitchen nods to Le Corbusier’s late modernist experiments with béton brut.

Simultaneously, the pavilion responds directly to the language and geometry of the existing heritage house, referencing its corbelled brick eaves and the heavy, textural and crafted quality of its brick and render facade. Heavy and light, textural and abstract, the pavilion represents tendencies toward both the notions of “refuge” and “prospect,” which can be modified though the opening or closing of the pavilion’s glazed corner.

In both the formal composition and materiality of the house, a tendency towards reduction is paired with careful detailing. A single fixed pane of glazing adjacent the pavilion illuminates the living space with northern light, and provides an elegant transition between the new and existing structures, allowing the pavilion to be read against the field of Marseilles terracotta tiles on the existing roof. Internally, concrete, American oak, steel and glass predominate, complemented with neutral terrazzo and marble. Taylor Knights was at pains to provide material consistency throughout the house, using American oak boards as formwork for the pavilion’s concrete ceiling, for instance, in a textural echo of the adjacent living room’s timber ceiling.

According to director James Taylor, the landscape is conceived of with equal importance, spatially and experientially, to the architecture throughout their projects. At Malvern Garden House, much of the magic lies in the relationship between the two. From the first step through the front door, the visitor is greeted by a view out onto lush and varied vegetation. Landscape architect Ben Scott has provided a scheme of zoned planting that offers a birch forest canopy to the ground floor windows, a fern garden to the lower ground and a dichondra-covered terrace at the upper level. A galvanized steel platform hovers in-between, providing a permeable place to sit among the tree tops and native grasses, while a whimsical steel slide offers a fast way to make your way to the bottom. Internally, window seats in the kitchen and children’s playroom orient themselves to the yard and allow the inhabitants to sit out “in” the garden from within, and a concealed courtyard that opens onto the main ensuite provides a bathing experience among the ferns. Carefully considered and deliberately executed, this thoughtful renovation provides a sanctuary that facilitates respectful engagement with the natural world.

Products and materials

Roofing

Lysaght Klip-Lok 700 Hi-Strength cladding in Colorbond ‘Shale Grey’; off-form concrete

External walls

Austral Bricks 140-millimetre 150 Series standard grey block; off-form concrete

Internal walls

Austral Bricks 140-millimetre 150 Series standard grey block

Windows

Vitrocsa double glazing; custom steel windows by Tescher Forge

Doors

Custom steel and glass doors by Tescher Forge

Flooring

Existing Tasmanian oak floors; Hanson Construction Materials concrete

Lighting

Douglas and Bec Y Chandelier 04 in ‘Blackened Brass’; Allied Maker Aperture Sconce in ‘Blackened Brass’ with glass in ‘Opal’; Apparatus Cloud 19 Chandelier from Criteria; Rakumba Capital pendant by Archier from Cafe Culture and Insitu; Great Dane Caché Pendant; LPA Lighting and Energy Solutions Visi downlights; Ambience Lighting Flow adjustable downlights; Artefact Industries T-Mini adjustable track lights; Flos UT Spot lights from Euroluce

Kitchen

Miele integrated dishwasher, built-in fridge-freezers and microwave oven; Ilve 90- centimetre Quadra Series cooker with teppanyaki plate from E and S; Qasair Albany rangehood from Condari; Hisense stainless steel bar fridge; LG microwave oven; Oliveri sinks from E and S; Gessi Oxygene gooseneck kitchen mixers from Abey; Phoenix Tapware Vivid Slimline sink mixer

Bathrooms

Apaiser Sublime freestanding bath and Lotus basins; Kaldewei Vaio Dual Oval bath from Reece; Corian Serenity basins; Catalano Sfera toilet suites and Vitra Moetropole under-counter basin from Rogerseller; Astra Walker Icon tapware and accessories in ‘Charcoal Bronze’; Stormtech 100 Range linear drainage systems

Heating and cooling

Panasonic bulkhead units; Hydrotherm Hydronic hydronic heating

External elements

Bamstone bluestone paving; custom concrete barbecue by Hungry Wolf Studio; Webforge aluminium grating; custom stainless steel slide by Allplay Equipment Australia

Other

Custom bed, ensuite vanity and dining table by Made by Morgen

Malvern Garden House Project Details

Project: Malvern Garden House
Architect: Taylor Knights
Project Team: Peter Knights, James Taylor, Julie Sloane
Consultants: Builder Dimpat
Engineer Co-Struct
Joiner Luna Joinery
Landscape architect Ben Scott Garden Design
Aboriginal Nation: Malvern Garden House is built on land for which the Traditional Owners have not yet been recognized.
Site Details: Location Malvern, Melbourne, Vic, Australia
Site type Suburban
Site area 928 m²Building area 550 m²
Project Details: Status Built
Completion date 2019
Design, documentation 8 months
Construction 13 months
Category Residential
Type Alts and adds