Nielsen Jenkins designs Brisbane home to withstand bushfires

Mt Coot-Tha House by Nielsen Jenkins

Australian studio Nielsen Jenkins has completed a “tough” family home with lush green courtyards protected from extreme bushfires by high blockwork walls.
Mt Coot-Tha House sits on a challenging site characterised by a steep slope at the foot of Mt Coot-Tha, in the suburb Brisbane of Bardon.

Faced with the requirements of the second-highest bushfire attack level (BAL40), the local studio designed the home as a series of low, sloping units linked by a triple-height, “civic-scaled” staircase block that steps up the forested site.

“An efficient stairway axis at the scale of the gum forest runs directly into the contour, and an informal meandering path across the plan allows for functional plateaus or occupiable contours,” Nielsen Jenkins explained.

This layout provides a garage at ground floor level, a large living, dining and kitchen area on the first floor and an area for the main bedrooms on the second floor.

Due to the steepness of the slope, the first floor features a series of smaller level changes, stepping up from a living area and balcony towards a kitchen overlooked by a large internal courtyard.

Mt Coot-Tha House Materials

“These smaller sectional shifts allow a grounded courtyard space adjacent to the living area of the house becomes a kind of ‘village green’ around which the rituals of daily life are lived,” described the studio.
The sloping rooflines on each block follow the site’s slope upwards, each clad with corrugated metal atop a blockwork base.

All of these material choices, as well as those in the interior, were made in accordance with the BAL40 rating, which also necessitated that the gaps around openings be no greater than three millimetres.

“Robust and prosaic materials have been detailed in a manner which will require no maintenance moving forward and will let the building continue to settle into the hill over time,” explained Nielsen Jenkins.

Internally, the central staircase form’s exposed blockwork is contrasted by white walls and wooden floors and furniture.

Taking advantage of the frequent changes in level, a mix of high panoramic windows, skylights, and carefully framed openings aim to capture the feeling of “leaning back” to look at the forest. The apertures are aligned with the tree trunks on the lower levels and the canopy on the upper level.

Around the house’s perimeter, a series of “wet walls” have been pulled away to deal with overland water flow, doubling as small, flat courtyard areas that mimic clearings in the densely vegetated forest.

Mt Coot-Tha home was recently longlisted in the rural house category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.

Other nominated projects include a cave-like house by Mold Architects embedded into a hill overlooking the Mediterranean.

Details of Mt Coot-Tha Project by Nielsen Jenkins

Architecture: Nielsen Jenkins
Photography: Tom Ross
Build: Struss Constructions
Interior Design: Nielsen Jenkins

written by: Jon Astbury
19 Aug 2021
published in: dezeen.com

Banksia House Aphora Architecture

Banksia House / Aphora Architecture

Text description provided by Aphora Architecture. Drawing inspiration from the Banksia Integrifolia native to the site, the house responds to the challenges of living against the East coast of Australia. A robust, yet environmentally and economically focussed building, Banksia House emphasises the importance of custodianship through a heightened connection to ‘place’.

The initial sketch on-site mapped the existing trees on the block. Immediately we were intrigued by the native Banksia Integrifolia and its ability to withstand the harshest of coastal conditions. It thrives in poor quality and sandy soil types, can withstand bushfire and is capable of coping with insistent corrosive winds. This became a beautiful metaphor for the house and a framework from which to respond to the challenges of the site. Accordingly, this informed the building program, materiality and even detailing, resulting in a conscious and responsive building.

The built form is driven by a response to ecological systems – both human and non-human – native to the site. Consequently, the edge conditions of the building were carefully conceived and detailed as offerings to a broader context. High-level glazing heightens the connection to ever-changing weather patterns, time and the immediacy of flora and fauna.
Materials such as exposed blockwork, charred timber cladding, concrete and glazing were used to create a non-corrosive skin to the building and reducing the need for toxic paint finishes and continual upkeep by the client.

The exposed blockwork was used to form the structural spine of the house but is also vital to the thermal comfort of the building. Large masonry blades brace the structure whilst simultaneously directing and buffering prevailing coastal breezes. Careful attention was given to the calculation of the deep eaves (which were designed with sun path modelling) to shade the blockwork and glazing in the summer months, whilst in the cooler seasons, the blockwork and internal areas are exposed to the morning sun. The thermal massing provided by the blockwork and slab on the ground regulating the temperature throughout the day.
Each room was planned with, at minimum, 2 windows at opposite adjacencies – Operable facades at these apertures allow for cross-flow ventilation which can be regulated manually by the occupants. Timber batten privacy screening with insect mesh allows for the home to ‘breathe’ 24 hours a day as well as heightening a connection to the sounds of the coastal location.

In many ways, the building is a wonderful reflection of the generosity and spirit of the clients. Rather than occupy the entire block with hard edges, the building blurs the line between public and private realms. The hard landscaping edges and fencing are deliberately held back from the street as an offering to neighbours – in particular, families making their way to the beach access across the street – which we felt was the key cultural centrepiece of the locale. Rather than squeezing past hard surfaces on your way to the beach, neighbours can comfortably wander across the lawn, under the canopy of the Fig, Tuckeroos and Banksias which the house was carefully built amongst.

Banksia House Project Details

Architects: Aphora Architecture
Area: 320 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs: Andy Macpherson
Manufacturers: Abey, Eco Outdoor, Eco Timber, Fisher & Paykel, Caribou, Fibonnaci, MARZ, South Drawn
Lead Architect: Andrew Forsyth
Landscape Contractor: RESERVE Landscapes
Builder: JMG Build
Landscape Architect: LARC
Structural Engineer: Westera

written by: Hana Abdel
18 Aug 2021
published in: archdaily.com

Gallery of Banksia House by Aphora Architecture

Wood Marsh Built Curvaceous Home Clad In Dark Timber Contrasting Its Natural Landscape In Portsea

Portsea House by Wood Marsh

Melbourne-based architecture firm Wood Marsh has built a curvaceous home clad in dark timber placed atop a curved, rammed-earth, blade wall in the Victorian suburb of Portsea, Australia.
Named Portsea House, the private home was designed as a bold statement to its natural surrounding to create a sharp contrast. Situated in a leafy pocket of Portsea, the house is distinguished with its two contrasting areas, elevated by light and dark, openness and containment.

In front façade of the house, a curved, rammed-earth, blade wall acts as a castle that maintains the privacy of the house, while wrapping like a scroll across the site.

As well as its strong visual intervention, its mass acts as a thermal regulator and balances the upper level as it cantilevers out from the slope.

According to the studio, “formally it creates privacy from the street, a key factor of the brief and is reinforced by the structure’s discrete siting and use of dark timber weatherboard cladding.”

“Indigenous landscaping further frames and filters the view of the building and this interaction between the natural environment and the built form continues as a central theme throughout,” the studio added.

Beyond the blade wall, the architects wanted to attract the attention to human’s perception that is drawn around the curved walls, thanks to this curved wall, the form is softened by the absence of edges.

Paying also attention to the external spaces of the house, the outer skin of the house encourages interaction between built form and site while maintaining a distinction in form and accentuating the contrast between the formalist architecture and the naturalist landscape.

The house has two levels. Upon entering the house through the curved wall, guests encounter a grand staircase winding up to the open living space above.

At the opposite side, an entertaining space and a hidden bar are designed gently in a flexible layout. Dark colored palette still dominates the interior alongside kitchen, walls and black-clad columns.

The house features a full-height glazed rear facade allowing the landscaping beyond to act as the internal wallpaper of the living area. An expansive deck flows from this space and both connects to, and floats over, the site, utilising the natural slope up to the rear corner.

At the rear deck of the house, a swimming pool is partially screened by a curved masonry dwarf wall, which responds to the form of the building and provides a degree of privacy.

The architects used the advantage of the sloping site that largely informed the spatial organisation of residence. The house is divided into three distinct wings, across two levels, and arranged around a central open-air atrium.

Bedroom and service spaces are placed on the two of these wings, while the third and largest wing is used for the living spaces including a secluded bar, entertaining area and kitchen.

A rumpus room is provided at the basement level, which opens onto private courtyard spaces shielded from the street view.

Portsea House Project Details

Architects: Wood Marsh Architecture
Year: 2021
Photographs: Peter Bennetts
Country: Australia

written by : Wood Marsh
09 Aug 2021
published in : worldarchitecture.org

Gallery of Portsea House by Wood Marsh Architecture

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Music Centre McBride Charles Ryan

Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Music Centre - McBride Charles Ryan

The Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School (PEGS) Music Centre, located in Melbourne, Australia, is the latest in a series of interventions undertaken by McBride Charles Ryan (MCR) across the PEGS Campuses. The existing single-level Victorian ‘house’ in this project was used by the School for music tuition. This new building sits alongside one of MCR’s earliest projects for PEGS, completed in 2009, the Junior Boys’ Year 5&6 Building, which plays with the tension between the School and its suburban context, perception, and childhood imagination. This new project was to refurbish the existing historic Music House, add to and provide improved spaces for music tuition and performance.

Together, the three buildings become more than the sum of their parts, activating the impression of a mini-precinct through the ensemble of buildings, and the creation of a fourth element – the courtyard. The new addition of the Music Centre acts as a mediator between the formality of the 2009 building and the Victorian house. The new building is comprised of variously sized practice rooms which allow for individual tuition and group practice. A large classroom has been included, intended for learning, tuition, and as a key performance space for students, parents, and others.

The addition has all the DNA of your archetypical ‘modernist’ school building and can be seen as part of the family of later institutional typologies throughout the campus. The utilitarian and modernist origin is a brick and skillion roof building attached to the more formally complex historic building with its variegated silhouette. The South and West façade’s framed entrances are a reminder of the origins of this institutional typology. The building applies a playful lyricism to the institutional typology, its key gesture, the line of a frozen soundwave, was passed across the building’s undulating plan, generating the north expression which frames both the new outdoor and performance space. This new project continues the thematic inspiration of the 2009 building as a kind of musing on context, beauty, and imagination.

The building uses standard school components in innovative formal composition, with a design intention focused on the pursuit of joy and beauty, allowing the design to transcend the utility of the technology and material used. Beauty and indeed music have their own utility.

The annex’s relationship to the original Victorian Music house attempts to promote a captivating dialogue, seeking to elegantly prolong the life of a historically significant building. The brickwork of the old is echoed in the new, retaining a similar patternation while vibrantly distinguishing the two through color and texture. The undulation and oscillation of the annex’s façade engages with the lyricism of music as an overarching theme, the contrast between existing and contemporary meeting in the middle with carefully considered slippages, as ceiling heights change, thresholds and transitions merge, and the two become one. The heritage is celebrated in every detail, the contrast of volumes, the meeting of a decorative cornice, the preservation of art-deco doors, that add substantially to the narrative and character of the built form.

PEGS Music Centre Project Details

Architects: McBride Charles Ryan
Area: 520 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs: John Gollings Photography
Manufacturers: Euro Clay, Surteco
Country: Australia

written by : Hana Abdel
30 July 2021
published in : archdaily.com

Gallery of PEGS Music Centre by McBride Charles Ryan

Edition Office completes black concrete home in rural Australia

Black-pigmented concrete and black timber battens have been used to create this tactile home in the village of Federal, New South Wales by Australian studio Edition Office.

The Melbourne-based firm designed Federal House to be both a peaceful sanctuary for its clients and a sculptural object dug into a slope in the hilly, forested landscape.

“At a distance the building is recessive, a shadow within the vast landscape,” described Edition Office.

“On closer inspection, a highly textural outer skin of thick timber battens contrasts the earlier sense of a machined tectonic, allowing organic materials gestures to drive the dialogue with physical human intimacy.”

Drawing on the verandah typology common among Australia’s colonial homesteads, a central living, dining and kitchen space is wrapped by a partially covered deck area.

This deck was designed to create a variety of different connections to the surrounding landscape.

It was lined with black timber battens that filter air, views and more direct sunlight on the western edge, and left entirely open for panoramic views to the north.

Sliding glass doors around the living spaces allow them to be completely opened to the elements or sealed off.

At the centre is a double-height garden void, illuminated by a cut in the home’s roof.

“The expansion and contraction of the interior allows shifts between the intimate and the public, between immediate landscape and the expansive unfolding landscape to the north,” said the studio.

Along the eastern edge of the home is the bedroom block, what the studio calls an “enclave of withdrawal, rest and solitude” containing two smaller rooms either side of a bathroom and a large en-suite bedroom with its own private terrace.

For the interiors, the dark wood and concrete are contrasted by lighter wooden floors and tan leather furniture, with custom door pulls designed to encourage a “tactile engagement” with the home.

On the lower level is a thin pool open to the landscape at one end, which cools air as it travels through the building, up the garden void into the living spaces.

This natural ventilation is supplemented with a ceiling fan for the hotter days of the year and a fireplace for winter.

Rural Concrete Home Project Details

Architects: Edition Office
Lead designers: Kim Bridgland, Aaron Roberts
Landscape designer: Florian Wild
Photographs: Ben Hosking
Structural engineer: Westera Partners
Builder: SJ Reynolds Constructions
Country: Australia

written by : Jon Astbury
1 August 2021
published in : dezeen.com

Gallery of black concrete home by Edition Office Architects

Open Shut House WALA

Open Shut House by WALA Architecture

Text description provided by WALA Architecture. The original period building is one of a pair of semi-detached dwellings, with Art-Deco stylings reflecting its Inter-war era. Open Shut House sits on a long and narrow allotment 10m wide and 60m deep with a rearward slope falling 4.2m. The site also backs onto a cricket ground and the Monash Freeway beyond, with northerly winds carrying the sound of traffic to the rear of the property. The owners’ family had outgrown the original building and their brief called for an extension that could be future-proofed and cater to the changing needs of individual family members, particularly their 4 young adult children. The design response had to expand on the functional offerings of the old house as well as ensure that any new addition respected the heritage character and scale of the period home, whilst being a clearly distinguishable yet connected entity.

The design offers private spaces for the inhabitants, housed in two separate buildings connected by a central atrium. The children’s bedrooms are clustered in the old house, physically separate from their parents’ retreat in the new. The narrow hallways of the old house invite exploration, expanding into the double-storey atrium in the physical (and metaphorical) center of the house. Moving deeper into the house, the building responds to the land’s natural fall by cascading a series of tiered living spaces towards the backyard. The space is momentarily compressed again in the Kitchen, before the floor level changes once more and the perception of space swells in the sunken living room and garden beyond.

Openings via skylights, large windows and courtyards not only draw daylight along the length of the buildings, but provide visual relief along the way. Due to the split levels and atrium, the inhabitants can still feel connected visually with each other throughout the house.

As a building of significance, conservation of the front house was imperative. The new addition sought to preserve the front building’s heritage qualities by utlising the fall of the land to tuck itself behind and below the existing roofline, thereby respecting the scale and proportioning of the existing building and adjacent neighbouring dwellings. The new addition is unashamedly contemporary, a clear departure from the architecture of its predecessor in order to distinguish itself and create a counterpoint to the old building. The result is the marriage of two “almost-separate” buildings, connected tenuously via the central atrium and its skylight wedge.

The new addition fulfils the owners’ desire to have 2 generations of people under one roof, yet with the autonomy that each family member has to inhabit each space in their own way. The tiered living spaces inherently allocate specific functions to each “platform” whilst still creating a seamless circulatory and visual flow from front to rear. Here, connections between indoor and outdoor are prevalent and these apertures soften the edges of each programmatic compartment. The new building is also a protective cocoon, sheltering its occupants from the noise of the outside world with its timber shutters and double-glazed pivots.

Open Shut House Project Details

Architects: WALA
Area: 332 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs: Tess Kelly
Manufacturers: &Tradition, Colorbond, Dulux, Jetmaster, Miele, Milli, Mizu, Snap Concrete
Builder: Green X Home
Structural Engineer: HTD Consultants

written by : WALA
17 Jul 2021
published in : archdaily.com

Gallery of Open Shut House - WALA

Jolson Architecture And Interiors Completes Pt. Leo Estate Winery With Sculptural Walls In Australia

Pt. Leo Estate Winery With Sculptural Walls by Jolson Architecture And Interiors

Australian firm Jolson Architecture and Interiors have completed the Pt. Leo Estate Winery with sculptural walls on a rural site in coastal Mornington Peninsula, Australia.

The language of the building emerges from within an established vineyard as a synthesis of fine wine, sculpture, architecture rural landscape and dramatic ocean views.
Deeply embedded in context, the building rises from the ground as an abstract architectural gesture following the curving nature of the site, referencing the process of winemaking and taking on a subtle sculptural quality of its own.

The building was designed for Pt. Leo Estate, a premium Australian wine producer as well as an avid art collector. The building brings the two together as a cellar door, restaurant and sculpture park, contextually framed by a dramatic rural property. Purposefully located on the highest point of this 135-hectare site, the concept was to invite the public to engage with an established vineyard, dramatic ocean views and a truly Australian landscape.
The curvaceous form is an abstract interpretation of wine pouring from a bottle and the organic cycle of the wine harvest. A bold landscaped gesture and design with fluid walls creates a strong dialog with the curvature of Inge King’s iconic sculpture, one of the client’s existing collection.

The built form surfaces from the earth, as you transition through the forecourt the walls which hold back the extended vineyard. In summer months, long tendrils of vine cascade over to veil and anchor the building, reinforcing the design’s response to site and context. It is a building that is of the land, and in the land. The cracked granite forecourt surface, together with the asymmetrical placement of the single Bottle Tree is evocative of the Australian rugged, eroded and cracked landscape.

The entry arbour acts as a filter distinguished by an abundance of natural light coming through the timber slats in the ceiling to separate the forecourt from the radial pavilion.

The interior embraces the radial faceted grid embedded in the architecture and expresses it through the walls, ceilings and joinery. The finishes were carefully crafted, responding to the tonal shifts in the adjacent paddocks and inspired from a deconstructed wine barrel, with a predominance of steel and timber lining the inner surfaces.
The building’s radial plan organises and separates the three briefed zones of the Entry Arbour, Cellar Door & Restaurants. The sweeping form articulates each area without the need for walls or partitions within a large open space and results in an internal experience honouring the client’s desire that each function concurrently with equal emphasis.

Within the radial plan is nested the Cellar Door, Pt. Leo Restaurant and Laura Fine Dining. To the left of the entry, the Cellar Door uses the vineyard adjacency to facilitate conversations about the wine and extends to an outdoor terrace. To the right, the Fine Dining is named after Jaume Plensa’s Laura sculpture and offers a set menu inspired by the regional produce of Mornington Peninsular.
From within the building, there is a constant connection with the surrounding landscape and sculpture park, intentionally positioned in the sightlines between the two. Likewise, the building has an intentional humility when viewed from within the sculpture park. Its presence diminishes with the radial sweep of the building emphasising the art itself.

The sculpture park follows a meandering path as it wraps around the architecture creating an intermediary in the view between architecture and vineyard or ocean. Showcasing over 50 large-scale sculptures from local and international artists and curated by Geoffrey Edwards, the former director of Geelong Gallery, artists include Clement Meadmore, Deborah Halpern, Inge King, Tony Cragg, Jaume Plensa, Anthony Pryor and Augustine Dall’ava.

According to the studio, “this project represents Jolson’s first public and hospitality commission in architecture, interior design and landscape master planning – a huge departure in scale and typology for the residential sector.”

The design celebrates its contextual Australian location and brings together architecture and landscape with a simple lasting gesture which evokes a sensory experience for its visitors.

Pt. Leo Estate Project Details

Architects: Jolson Architecture and Interiors
Location: Merricks, Australia
Year: 2017
Photographs: Lucas Allen
Country: Australia

written by : via Jolson Architecture and Interiors
26 Jul 2021
published in : worldarchitecture.org

Gallery of Pt. Leo Estate by Jolson Architecture And Interiors

Collins Beach House-Tobias Partners

Collins Beach House -Tobias Partners

Text description provided by Tobias Partners Architects. This home is set on a beautiful, semi-bushland, yet urban site on the edge of the harbour, with two mature Norfolk Pine trees standing guard to the North-West. This incredible location offered a truly unique setting for our client’s house – however the site’s shape and boundaries, significant setback controls and bushfire zoning presented challenges to the design and use of the site.

The site is surrounded by neighbours to the East, North and West but to the South are incredible unbroken views over the coves around Collins beach and the harbour beyond. Whilst framing the views to the South and surrounding bushland, the house also had to ensure privacy from neighbours and simultaneously capture the Northern sun which is impeded by other houses, a steep hill and large existing Pine trees.

With the immediate connections to nature, we wanted the house to feel nestled into this environment throughout every part of the house. It was also essential to frame the many enchanting views, giving every space a well orchestrated connection to the outdoors without feeling exposed to the surrounding neighbours.
Three volumes are positioned at angles to each other, informed by the unusual shape of the site, to capture the views and create several external areas, each with it’s own function. Two of the volumes sit at ground level. The third hovers above the others, leaving a negative space underneath.

This negative space houses the central core functions: entry, kitchen and circulation. From this zone, everything else branches out: the garage and rumpus volume to the East cantilevers over native grasses and focuses out to the bush and the harbour; the living volume to the West sits between two garden areas, slightly elevated above a third garden space and focusing out to the harbour beyond. The third volume hovering above has a solid façade on one side protecting it from the overlooking neighbours, with a fully glazed façade on the other to capture expansive views from all of the bedroom and bathroom functions.

The house called for seamless flow between the internal spaces and various external experiences; the bushfire zoning therefore required extensive detailing to integrate fire curtains with the architecture. Blackbutt timber was also employed where possible as a more aesthetically appealing bushfire-rated solution to screening and glazing. The concept of a house intrinsically connected to its natural environment has carried through to the way it is occupied – doors and windows are rarely closed, the boundaries between inside and outside erased. Yet even with this level of transparency between the building and the site, the house retains warmth and a sense of protection.

This site is also home to an abundance of wildlife including a population of bandicoots and the design allows for a significant unobstructed corridor for the bandicoots to pass through without danger or hazards. In addition, all of the planting is native, with many species being common to the immediate area. The project is one of minimal tolerances and demanding details, the challenges of which were exceeded by the various craftspeople involved in its construction. The integration of rudimentary fire curtains into elegant, sloped steel portals is one example of the intense collaboration required between various contributors to ensure the project’s success. The simple construction methodologies and material palette throughout ensure that the house is an efficient building and timeless home.

Collins Beach Project Details

Architects: Tobias Partners
Area: 580 m²
Year: 2020
Photographs: Justin Alexander
Manufacturers: Vitrocsa, Cult, Dedece, Viabizzuno, Vola, iGuzzini, Anibou, Axor, Matt Baker Joinery, Simple Studio, Space Furniture
Country: Australia

written by : Hana Abdel
26 Jun 2021
published in : archdaily.com

Gallery of Collins Beach House by Tobias Partners

Smooth Surfaces And Crafted Details Form The Interiors Of Alexander House In Australia

Alexander House by Alexander&Co

Interior design firm Alexander and Co has used pinkish-toned furniture made of smooth surfaces and crafted details in the interiors of the new Alexander House in Bondi Junction, Australia.
Named Alexander House, the 250-square-metre space was designed as a design laboratory that combines working, meeting and living together in a uniquely-designed atmosphere.

The house reflects itself as an architectural residential showcase, while offering a purpose-built live/work set up, challenging preconceptions of home, land, family and work.
The team also describes the house as “a prototype for exploring sustainability, carbon sequestration and environmental innovation.” The interiors feature elegant details that reflect the skills of the local artists.

A very impressive material combination with the adaptation of soft and powder colored tones are also at the heart of the space that make you feel at h-your own home.

“The Alexander House is our new way of practicing our craft. A courageous space to foster leadership, creativity and learning,” said Alexander&Co.
The house was designed as a safe and comfortable space for reflection, experimentation and to nurture the creative spirit. The house is conceived as a prototype and a place for community gatherings and meetings to test out and challenge ideas.

Although the space looks like a real home, the space is open to host events, providing “Creative Conversations” and utilizing Alexander House to open a wider dialogue in the creative industry. The space would impact and our potential to introduce change, according tot he team.
“We are passionate about local artists and are underway with discussions regarding a moving gallery concept – perhaps even a future artist in residence,” continued the studio.

“We are also committed to educating and engaging our team around reconciliation and have engaged Susan Moylan-Coombs from the Gaimaragal Group to host a series of ‘Cultural Conversations’.”

“We are looking forward to sharing these discussions with our team and wider community,” the team added.
Inside, the studio has used reclaimed timbers, rammed earth bricks from waste materials, a cohesive material palette of concrete, polished plaster, steel, brass and stone accents, which have all supported the studio’s aesthetic vision and fostered a ‘found’ feeling.

The architects have chosen finishes and materials which are inherently imperfect.

According to the studio, “materials are deeply expressive and were selected to show their age, as is the case with the sandblasted timber and brass which could blacken and develop over time.”
In the project brief, there was a key design factor in the project: site limitations, but this has encouraged creativity when it came to encompassing the various program functions its team required within the small terrace footprint with each of the four floor plates conceived to be programmed separately and transition with time.

Private exterior spaces and internal spaces are arranged vary in material, scale, lighting and volume inside. Each space has a different character and allows guests to provide both a true residential showcase experience for the clients and a flexible working environment for its team.

Alexander House Project Details

Architects: Alexander&Co.
Area: 250m2
Year: 2020
Photographs: Anson Smart
Country: Australia

written by : Alexander&Co.
14 Jul 2021
published in : worldarchitecture.org

Gallery of Alexander House by Alexander and Co Architects

Above Board Living-Luigi Rosselli Architects

Above Board Living / Luigi Rosselli Architects

Text description provided by Luigi Rosseli Architects. Where the land meets the sea the blue expanse of ocean and sky is a magnet for humanity, the Blue Planet Dwellers; this home, created for a family reaching maturity, with adult children and parents deeply passionate about good design, expressed through their creation and manufacture of accessories for daily life, aimed to remove barriers to that irresistible attraction. They craved the ability to live their lives intimately connected to the nearby Bronte Beach and the Pacific Ocean horizon beyond; to watch the morning sun rise from its depths and be immersed in the conditions of the surf and sea breezes rising from the water.

Traditionally in Europe it was quite common for the living spaces of a home to be positioned on the upper levels, with space for livestock and storage at ground level, however in Australia is engrained the lifestyle to place the ‘living areas’ at garden level. Our family though were keen to turn their world upside down and position their living spaces on the upper level to capture the breezes and enhance their views with that ocean connection, and detach themselves from the busy streets of the beachside neighbourhood below.

Our client’s main aspiration was to achieve a very natural lifestyle, and so we created a design for them that sought to reflect this aspiration, with large openable windows to catch the breezes, skylights and shuttered openings to control the access to natural sunlight, rammed earth walls providing thermal mass and the cooling effect of the hydroscopic qualities of clay, and a roof garden to elevate the landscaping enhance the access to green space. The materials were selected to promote the authenticity and ‘above board’ genetics of this home: rammed earth, timber, zinc and iron were treated in a ‘matter of fact’ way. The rammed earths used were carefully dosed to provide a ‘sun-blushed’ epidermis.

Though the project embraces the natural, Luigi Rosselli Architects have not refrained from using these materials in a cultured and referential way, their history is revealed in all the design choices. The Carl Scarpa inspired stone mosaic floor (Venetian influence), the arched master bedroom door (byzantine or oriental), the traditional ironwork balustrades (medieval) and the latticework of the shutters (drawing on lace making as inspiration). The architecture embraces the fluidity of forms that enhance the function and aims of the design.

To the exterior the recessed front entry is framed by projections to each side, the balcony shape to the first floor reaches eagerly towards the ocean views, while the strong vertical form of the rammed earth chimney to its opposite side anchors down the whole structure.
One of the greatest experiences an Architect is gifted is to work with skilled trades who are able to interpret and execute their designs with an additional zest. In the realisation of the project the contractors who lent their skill to the tiling, the set plaster, the ironwork, the joinery, the roofing and the rammed earth are all worth naming and praising for their unique contributions with, or course, particularly merit given to the Builder who directed them.