Australia conjures different images for different people. Locals might recall their childhood homes, tourists might think of white-sand beaches and those who’ve yet to visit the land down under might just envision kangaroos and boomerangs. Yet Victoria-native ); return…
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Australian studio BLOXAS adopted elements from Japanese architecture to reorganise the spaces of this Melbourne residence around a courtyard then added a new timber-clad extension shaped like a periscope (+ slideshow).
Located in the suburb of Fitzroy North, the renovated open-plan house was designed by BLOXAS to provide a “dynamic mix of spaces” for a family of four who had previously spent many years living and working in Japan.
The building has an L-shaped plan that wraps around the long north-facing courtyard. A wooden deck runs along the edge of the lawn as an imitation of the traditional Japanese engawa – a narrow veranda – and prompted the residence to be named Engawa House.
“This design was structured around the concept of engawa,” explained architect and studio principal Anthony Clarke. “This space offers a transition between the yielding comfort of the grassed courtyard and the polished concrete floor of the interior.”
Three red brick chimneys belonging to the old structure are dotted through the house. One sits along the street-facing southern elevation, forming a visual break between the white-painted weatherboards cladding the original house and the black-stained plywood walls of the extension.
Comparing the building to a red brick factory across the street, Clarke added: “The black stained plywood exterior of the facade will age sympathetically with the warehouses surrounding it, offering a unique composition against the retained brickwork fireplace.”
Living, dining and kitchen areas occupy a large rectilinear space at the centre of the house and can be opened out to the courtyard by sliding back a series of floor-to-ceiling glass doors.
A staircase leads up from the living room to a mezzanine study, from which residents can survey activities going on beneath them.
New timber-framed windows puncture the facade and a bathroom wraps around another of the old chimneys.
Photography is by Peter Bennetts.
Read on for a project description from Anthony Clarke of BLOXAS:
Engawa House
Melbourne’s inner-north has a distinct European feel of community living. Small houses compel people towards local parks and curbside gardens, blurring the threshold between public and private. The Engawa House in North Fitzroy, embraces this atmosphere, as the dynamic and historical patchwork of the surrounding context becomes part of each living space.
The clients, a family of four, described a space offering them a feeling of discovery, through a variety of intersecting planes, and the layering of natural light. They required a relocated central bathroom, kitchen, dining, living, additional bedroom with ensuite, as well as a mezzanine office and external entertaining area.
A full facing northern wing, mixing a combination of single and double storey forms, attaches itself to the front rooms of the existing house. The simple orientation takes advantage of the full range of views from the mezzanine, whilst being sympathetic to its elevational context. The living, dining and bedroom/en suite skirt a large and long courtyard garden, maximising sustainable performance, and offering northern light into each new program.
This design was structured around the concept of “Engawa”, referring to an exterior hallway on the side of a traditional Japanese dwelling. This space offers a transition between the yielding comfort of the grassed courtyard and the polished concrete floor of the interior. It also offers a transitional space for informal seating.
The open living and mezzanine enhance a visual and auditory connection, with a distinct lack of privacy, embracing the family’s already strong connection.
Rather than competing with the streetscape, BLOXAS utilised council restrictions to invite exploration yet maintain integrity. The striking black form signposts the street corner and its palette of styles.
The Engawa House interplays scale and height, contributing to the elevational rhythm of the red factory brickwork, single-storey weatherboard terraces and the multi-storey residential context.
Large timber windows to the southern boundary invite the engagement between neighbouring residents and the clients of the Engawa House.
Underpinning the projects conceptual idea was a very tight budget. The addition provides a smaller overall footprint than the previous plan, now maximising the site’s potential. The black stained plywood exterior of the facade will age sympathetically with the warehouses surrounding it, offering a unique composition against the retained brickwork fireplace. This facilitated a high quality interior where the client desired a more minimal and refined finish.
Architect: Black Line One X Architecture Studio
Location: Fitzroy North, Melbourne, Australia
Builder: Zachary Spark Constructions
Project Year: 2013
Furniture: Ross Gardam, Earl Pinto
The post BLOXAS adds periscope-shaped extension
and courtyard veranda to Melbourne house appeared first on Dezeen.
Three mature trees were rooted to the centre of this site in Western Australia, but architecture firm MORQ managed to convince the owners to build their family house around the peeling trunks and burgeoning foliage (+ slideshow).
Located south of Perth in the town of Margaret River, Karri Loop House was constructed around one large Karri tree and a pair of Marri trees – both of which are indigenous to this region of Australia – after MORQ came up with a design that prevented them needing to be chopped down.
The single-storey residence has an H-shaped plan that wraps around the trunks of the three trees and also frames a pair of irregularly shaped courtyards.
To avoid disturbing the delicate shallow roots, the architects raised the house off the ground by positioning it on hand-placed steel tripod footings, rather than digging pile foundations.
Dramatic double-height ceilings and large windows were then added to the living room and master bedroom to “celebrate the presence of the trees” by offering residents views of the leaves and branches overhead.
“These trees, their root systems and their unstable large branches presented a challenge to the build-ability of the house,” said the architects.
“We like to think of this project as a mutually beneficial development; the building is designed to retain the trees, while the trees visually contribute to the quality of the inner space,” they added.
A raised deck runs along the northern side of the house to create an outdoor seating area beneath the canopy of the Karri, while a sheltered triangular terrace at the end of the living room features a vertical window framing another view of the tree.
A rainwater harvesting system is built into the roof, which channels water through to an irrigation system feeding the tree roots.
Plywood clads the inner and outer walls of the house. On the outside, it has a roughly sawn surface coated with a layer of black paint, while interior surfaces have been sanded smooth to reveal the natural grain.
Wooden ceiling beams were left exposed in various rooms inside the building. Straw bales were also added to provide insulation, but are concealed within the walls.
Photography is by Peter Bennetts.
Here’s some more information from MORQ:
Karri Loop House
The mature trees located in the middle of the site (a Karri and two Marris) played an essential part in shaping our project. The first part of the design process was spent in investigating the requirements for retaining these trees, as well as convincing the clients of their unique presence on an otherwise anonymous site. With the support of a renowned arborist, the decision was finally made to keep the trees. As a result, the house sits in between the tree-trunks and its outline defines two open courtyards of irregular shape. These embrace the trees and the surrounding landscape, around which family life occurs.
A tall window in the dining area and a periscope-like skillion in the master bedroom, celebrate the presence of the trees from within the house, framing views of both foliage and peeling trunks. These trees, their root systems and their unstable large branches presented a challenge to the build-ability of the house. We like to think of this project as a mutually beneficial development: where the building is designed to retain the trees, while the trees visually contribute to the quality of the inner space.
To protect the integrity of the shallow root-system a matrix of steel tripod footings was used: each of them had to be dug by hand, and repositioned every time a root was encountered, resulting in an irregular structural grid. These footings also raise the house off the ground and give it a somewhat temporary look.
Any part of the house footprint overlapping the root system would result in an uneven rainwater supply to the roots, which could cause a shock to the trees. Rainwater collected on the roof is therefore taken under the house, channelled into a trickling irrigation pipes and then evenly fed to the tree roots.
Lightweight construction seemed the most appropriate response to the existing trees requirements, however straw-bales were chosen as a preferred form of insulation. This decision required all perimeter walls to be prefabricated as ladder-frames and later assembled on site. It also resulted in unusually thick perimeter walls, seldom employed in timber framed buildings.
The house was mainly constructed out of timber, whose grain and texture inform both interior and exterior spaces. Wall linings use different grades of plywood: rough sawn, painted black on the outside, and sanded, clear-treated on the inside. The floor and ceilings are also in clear-treated plywood. The roof structure is resolved with Laminated Veneer Lumber beams, which are left exposed on the inside of the ceiling.
Project typology: new house
Site: Margaret River, Western Australia
Floor area: 290 sqm
Year: 2013
Number of inhabitants: 2 adults + 3 children
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three indigenous Australian trees appeared first on Dezeen.
Le réalisateur australien Benjamin Dowie nous rappelle l’été avec sa vidéo intitulée « Oh, Summer » où il se filme, lui et ses amis, en vacances. Barbecues, plongée, barques, pique-nique et peau bronzée. Le tout sur la bande son ‘Heaven’s Gate’ par Oh, Yoko. Une douceur à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.
Voici le teaser du prochain film du réalisateur australien David Michod : The Rover, avec Guy Pearce et Robert Pattinson. Après avoir tout quitté pour vivre dans le désert australien, Eric se fait attaquer par un gang. Un des membres du gang, abandonné pendant l’attaque, va aider Eric dans son désir de vengeance.
Mathery, un studio de design situé à Melbourne, a créé des objets du quotidien tels que des dessous de table, des bols et des vases à partir de peaux de fruits découpées, assemblées et teintées. Cela ajoute beaucoup d’originalité à de simples objets ménagers. Plus d’images du projet dans la suite de l’article.
Wooden structures and traditional joinery are used in this Melbourne takeaway chicken shop by local interior designers Hecker Guthrie to evoke the appearance of a chicken coop.
The cafe in Port Melbourne is named Foxes Den after the animals renowned for pilfering chickens from their roosts, so Hecker Guthrie played on this theme by referencing the wooden enclosures used to keep chickens. The studio created pine wood structures that house the kitchen, serving area and dining tables.
“The built forms inserted into Foxes Den where informed by agricultural shapes and framing ideas seen in chicken coops, and also barn forms and lean-tos,” said Hecker Gutherie senior interior designer Josh Watt.
The structure in the centre of the space is used as a dining table. Beige canvas blinds around the sides aim to make the otherwise open four-poster table more intimate.
Screens made from diagonal planks, wooden beams and columns appear to be dip-dyed in orange paint. The walls are lined with concrete panels and dark slate tiles are used for the floor.
“There is certain nostalgia to the diagonal pine wall linings, which provide warmth and texture against the concrete and canvas,” the designers said.
Pine wood stools designed to match the other carpentry each have three legs locked together with a metal joint, created by Australian designer Henry Wilson. Benches and shelving along the walls support plant boxes that hang from the ends of the surfaces.
The menu is written on blackboards above the counter, which is covered in white tiles across the front. Photography is by Shannon McGrath.
The post Foxes Den cafe by Hecker Guthrie
references a chicken coop appeared first on Dezeen.
Gavain Browne a réalisé ce documentaire narrant la vie de Hussain Sadiqi ayant fui l’oppression des Talibans à la fin du 20ème siècle. Après un voyage à travers le monde l’amenant en Australie, ce dernier se décide à remettre tout en jeu pour réaliser un rêve depuis le jour où il a vu pour la première fois Bruce Lee à la TV.
Australian office Tribe Studio has hollowed out the centre of a 1920s house in Sydney to create angular ceilings and a wide entrance to the garden (+ slideshow).
Tribe Studio created House Chapple by retaining the original 1920s frontage of the old bungalow, renovating the interior and replacing a later extension at the rear.
“The challenge of this house was to achieve sun and privacy while appreciating both aspects,” said the architects. “Our client wanted to retain the romantic elements of the house and its sense of humility in a suburb of flashy new builds.”
The architects removed a suspended ceiling in the centre of the house, creating a double-height living space with pyramid-shaped ceiling profiles. They also added skylights at the top and installed pendant lights with long cables.
“We allowed light into the centre of the plan, promoting stack-effect ventilation and reinforcing the unusual order of operation of the house,” they added.
A street-facing sunroom is positioned above the garage, with views out across Sydney Harbour. The room opens out into the main living space that includes a lounge, kitchen and dining area.
Three bedrooms, a TV room and a study are positioned along the sides of the main space.
At the rear, the wide entrance opens onto a wooden deck flanking a garden with a long rectangular swimming pool.
Polished wooden floorboards and white walls feature throughout, while the brick exterior walls have been painted white.
Photography is by Katherine Lu.
Here’s a project description from Tribe Studio:
House Chapple
With fantastic harbour views and a northerly orientation to the street-front and a wonderful garden and existing pool to the rear, the challenge of this house was to achieve sun and privacy while appreciating both aspects.
The house has been in our clients family since the 1960s. An important part of our brief was finding a balance between new and old architecturally and sentimentally.
Our client wanted to retain the romantic elements of the house, and its sense of humility in a suburb of flashy new builds. She was simultaneously keen to have a new start in this house and have it feel her own.
The strategy is a modest one: retain the original 1920s bungalow frontage and replace a poor 1960s addition at the rear.
The primary move is to cave out central part of the plan as living spaces with clear views to the front (harbour) and back (garden). The central band of living space is contained on either side by cellular ribbons of bedrooms and utility.
The living space occupies the area underneath the peak of the original roof. The ceiling is removed and a series of distorted pyramid ceiling voids are created within the original geometry, allowing light into the centre of the plan, promoting stack effect ventilation and reinforcing the unusual order of operation of the house.
On the high side of the site, the master bedroom is nestled against an existing cliff-face, juxtaposing its harbour view and a close encounter with mossy sandstone and a cheeky orchid garden.
The intention is modest: a replacement addition that is fully concealed from the street and minimal facelift to the front.
Project Title: House Chapple
Project Design Practice: Tribe Studio
Design Team: Hannah Tribe, Miriam Green, Ricci Bloch
Project Location: Mosman, Sydney NSW
Completion Date: March 2013
The post Hollowed-out house in Sydney
by Tribe Studio appeared first on Dezeen.
If you’re out to customize any of the new clothes, jackets or backpacks you may have received over the holidays, or embellish your older apparel, Desire Books’ new line of embroidered );…
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