Hasta La Ideas

An angular steel canopy covered in plants wraps around this refurbished youth and community centre in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo by Australian architects Collins and Turner (+ slideshow).

Collins and Turner extended an amenities block for urban housing and health association Weave by adding a central courtyard and landscaped roof garden, which overlooks the skate park at Waterloo Oval.

The angular frame comprises structural poles and mesh made from galvanised steel, designed to support foliage.

“As the plants mature and grow across the canopy, the building will gradually merge with its park setting, becoming an abstract and sculptural green land-form that punctuates the park boundary and visually merges with the adjacent tree canopies,” said the architects.

The tubular metal structure hides a landscaped roof garden on top of the community centre building.

The garden looks down to a rectangular courtyard on the floor below, paved with timber from reclaimed city power poles. This allows daylight and ventilation to permeate through the building, which was designed specifically for low environmental impact.

“Internally, comfort conditions are passively controlled using natural cross ventilation, exposed thermal mass, and a building envelope shaded by the canopy structure and climbing plants,” said the architects.

Glass doors surrounding the courtyard open into the interior open-plan workspace, designed for 14 staff members. The space is subdivided to accommodate amenities such as two counselling rooms, a manager’s office and a kitchenette.

Retained brick walls from the previous structure are white-washed, and new concrete soffits and structural columns have been added.

On the exterior, the plant-covered protruding triangular sections provide a backdrop for the skate park.

Here’s a project description from Collins and Turner:

Waterloo Youth Family and Community Centre

The building has been transformed into a welcoming counselling facility and communal workspace for Weave.

The refurbished building has additionally become an extension of its landscape setting, combining architecture and horticulture in a unique way to create a new sculptural form that enlivens the southern area of the Waterloo Oval site.

Where possible, elements of the existing amenities block structure have been retained and re-used in the new plan, now focussed around a new central courtyard and crowned by a planted roof structure.

The landscaped roof garden is veiled by a dramatic steel canopy structure that has been designed to support a variety of native climbing and fruiting plants. The canopy is star shaped in plan – the points of the star mark the entry and newly constructed bay window areas in the four corners of the building.

The building is also partially submerged in its setting, as a result of subtle adjustments in the adjacent landscape levels, reducing its apparent size.

As the plants mature and grow across the canopy, the building will gradually merge with its park setting, becoming an abstract and sculptural green land-form that punctuates the park boundary and visually merges with the adjacent tree canopies.

Inspiration

The building design takes inspiration from a number of diverse sources. amongst them, the grass covered iron-age forts of Celtic Wales; the aviary at London Zoo designed by Cedric Price; and the work of John Krubsack an american naturalist who experimented with growing and grafting plants into shapes, creating the first chair that was grown rather than made.

The buildings unusual angular form evokes both the folded planes of Origami, and the triangulated surfaces of invisible stealth planes and boats.

Planning

The interior is arranged in a pin-wheel plan around the central courtyard, and includes a largely open and flexible plan with workspaces for 14 staff.

A reception area, two counselling rooms, a chill out room, managers office, kitchenette, and a small facility for a visiting general practitioner complete the program. Integrated joinery elements and staff amenities subdivide the space and functions.

Materials

Robust galvanised steel is utilised throughout the exterior form in structural sections, grillages, and meshes – such elements and finishes are familiar in the urban landscape of the inner city, seen regularly as railings, crash barriers, shutters and gratings.

Internally, materials are paired back and simply detailed. The retained existing brick walls are white- washed, and contrasted against off form concrete expressed in soffits and new structural columns, and solid timber in floors and handcrafted joinery. Additional colour is provided by furnishings, and the variety of rooftop and courtyard plants which are visible from the majority of spaces.

The resulting interior is clean-lined, light filled and neutral, and will form a simple but functional backdrop to the colour provided by the art and day to day activities of the young people who work-in and visit the Weave facility.

Environment

The building is designed to be robust, low maintenance and long lasting, and will have a low environmental impact, due to minimal use of natural resources and passive means of comfort conditioning. The building is a refurbishment of an existing facility, and has been planned to maintain where possible the existing wall and slab structures.

Internally, comfort conditions are passively controlled using natural cross ventilation, exposed thermal mass, and a building envelope shaded by the canopy structure and climbing plants. The new courtyard brings daylight and fresh air into the depths of the building, minimising reliance on artificial lighting and negating the need for air conditioning. Exposed thermal mass in the concrete super structure enables free cooling. Ceiling fans amplify air movement on still days.

The building also incorporates recycled materials including a wooden block courtyard floor utilising timber from reclaimed city power poles; concrete and pavers that utilise a high percentage of recycled material and fly ash for cement and aggregate replacement; and reclaimed roofing slate crushed as mulch for planting beds. LED lighting is used extensively in the building.

Rainwater is drawn from roof and paved areas and collected in an underground tank adjacent to the structure for use in the irrigation of the plants. The steel canopy structure has been designed as an interlocking but self-supported element, allowing the future demounting and relocation of the structure.

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Purveyor of memes, laughs and occasional NSFW oddities, Sydney-based website Brown Cardigan has just taken their business offline with a set of 25 greeting cards. As well as covering the obvious—Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Hanukkah, Mother’s Day—the…

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Angular zinc-clad volumes fold around a central courtyard and stretch out towards ocean views at this house designed by Australian architect John Wardle on the scenic Great Ocean Road in Victoria (+ movie).

Named Fairhaven Beach House, the three-storey residence is perched on the top of a hill. John Wardle Architects laid out the building with an uneven U-shaped plan to create a wall of windows facing the water and an east-facing courtyard that is protected from coastal winds.

The route from the entrance to a large living room was intended as a dramatic progression through the building, passing by a cantilevered study and through a pivoting asymmetric door.

“It is a dynamic, fluid journey through the house from arrival to the ocean view,” said the architects, whose past projects include a house on a working sheep farm in Tasmania.

“It is choreographed to increase anticipation before reaching the main living space,” they added.

A large kitchen and dining room is positioned on one side and projects even further towards the coastline, plus a secluded balcony provides an opportunity to dine outdoors.

“The house is carefully zoned to allow for privacy and communal gathering,” said the architects.

While the exterior of the house is clad with grey zinc panels to blend in with the tones of the bush landscape, the interior features timber surfaces across every wall, floor and ceiling.

Two bedrooms are located on the ground floor and a wooden staircase leads up to a third on the upper storey.

A garage, wine cellar and informal living room are tucked away in the basement.

Fairhaven Beach House topped the residential category at the Australian National Architecture Awards earlier this month. Judges described it as “a masterful control of form and space, scale, material and detail”.

Photography is by Trevor Mein. Movie is by Maximilian Mein.

Here’s more information from John Wardle Architects:

Fairhaven Residence

The Fairhaven Beach House is located on top of the ridgeline above the Great Ocean Road on the Victorian coastline. The site enjoys panoramic views over the southern ocean and surf beach below.

The proportions, orientation and dimensions of windows have been tailored to particular views and to reveal internal spaces. The design process has been one akin to scenography, bringing together sensory and spatial experiences to frame the theatre of inhabitation within.

This beach house coils and steps around a protected central courtyard, which creates an outdoor space sheltered from the harsh prevailing winds. The living area doors and an oversized sliding kitchen window open up and integrate the courtyard with the house during fine weather.

It is a dynamic, fluid journey through the house from arrival to the ocean view; it is choreographed to increase anticipation before reaching the main living space.

As you step beneath a cantilevered study into a dramatic vertical entry space, you become acutely aware of a number of twists and folds along its length that make the transformation into the horizontal living space. Its main window aperture matches the cinematic proportions of the ocean view.

The house is carefully zoned to allow for privacy and communal gathering. The upper level houses a suite of private rooms including a main bedroom, ensuite, study and viewing terrace. The entry level contains a pair of bedrooms and bathroom. The main living and dining space is where the occupants come together. A garage, laundry and informal living space are hidden from view in a basement level.

Materially the house is clad in a green-grey zinc cladding, for both its longevity and natural colouring that merges with the scrub and tea tree landscape. In contrast, the interior of the house is completely lined in timber (floors, walls, cabinetry and ceilings) to form an enclosure for living that its inhabitants become completely immersed within. The eye is then always drawn back to the outlook beyond.

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stretches out towards the ocean appeared first on Dezeen.

Movie: Julia Borghesi of design studio Hassell discusses the hybrid aesthetic of advertising agency Clemenger BBDO’s office in Sydney, which topped the office category at last month’s Inside Festival. 

Clemenger BBDO‘s Sydney office has an informal layout with open offices and meeting areas.

“We were given a brief to connect the teams together,” Borghesi says. “So we really wanted to focus on the people and the work that they produce.”

“There are areas for relaxation, there are areas for collaboration and there are areas for individual work.”

The client had a strong idea of what the office should look like, Borghesi says.

“Clemenger came to us with an ideal aesthetic, combining this industrial loft aesthetic with Scandinavian detailing,” she explains. “The space we ended up with quite nicely combines those two visual elements: the New York loft with Scandinavian design.”

She continues: “You can see [the loft influence] throughout the centre of the space. The timber panels on the ceiling, also the floorboards. The Scandinavian design really comes in through the loose furniture and the joinery detailing.”

The office features a large, open meeting area in the centre of the space.

“It becomes a pivotal point where the executive team from other areas of the building can actually congregate and strategise within the space,” she says. “It’s also a space that’s highly visible to the staff as well.”

Borghesi believes that creating an open office environment has been successful. “Every time I visit there, the energy and the vibe in the place is amazing,” she says. “It’s really inspiring.”

Photography by Nicole England.

This movie was filmed at Inside Festival 2013, which took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2 to 4 October. The next Inside Festival will take place at the same venue from 1 to 3 October 2014. Award entries are open February to June 2014.

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Australian studio Tony Hobba Architects sourced weathered steel piles that had previously been used as flood barriers to build this kiosk beside a surfers’ beach in Torquay, Australia (+ slideshow).

Entitled Third Wave Kiosk, the small structure was designed by Tony Hobba Architects to provide changing rooms, toilets, a cafe, and a meeting point for the popular beach, and it is positioned in a prominent spot between the car park and the seafront.

The self-supporting sheet piles, which are typically used for constructing seawalls and piers, slotted together without any additional fixings to create large corrugated walls around the kiosk.

“The height and profile of the building has been designed to respond to the prevailing coastline undulations and windswept vegetation, and uses these natural inflections to inform its final folded appearance,” say the architects.

The rusted surface of the metal forms a weather-proof coating around the building that will protect it against erosion.

“These sheet piles have intentionally been left in their original condition to emphasise the reddish brown and yellow oxides of weathered steel and harmonise with the colour of the surrounding cliffs,” added the architects.

Although intended as a permanent facility, the structure has no fixed footings, so it could be easily dismantled and re-erected in a different location.

It is accompanied by an outdoor seating area and elevated lookout point, which features retaining walls made from the same sheet metal.

The kiosk was one of 38 projects recognised at the Australian National Architecture Awards last week, alongside a pointy artists’ studio in Japan and a Melbourne university building covered in scales.

Photography is by Rory Gardiner.

Here’s a project description from Tony Hobba Architects:

Third Wave Kiosk – The Esplanade, Torquay VIC

Central to the design of the Third Wave Kiosk is reverence for its environmental setting; engagement with beach culture; resilience to natural forces and energetic youths; and attention to modest and elegant simplicity.

The brief was to design a new public facility at Torquay Surf Beach that contained a new kiosk, toilets and change rooms that would be open year round, service an assortment of recreation users and provide an important beachside destination.

Due to the site’s high level of local, regional and international use throughout the year, together with its visual prominence along this section of coastline, the design of the project recognised the need to adequately service community, recreation and tourist requirements whilst sensitively integrating and respecting the local coastal environment and adhering to the Victorian Coastal Strategy.

The building is positioned adjacent to the nexus of pedestrian circulation, between the main car park and beach access path, to guarantee maximum foot traffic; and is visible from the beach and water’s edge as it gently emerges from the primary dune.

In order to engage beach goers, an elevated lookout and alfresco seating area (65m2) has been provided adjacent to the Kiosk which not only overlooks the beach but doubles as an easily identifiable landmark and meeting point. At only 20m2, the compact kiosk kitchen and servery caters for 1-3 staff depending on seasonal demand. A 25m2 service court out the back caters for additional storage, deliveries and a few empty milk crates keenly commandeered during smoko.

The height and profile of the building has been designed to respond to the prevailing coastline undulations and windswept vegetation, and uses these natural inflections to inform its final folded appearance. The form therefore takes on a sculptural quality which blends in with the surrounding environment and shrouds the utilitarian function of the working core.

This is accentuated through its use of coastally identifiable materials and colours by using recycled sheet piles typically used for seawall, bridge and pier construction to be the predominant exoskeleton and expression of the building. These sheet piles have intentionally been left in their original condition to emphasise the reddish brown and yellow oxides of weathered steel and harmonise with the colour of the surrounding cliffs.

This system of construction proved extremely efficient, both structurally and financially, as the sheet piles were used as permanent retaining walls for the alfresco terrace and lookout; provided permanent formwork for the building slab; and extended up as the primary structure and facade of the building. It appears that this is the first building in Australia to utilise the material in such a way, with the added bonus of reducing the projects embodied energy.

With sustainability and re-use integral to the outcome, the recycled sheet piles were procured from the 2010/2011 Victorian floods where they were last used for flood protection works along the Murray River to assist in mitigating the devastating water damage experienced by the local river communities during this extreme rain event.

Sustainability

Environmentally, the use of sheet piles for the project allowed for a system of construction which was extremely efficient, both structurally and financially, as they are self-supporting components which are linked together with no mechanical fixings and require no permanent footings. This allows the building to touch the ground lightly and be very easily dismantled and or re-erected if required.

The flexibility of the system also enabled the project to utilise the sheet piles as permanent retaining walls for the alfresco terrace and lookout; permanent formwork for the building slab; and as the primary structure and facade of the building; thus eliminating the need for a traditional two component sub-frame and cladding system.

With sustainability and re-use integral to the projects outcome, these recycled sheet piles procured from the 2010/2011 Victorian floods came with the added bonus of reducing the projects embodied energy.

Socially, the kiosk provides an important landmark and meeting point for the local community and services the growing number of tourists and recreational users that not only swarm to the coast during summertime, but right throughout the year due to its year round appeal.

Economically, the structural efficiency of the sheet pile system allowed for a project with a limited budget to be appropriately and innovatively completed, on time and on budget, and in the manner befitting such a unique location. It also provides employment for 1-3 staff and has a tenancy dedicated to sourcing regional produce in order to reduce its food miles.

Consultant Team Details
Architectural Practice: Tony Hobba Architects
Project Team: Michael Lucas, Tony Hobba, Jordan Wright
Client: GORCC (Great Ocean Road Coastal Committee)
Builder: Philip Jessen
Structural Engineer: Harrington Gumienik & Partners
Hydraulic Engineer: Peter Tibballs & Associates
Electrical Engineer: Dick Twentyman & Associates

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