Indice dei contenuti per Issue 129 August 2019 in Houses

After a long deliberation over this year’s commended projects, the jury agreed that The Garden Bunkie by Reddog Architects deserved the Sustainability award. This small building, akin to a granny flat, is called the “bunkie” in reference to the name given to humble Ontario guest cottages. Beautifully detailed and designed, the light-filled building connects intimately to the garden, providing a flexible space that could be a quiet retreat for a new parent, an evening workspace or a guesthouse for extended family. The Garden Bunkie was awarded for its modesty, and for its use of timber and simple materials to produce an affordable outcome that makes both a social and ecological statement. In particular, the jury commended the project team for designing around existing trees and connecting the dwelling to the…

NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M² NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M2 HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² APARTMENT OR UNIT GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE SUSTAINABILITY HOUSE IN A HERITAGE CONTEXT EMERGING ARCHITECTURE PRACTICE REGISTRATIONS FOR THE 2020 HOUSES AWARDS WILL OPEN IN JANUARY 2020. HOUSESAWARDS.COM.AU…

There is something exciting about architects designing their own houses and unsettling the established triumvirate of visionary client, inspired architect and accomplished builder. And where better to practise this rare form of architecture than Castlecrag, on the lower North Shore of Sydney. Once home to Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, who designed their own house there after planning the entire suburb, Castlecrag and its environs has hosted a rollcall of adventurous house-building architects – there are houses designed by Hugh Buhrich, Paul Frischknecht, Donald Maclurcan, and Bill and Ruth Lucas, to name a few, and a Gordon M. Jenkins house that is undergoing a renovation by Peter Tonkin and Ellen Woolley. The Seed House, fashioned by James Fitzpatrick for his family, is the latest addition to the Castlecrag architectural…

One of the challenges for architects working with vernacular housing in the subtropical city of Brisbane is finding suitable ways to adapt the Queenslander. Jade Myers and William Ellyett, directors at Brisbane-based architecture studio Myers Ellyett, attempt to bridge the divide between what this historic housing type satisfies and what contemporary living culture demands through their experimentations with courtyard houses. New Farm Park House, their most significant project to date, reconciles opposing types – the 1920s Queenslander pavilion and contemporary courtyard – through the creation of a walled garden. The clients expressed their wants and needs in common terms: they required a new deck and laundry. But the architects were keen to delve deeper and adopt a holistic approach to site intervention that would do justice to the generous 746-square-metre…

Lindy Atkin Lindy Atkin is a co-director of Bark Architects, established with Stephen Guthrie in 1997. As a councillor for the Australian Institute of Architects’ Queensland chapter from 2012 to 2017, Lindy was an active member of the Regional Affairs Committee and was the creative director, with Stephen, for the Institute’s 2016 regional architecture conference, Evoke. Lindy and Stephen have been invited to present numerous lectures in Australia and around the world. John Choi John Choi is a partner of Chrofi. In 2012, John was nominated for the Iakov Chernikhov Prize and in 2014, he was runner-up in the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney, is a member of the New South Wales State Design Review Panel and serves on the…

This house, located on a west-facing slope in a eucalyptus forest with filtered views to Guerilla Bay, is a shared retreat between friends. The project is an exemplary response to the landscape and brief, executed with utility, clarity and rigour. The spatial arrangement is set up by a compact footprint over two floors, rotated to the contours. The rotation opens up the living areas toward the sun and provides three key site connections: an entry court, a balcony at the highest point and a lower court. These set up a diagonal sequence of interior spaces that offer many compelling opportunities to engage with the site, achieved while working to a tight footprint and a disciplined tectonic order. Combined with the operability of the envelope and raw materiality, these design moves…

Set atop a gentle knoll on the edge of a riverbank, Brisbane Riverbank House is an addition to an existing home for a car collector who asked for a dwelling that would enable a simple way of living, with spaces for family and friends to enjoy together. The house features two large courtyards that are finely calibrated in response to the site and the levels that organize the plan. The riverside courtyard is a level lawn courtyard with social spaces around it, all of which overlook the river. Diverse living spaces, indoor and outdoor, offer different functions and experiences. The street-side courtyard is a large entry court that is precisely depressed and outlined. It deftly accommodates vehicular movements and storage while offering a quiet integrated setting for the existing house.…

Balmain Rock excels for its human scale, and for the warmth and tactile qualities that Benn and Penna Architecture has added to the tiny 1860s sandstone cottage. The additions have been carved off an archetypical gabled shelter volume; light wells and balconies have been sculpted off the solid mass to great effect. The light is soft, and the juxtaposition of new and old materials is magical, paired with the warmth of the old sandstone and sandstock bricks and the calm and robust slate floor and concrete. What is most satisfying is the respect that the additions offer to the original cottage. The new living spaces seem to gaze admiringly toward the old stones and intimate sharing of everyday living occurs around the linking courtyard.There is intergenerational admiration between the cottage…

When EME Design director Luke Middleton was approached to extend a heritage-listed home in Armadale in Melbourne’s south-east, he relished the opportunity. The home’s interiors weren’t fit for living in terms of being functional or accommodating, so the priority was to create an abode that offered comfortable living spaces and efficient planning. Given EME Design’s strong commitment to sustainability, it was also important that the project comply with passive house standards. In conceiving the extension, the designer’s greatest challenge involved optimizing solar access to the home’s south-facing rear and the solution came via the incorporation of an asymmetrical butterfly roof. Striking in its architectural form, the roof pertinently allows the winter sun into the heart of the home, while also providing shade in summer. Within the extension is an open-plan…

Can you recall the images of architecture that first left a lasting impression on you? For me, there are three: Magney House by Glenn Murcutt (1984), House in Nipponbashi by Waro Kishi (1992) and Ooi House by Kerry Hill (1997). These modern minimal images persist in my memory despite my own distance from the works. Each project is a specific, highly refined response to constraints and local conditions; but I propose that there is an openness within images of these projects – filled with the viewer’s own imagined experiences – that defies the stasis of their photography. The Ooi House, which is listed on the Australian Institute of Architects’ register of nationally significant architecture, was reportedly never occupied by the commissioning client. For me, family camping trips in and around…

01 Francis table French design house Petite Friture’s distinctive Francis table references colour billowing off the tip of a paintbrush dipped in water. Petite Friture released two versions of the Francis table in Milan, one in black with violet tones and one in white with hues of yellow and green. petitefriture.com 02 Fat Tulip sofa Nau presented its Fat Tulip sofa, designed by Adam Goodrum, at Local Milan – an exhibition featuring the work of forty-four designers from Australia and New Zealand. A modern take on the traditional club chair, the Fat Tulip sofa features strong intersecting curves. cultdesign.com.au 03 Zigzag suspension lamp Australian designer Jason Bird has created a sound-absorbing suspension lamp for Italian manufacturer Panzeri. The lamp is intended to improve acoustic quality in open spaces. The Zigzag…

NEW HOUSE UNDER 200 M² NEW HOUSE OVER 200 M² HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION UNDER 200 M² HOUSE ALTERATION AND ADDITION OVER 200 M² APARTMENT OR UNIT GARDEN OR LANDSCAPE SUSTAINABILITY HOUSE IN A HERITAGE CONTEXT EMERGING PRACTICE SEE MORE, VISIT HOUSESAWARDS.COM.AU/GALLERY…

As is the case with all terrace house alterations, this project presented the age-old design challenge of maximizing space and light on a tight and narrow inner-city block. Efficient planning comes into play, but it is the varied and eventful journey through this house that gives it a greater sense of spaciousness than its physical size would allow. By creating distinct spaces of varying character, architect Taylor Knights has delivered a house that leaves a multifaceted impression on its visitors, creating an illusion of a house much bigger and bolder than its 145-square-metre area might suggest. The alteration to the existing, two-storey Victorian terrace is divided into two distinct zones: the private ground-floor retreat and the open living space above. A roof terrace also sits atop the house. Though portions…

The project that would become Oak House was first drawn up in 2013. Anticipating the possibility of a long planning approval process for alterations and additions to their double-fronted Victorian terrace home, the clients began working with Kennedy Nolan well before they would be in a position to start construction on the project. Things moved forward faster than expected and, months later, the drawings were ready but the clients were not. Capitalizing on this protracted design phase, Kennedy Nolan has worked closely with its clients to make a series of bold but thoughtful additions to the existing dwelling that reflect a deep knowledge of existing conditions and sensitivity to changing family dynamics. The house is a careful balance between bold, almost postmodern, geometric forms, and a series of subtle, site-specific…