ArchShowcase Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Elwood Residence in Victoria, Australia by b.e architectureApril 18th, 2022 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: b.e architecture Our Ruskin Street Residence was designed for one of the now adult children of one of our earliest residential commissions over twenty-five years ago. While smaller than our usual projects it is a very special outcome that is very representative of the sentiments behind many of our projects. The front six rooms of the Edwardian heritage listed terrace was retained and extensively renovated to a new house standard. Rooms were reorganised to accommodate three bedrooms with bathrooms and robes, the existing details modified to accolade the new layouts as if they had always been there.
The rear extension is a contains the family living area with a kitchen and dining room looking over a sunken living room. The living room was lowered with a wraparound storage unit / seat creating a ledge for lamps and speakers or a seat under the window. To access the garden, one steps up onto a roughhewn stone Boulder set into timber floor to access the ledge. While this may seem awkward it is part of the conversations around the palette of materials that are at the heart of the design. The rear windows are framed by two massive raw timber beams that were cut from a 70-year-old Cyprus tree that create a sentiment of structure and a notion of the awareness of the passage of time not unlike the heritage details of the heritage building. The walls are painted in a flat cement paint with a high concentration of sharp sand that gives a rough textured finish to the avocado-coloured walls and ceiling. The kitchen benchtops are tiled in a small handmade Japanese tile from Ardedomus finished with epoxy grout giving the surface the usability required for the benchtop application. Certain materials like the black wood flooring and the Japanese tiles used on the reworking of the corner fireplace, used to create a link or notion of continuity while maintaining the two distinct personalities of the old and the new. The furniture curated for the project is eclectic and relaxed, selected to sit quietly in the room. Like many of our larger jobs, there are a number of items that were designed and made for the project. These range from a simple folded brass ledge under a 1960s Italian brass mirror in the style of Gio Ponti to the round insitu concrete dining table in the rear garden. Contact b.e architecture
Categories: House, Residential |