Water is a precious element in residential architecture, almost an essential element for happiness. In Islamic architecture water is used as a balm to restless minds and is often found in psychiatric hospitals. This justifies our manic search of waterfronts, beachfronts, harbourfronts, lakefronts and riverfronts for to settle in.
Water is also a divisive element; it creates a barrier or forms a border, such as the moats that surrounded mediaeval castles, or the swimming pools of today. Australian swimming pools in particular create barriers that not just inexperienced swimmers but ones that all residents must face owing to a strict pool fencing code.
A tight inner-city site, and a workers cottage with a heritage overlay was challenged by the Owner’s brief to provide a long-term family home for themselves and 2 sons. A love of sport and the outdoors drove the open plan living spaces that connect seamlessly to outdoor areas. Local bedrock required the pool to sit above ground, and created an opportunity to design out the need for a pool fence thus maximising outdoor space. There was a clear direction for bold interiors and use of materials with a punch of yellow amongst the black and grey is a nod to Melbourne’s footy culture, while a large centralised island bench rounds out the owners love of food and entertaining. This is a house that fits every aspect of Melbourne life!
Located within an inner city suburb dotted with Victorian terrace houses, Falconer Street Residence alteration addition seeks an outlet for the owner to be with the landscape. With minimal yet clever intervention to the interior layout, new kitchen dining and home office embrace the garden and the bluestone laneway at the side. In the seemingly small home office, a frameless corner window carves a quaint view of the garden and gives a perception of spaciousness. Seasons are invited into the house, the workplace of the owner and her staff, telling the transient of time as well as the temper of Melbourne weather. Fine lines, pared down details, paired with earthy and robust materiality strike a balance between form and function calmly marrying the old and new with the garden.
A simple palette of honest, natural, warm and unadorned materials provides a backdrop to family life – art, gatherings, music, engagement. The grey of concrete, warmth of timbers and simple painted white surfaces are punctuated by bright colours in furnishings and artwork.
Interlocking linear forms step down the sloping site, with simple concrete block fin walls separating the spaces. The masonry blade walls run from inside to out, seamlessly cutting through continuous floor to ceiling walls of glass.
The extensive refurbishment of this Queen-Anne style home restored original rooms and added a new steel living, dining and kitchen pavilion. The stair was relocated to the centre of the house where it could draw in light and a strong graphic palette was used to connect new and old spaces. Description of project The brief was to rework the planning and interiors of a beautiful heritage home in Sydney’s Centennial Park. The strategy included relocating the stair and adding a contemporary steel structure at the rear.
Plumbers house by Finnis Architects, is a bold and unashamedly modern statement on a suburban street in Strathmore, Melbourne.
Located North of Melbourne’s CBD, the Plumbers house manages to capture the clients desire for a modern design, becoming a prominent statement to the streetscape in a growing area of Melbourne. The attention to detail seen both internally and externally throughout the entirety of the building perhaps sets the tone for the future Architectural style of the area which encapsulates the essence of family living.
Highbury Grove is defined by a street frontage of uniform federation style cottages set in orthogonal rows and folded in amongst leafy suburban gardens.
The project was required to deal with the heritage street frontage and a lane way to the northern side of the property. The project responds by creating an architectural envelope that orientates to the north whilst providing privacy to the public laneway.
‘Hidden Studio’ sits amongst the trees on a 20 acre property at Coopers Shoot. This is part of a rural ridgeline that looks over the scoop of ocean that is Byron Bay. The owners, Steve and Colleen, have lived on the property for 22 years. Their existing home and writers cabin on the same property was designed by Ian Mckay, the accomplished ‘Sydney School’ architect who sadly passed away in 2015. We had spent a bit of time with Ian in his later years and the starting point for the design was to respect and learn from the existing structures he had designed on the site. The primary house and writers cabin had a clarity of structure with the repetition of expressed portal frames forming the skeleton for a ‘linear plan’. This informed the beginning of our design process.
A deep engagement with the expansive and undulating rural context of the house was the starting point for the design of the Lauriston house, with a design response that simultaneously buries into and leaps from the hilly landscape near Kyneton Victoria. The geometrically aligned rows of olive trees set against a voluptuous landscape evoke a quiet, unspoken tension. The house mimics this tension with the relationship of a meticulously detailed and structured frame against a seemingly effortless floating, sinuous roof. Inspiration for the material palette was taken from local materials and textures. Messmate timber linings follow the twists of the expressive ceiling, complimented by wide Messmate flooring and French pattern bluestone inspired by the colonial footpaths of Piper Street in nearby Kyneton. The home respects and enhances its environment, offering prospects of retreat and respite, an evocative place for gathering.
This project is for modest yet highly detailed alterations and additions to an existing detached weatherboard Edwardian residence with a rear Western aspect in Camberwell, Victoria. As well as the proposed living area additions, the brief called for the upgrading of existing bath rooms, wardrobes, improved internal circulation, the provision of a swimming pool, and landscaped utility areas.
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