We were approached by a bachelor who had just bought a penthouse apartment in an upmarket suburb of Sydney’s East. The apartment occupied the entire top floor of a 1940’s building and had great views over Sydney harbour. On the downside it was not very well laid out and the living area was small. The connection of the living area as well as access to the large terrace was also not ideal.
The extension is an example of responsible rationalisation of a typical suburban house which offers a stimulating environment and demonstrates environmentally sustainable design.
The project is located on a 740m2 site in Kew. The existing house whilst generously sized lacked a clear thought-out plan. The land fell 5.5m over its length and further aided to dysfunctional arrangement of spaces. The brief required a rearrangement of spaces to better cater for the young family, relating each space to the outside world.
The site is located in a heritage conservation area that is fiercly protected by Leichhardt council. Being in one of the few streets in the Inner West Sydney that are still largely original in their streetscape, any alteration or addition was bound to be somewhere between controversial and impossible.
Being only about 100m2 in size, the existing free-standing house was far too small for its intended use as a home for a young family with children. The only way to accommodate the intended brief was to build a two storey addition, something that did not exist in the area.
Our practice was approached by a client interested in purchasing a neglected warehouse in a run down but up-and-coming area of Surry Hills, south of Sydney’s CBD, to accommodate a growing PR company. Following an inspection and a quick concept design the client decided to purchase the property and commission ROD for the fitout.
In 2011 we were approached by a client we had built a house for to design the new office for his company. In his opinion the house we had designed for him is still “the best house in the world” and he expected nothing less for his new office fit out. Indeed the only design brief other than the number of workstations to be accommodated was that it had to be “funky”.
The client had just purchased the site, a small but stunningly located oceanfront property with panoramic views of the Pacific, when they were introduced to me. As I had just gone out on my own after many years as Associate Director at a successful mid-size firm I didn’t have much to show that I could prove as “my own”. After a detailed selection process the client chose to engage me for the design of their new house, probably based on a lot of trust in my ability and the fact that we got on very well on a personal level.
This soon-to-be-built project resulted from a design competition to conceive a new ferry terminal suite in the wake of the devastating 2011 Brisbane floods.
The aim of the project was to see if it were possible to design a flood-resilient ferry terminal to replace the 20 destroyed by the impact of water pressure and of debris crushing against the gangways and piles of the former terminals.
The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre Expansion (BCEC on Grey) is responsible for the engagement of one artist to conceive and create a narrative of works which enrich the experience from the street right through the internal public spaces of such a large and significant public building.
This narrow private house demonstrates what can be achieved on the myriad of ‘left-over’ spaces in inner cities, such as disused easements or parking lots. In this case, a 3 metre wide tiny caretaker’s cottage, adjoining a Heritage Hall has been recycled and linearly extended into a family house for parents and two children.
The designers and owners Casey and Rebekah Vallance, two young talented architecture graduates who had topped their year at the University of Queensland, fell in love and married, bought the cheap, redundant lot in 2003.
The West End Ferry Terminal is a small project that was designed to simultaneously generate a new typology for Brisbane’s Citycat Terminals and act as a sheltered social gathering space at the end of one of Brisbane’s historic riverfront parks, one endeared in the hearts of the West End community.
As a result, the whole conception of the terminal was subject to many community consultation events, most originally opposing removal of an existing brick post-war facility which had insurmountable CEPTED issues.
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