I designed the Couldrey House for a member of my family in Australia (completed Jan 2020). The house takes an unusual approach to making residential architecture in the Australian landscape. Many houses there tend to hover over the ground with lightweight materials which need re-coating and replacement. I instead designed Couldrey House to spring directly from the subterranean rock and to be made of heavy materials lasting a very long time. The house continues the local tradition of catching cooling breezes with good aspect and a permeable layout, but boosts this with passive radiant cooling from thermal mass; almost unheard of in houses of sub-tropical Australia.
Situated on a sloping site in the leafy inner-city suburb of Paddington in Brisbane, Onyx is grounded on a modest 404 metre square lot that is characteristic of the local area. Despite the moderately small sized parcel of land on which it sits, the dwelling feels much more generous when experienced from an internal perspective. The sloping nature of the site also posed a challenge throughout the design and build of the project.
The leafy suburb of Indooroopilly, located in Brisbane’s west, enjoys a gently rolling terrain with and large swathes of remnant bushland. Its proximity to the burgeoning University of Queensland and connected by rail to the city saw the suburb become very popular in the immediate post war period with generous housing blocks affording an ideal garden suburb lifestyle, and it attracted many of the city’s younger professionals and academics at the time. Many of the houses were designed by architects and notwithstanding the post war constraints on house sizes, ceiling heights and materials, many of these houses illustrated an inventiveness and quality of design which distinguishes the character of the suburb. An existing architect designed, weatherboard and terracotta tiled roof house, relatively modest in size, but well considered in it’s siting, planning and quality of construction, had served previous generations of the young family who now inhabited the house. Set on a large half acre block, the house and garden that had evolved, apart from its size offered many of the best attributes for an ideal contemporary sub-tropical lifestyle. However modern living demanded more space, not only to better accommodate cars and storage, but also separate study, play, guest and entertainment spaces along with the need to generally upgrade the interiors and their connection to more generous outdoor living areas and provide new kitchen, bathroom and laundry areas.
Starting life as a small workers cottage on a sloping site at Paddington, Brisbane – this home was in desperate need of some TLC. Our clients wanted to take the big step of moving closer to the city after spending many years in the suburbs. Their brief was to create a home that included spaces for themselves and their older children, but also to create a connection between the home and the outdoors with space for entertaining.
Originally, the site presented as a triangular parcel of land apologetically wedged between grand, sweeping residences in a leafy suburban street in Teneriffe. A poorly constructed “character house” sat awkwardly on the site, accessed from the smallest frontage. Beyond the house was a dramatic, sheer cliff with views over the river to the North East.
Our Client’s brief was to restore the house and accommodate a family of seven; however the existing house was in poor condition and could not be raised or lifted. An unorthodox solution lay in utilising the sliver of land between the existing house and clifftop. Thankfully, the question “Would you like to build a three-storey extension to the boundary on a crumbling clifftop?” captured our Client’s sense of imagination and Clifftop House emerged on pieces of yellow trace.
The house is designed to maximise flexibility for a grown family with great access to sunlight and a myriad of spaces for gathering or private reflection.
Nestled amongst the natural beauty of Bardon and offering city views from the front, this home has been designed to accommodate the lay of the land. The structure terraces down the steep sloping site, minimising the visual impact on the neighbours and streetscape.
Coorparoo House carefully negotiates a sloping site and captures views of the city skyline and a swathe of Eucalypts to create a custom dwelling in tune with its surroundings.
The Melbourne Residences, is a 20 storey building consisting of 200 units in Brisbane’s Southbank. It contains retial and rooftop club including gym, pool, cinema and dining room. The tower plan is driven by the desire to maximise the oblique views from the units to the river and CBD. This results in a stepping form which maximises the number of units with access to the East. We derived inspiration from the ripple patterns created by the wind. This ripple orders the stepping of the façade reflecting the interplay of the environment on the façade. The tower has a unique undulating façade which ranges from zero to 4m. These facades contain operable glass screens to create wintergardens. These wintergardens provide a second skin to maximise thermal efficiency and reduce energy use. Melbourne street is becoming a fashionable retail address. We designed a 4 storey retail façade. Retail connects the street via a through site link to Fish Lane which is being revitalised by art installations and cafes as a bohemian centre. The clients brief was to create a superior residential address and activate the street with world class retail.
Article source: Studio 15b – Architecture + Interior Design
Inspired by an enthusiastic client passionate about colour, Inertia Engineering’s office fit-out is bright and on-trend. Copper accents provide warmth to the corporate white-blue colours that were derived from the company logo. The reception area is flanked by a curved concrete rendered wall that leads you into the custom designed meeting room and further into the spacious open plan office. The curve of the meeting room softens the harsh angles prominent in the space while encouraging a ‘round table’ approach to meetings. Much thought went into the spatial planning of this existing office space in order to compliment the team work flow while providing a generous and practical break out space for employees. A whole wall was dedicated to storage for stationery, archiving and servers which is cleverly disguised by graphical sliding doors with a centrally located functional utility space. The breakout space is framed by timber screening and houses a functional kitchen that provides plenty of storage for individuals and a high bar for informal gatherings. Comfortable upholstered occasional ottomans are scattered in the corner while outdoor ottomans encourage use of the long balcony. Combining the client’s daring attitude to colour with our expertise ensured a successful outcome that will encourage productivity in this functional and bright work place.
This home was built in the 1950’s and over the years passed down the generations of the one family. Since originally built, the home had been altered in an ad-hoc way, and so the time had come for it to be stripped back to basics, raised and built-in and under for today’s modern lifestyle of the current family needs. This allowed Studio 15b to work with a clean slate which enabled us to re-orientate the spaces to best suit the northern rear aspect – creating the distinct sculptural M roof form.
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