Projects
Architecture
Temple, North Portugal
Nicholas Burns
06.03.19
Nicholas Burns' just completed Temple is a private chapel on a wooded and rocky outcrop in the hills in Northern Portugal.
As well as the architecture and landscape the chairs, altar and candle holders are all Burn's designs and made by local craftspeople.
The candles themselves were made by Nicholas's 13 year old son. While the historical apse piece came from a ruin and was painstakingly rebuilt/restored by Portuguese woodworkers.
Architecture
2018 NGV ARCHITECTURE COMMISSION DOUBLEGROUND BY MUIR + OPENWORK
Muir Architecture
18.02.19
Melbourne firm MUIR architecture and landscape architecture studio OPENWORK present a collage of dramatic structural landscapes for the 2018 NGV Architecture Commission, inspired by key architectural elements of Sir Roy Grounds iconic NGV International building.
The winning proposal entitled Doubleground draws from the façade forms, timber linings and internal courtyards of Grounds’ 1960s design, resulting in a multi-level installation that offers new vistas and perspectives for visitors to experience the NGV Garden.
Doubleground includes an evocative passageway, which references the triangular patterns of the NGV’s roof and glass wall of the Great Hall. It also features a brick-paved area that recalls the patterning of Grounds’ slatted timber design for the Gallery foyer and a bamboo garden inspired by the building’s original Bamboo Court courtyard.
Doubleground was selected as the winning concept for the 2018 NGV Architecture Commission for its collaborative and multi-disciplinary design approach, which promotes the positive relationship between architecture, landscape and civic space.
The NGV Architecture Commission is an annual open competition, which asks architects to consider innovative ways to activate one of Melbourne’s great civic spaces, the NGV’s Grollo Equiset Garden, with a thought-provoking work of temporary architecture. The NGV Architecture Commission Design Competition process was developed and delivered by CityLab.
Architecture
William Lane Warehouse
BENNETT AND TRIMBLE
18.02.18
The conversion of a inner city warehouse into a private residence for a young couple in Sydney. A pitched roof added to the original warehouse in the 1980’s is removed and replaced with a double height volume that forms the new living spaces for the residence. A lift core is placed in the entrance courtyard and stepped to accommodate service areas on the levels above.
The facades of the new elements are clad in black metal to contrast with the original brickwork of the warehouse and to create a distinct mute volume that mediates between the low rise buildings of Woolloomooloo and the 12 storey commercial buildings to the south of the William Lane. New windows on the northern facade are consolidated into one large opening with broad fixed louvres providing solar protection and privacy between the residence and the neighbouring houses.
The program of the house is distributed over 5 levels with the garage, art storage and a private gallery on the ground level, a guest suite on level 1, the master suite on level 2, the living and dining areas on level 3 and an outdoor entertaining area on the roof terrace. A four storey library conceals a private study, a small courtyard and utility room.
The new and existing structures are supported and braced by a four storey steel tower that is inserted into a new void at the eastern end of the building. Steel stairs and bridges sit within the bracing structure and provide circulation between the various levels and spaces. The rails of typical art storage racks are rotated vertically to allow the art stored on the ground floor to be slid between each level transforming the bracing structure into a theatrical fly tower that offers ever changing backdrops to the program of the residence.
Architecture
Compound House
March Studio
31.07.17
From March Studio:
While our Compound House is bound by concrete on three sides it does not present itself to the street as a fortress. Instead, the house is set back, offering an uninterrupted sloping field of native grasses to the streetscape. A copper screened upper floor allows obscured views of figured shadows within, and an angled garage door, eludes to being half open. When open, the door reveals uninterrupted views deep into the block, momentarily offering a tantalising view of the entire site and challenging the notion of the ‘back yard’ and private open space.
Architecture
Perimeter House
MAKE ARCHITECTURE
28.02.17
From MAKE Architecture:
Bound on all edges by a vibrant industrial context of brick factories, businesses and warehouses, the modest site for this new addition is a small island within what is a lively and active industrial precinct. With its existing heritage cottage at the site's northern end and its industrial use overlay, this new addition is driven by ideas of opportunistically working with the site's unusual and charged conditions. The potential was for a house that offered all the qualities of domesticity; refuge, seclusion and calm but that was bound by the unique characteristics of Abbotsford’s industrial history. These extreme site conditions carry through into a series of smaller moves and spaces that drive the entire scheme. At the scale of site, the form of the house can be understood as a perimeter condition; an expanded edge that sits hard up against the site boundary and in doing so, wraps and encloses the domestic program.
Architecture
Coogee House, Sydney, Australia
Chenchow Little
07.11.16
Chenchow Little's Coogee House is located on a steeply sloping corner block with panoramic views to the Pacific Ocean in Sydney, Australia. The site is exposed to strong ocean winds, salt spray and harsh sunlight. The dwelling was required to maximise views from the site whilst also providing privacy from the street and neighbours, with shaded internal and external living areas.
Architecture,Interiors
Lake Wendouree Residence
John Wardle Architects
30.10.14
From John Wardle Architects website:
This choreographed residence is an homage to the beautiful gardens of Ballarat.
It comprises a series of pavilions located within a landscape of varied garden types - formal, public, rambling, courtyard, and kitchen gardens. The differing gardens and landscaping provide a variety of outlooks from within the house, accentuated by changing light and seasonal coloration.
This house’s centre of gravity is the kitchen and generous central courtyard. The front pavilion is constructed of brick and overgrown with deciduous ivy which changes colour with the seasons. It reinterprets the tradition of the front hedge, so evident in the character of Ballarat.
As you sit in the dining room, the topography of the site has been altered so you sink into the site with grassed berms surrounding you. Our preoccupation with the landscape manifests itself again in the front window of the main living room which traces the outline of the lake and treeline in its frame to idealise the view.
A sitting room appears as a greenhouse with glass louvers making for a warmer interior.
This house grows with its landscape and garden surrounds.
Architecture
Kununurra Courthouse
TAG Architects and iredale pedersen hook architects
28.10.14
From Iredale Pedersen Hook's website:
The Kununurra Replacement Courthouse design interprets local physical qualities to capture the uniqueness of Kununurra in a building that is dignified and welcoming. The design re-introduces the value of the regional courthouse with a civic, landmark building that will represent the local community and promote the role of the courthouse as a centre for dispute resolution.
The building is designed and organised to engage with the immediate surrounding context and distant context, this connection is both visual and physical. From a distance the building is viewed in the context of Kelly’s Knob and Hidden Valley the roof form of our building creates an immediate dialogue while creating a variety of volumes for the interior spaces. The height of the roof is also carefully controlled to relate to the immediate adjacent buildings.
TAG Architects with iredale pedersen hook architects, architects in association.
Architecture
Melbourne School of Design University of Melbourne
John Wardle Architects & NADAAA
07.10.14
The new Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning building at the University of Melbourne has just been completed. I photographed over a winter's day featuring hail and driving rain...conditions i'd normally eschew, if only for my own comfort but there's a wonderful quality to the frail winter light. The building will be moved into soon and I'll be back to photograph it activated.
This just realised winning competition entry was for an environment to study the future of sustainable cities and places of inhabitation at Melbourne University.
Within this building the next generation of architects, urban planners, ecologists, builders and landscape architects will learn to work in a highly connected way.
The design, a collaboration between John Wardle Architects and Boston architecture firm NADAAA is driven by the idea that the building itself becomes built pedagogy and a broader studio environment.
Architecture
Burj Al Arab Dubai
14.04.14
Searching for Dubai images to fulful an image brief for OTTO, my New York agency I rediscovered this series of Burj Al Arab Dubai i'd photographed in 2009.
Architecture
Nan Tien Institute
31.01.14
Woods Bagot's underconstruction Nan Tien Temple in Wollongong NSW. Wonderful off-form tmber precast concrete panels trucked in from SA Precast. www.woodsbagot.com
Architecture
Fairfield Hacienda
MRTN Architects
20.01.14
From MRTN Architects:
On the fringe of Melbourne’s inner suburbs, this new family home sits in an established residential street of Victorian villas and Californian bungalows. From the footpath, the Fairfield Hacienda with its angled roof fits into the landscape of single-level homes, effortlessly picking up the street’s original pattern of hipped and gabled roof forms. A closer look however, reveals that this new house sits unusually behind a sunny, walled courtyard. This room without a roof, except for a sheltering courtyard tree, is an extension of the living and dining spaces that open onto it.
As with our commitment to ensure the Fairfield Hacienda preserves the flow of the streetscape, we’ve applied a similar fluidity to the concrete walls of the courtyard, which continue without interruption throughout the house’s main living areas. These walls remain unchanged except for the patina. Outside they are rough and weathered, but become polished and honed once inside. The space is covered with an undulating canopy of cedar, a warm blanket of timber.
From here, the more private areas of the house unfurl. The bedrooms are folded around an enclosed garden, a green lung that provides light and air into the centre of the house.
And yet, of all the wonderful and carefully considered materials that make up this home, one element could not be bought and affixed prior to moving in. It is, quite simply, time. As the Fairfield Hacienda and its occupants settle into the street, creepers and greenery will gradually claim the courtyard walls. A canopy will grow into a dappled roof and in the central garden, plants will provide convenient screening for the children from the parents.
Once this final element has taken root, Fairfield Hacienda will have achieved what its occupants wanted. A feeling of permanence. To create a home and become a part of the street and its ongoing history.
Architecture/Interiors
Carlton Apartment
Jean-Paul Rollo Architects
10.01.14
From Jean-Paul Rollo Architects:
This modern apartment, for a writer and his wife, is located at the edge of the Melbourne CBD, on a streetscape of Victorian terraces, in close proximity of the Carlton Gardens.
It is a purposeful expression of ideas of how the couple wish to live in their later years. It is about an intensive investigation of space management, of reconstructed space and how you use it. It is an exercise in understated luxury.
The building is a three storey tilt-panel concrete box from the early 1990s. It comprises a street level commercial tenancy and two apartments. The apartment occupies the middle level and has access to a large rooftop terrace providing views over the city and the Carlton roofscape.
East facing windows and balconies look directly into the canopy of a large plane tree. An internal north facing court drags northern light and sunshine into the apartment.
A decision was made early to strip the existing apartment back to its bare concrete fabric and start over with a brand new reconstruction of the spaces to be inhabited. The discovery of large structural concrete beams meant that in the spaces between ceiling heights were raised to three metres, adding to the sense of space and intense clarity required by the owners.
The material palette is restricted and rich: travertine slabs left unfilled and ungrouted for floors throughout and wall surfaces in bathrooms; white carrara marble for benchtops and American oak joinery. The travertine floors and walls were placed precisely in a grid that defines the entire space.
A large freestanding joinery element of American oak "inserted" beneath the concrete beams is employed as the main generator of the plan. The result is a column-free space divided only by the timber box. The box contains, to one side, kitchen cabinetry and storage, then wraps along one side of a wide hallway and helps enclose a walk-in robe and an ensuite bathroom. The oak box "floats" 20mm over the floor, as does the white carrara kitchen bench, which extends into the apartment's courtyard and was constructed as if to appear to have been carved from a single block of marble.
The two bedrooms are separated by a screen wall of full height sliding panels to help enclose or open the spaces as required. A three metre tall pivot door also helps enclose the second bedroom. A large library, of walnut, and a 4.8 m marble-topped storage unit were specially designed for the apartment.
Architecture/Interiors
Press Club and Projects
March Studio
28.11.13
With George Calombaris’s favourite painting as its starting point, March Studio has created a stately golden space for the new Press Club.
Architecture
Nannup Holiday House
iredale pedersen hook
15.11.13
The Nannup Holiday house forms part of a wandering path through the landscape from Perth to Nannup. This path dialogues with the landscape of intense forrest, meandering river and rolling hills, each experience is carefully choreographed to enrich the occupancy of the house. A Jeykll and Hyde experience of the landscape is carefully controlled through oscillating vertical (forest) and horizontal (horizon) openings and the contrast of grounded and floating experiences. While the exterior dialogues with the numerous fallen trees, the interior is revealed through a sequence of 'growth rings' coded and extruded in relation to the building program.
Architecture
Wood Marsh Aerials
Wood Marsh Architecture
06.11.13
Up early to overfly 9 Wood Marsh projects in one flight - RACV Torquay, Geelong Bypass, Weribee Mansion, Shadowfax Winery, Portsea House, Flinders House, Merricks North House, Port Phillip Winery and East Link
Architecture
Abedian School
CRAB Studio
08.10.13
Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University, Robina, Queensland
From CRAB Studio:
The building is a long, airy loft on two to three levels articulated y a series of ‘scoops’: defining structure-enclosures that can be used for casual meetings and ‘crit’ sessions. These line the central street that gently rises up the hilltop site. Advantage is taken of the east-west axis to clarify a very climate-controlled development of the north and south skins of the building.
The Abedian School of Architecture is CRAB’s second University building. As with their other work, the sociology of small, intimate groups within institutions, the value of casual overlay, the importance of the non-curricula moments – as well as a ‘sense of theatre’ runs through the project. The central ‘street’ is flanked by irregular ‘scoops’ – coves of structure that give character to the unfolding of the studios and study rooms. As befits a hot and sometimes sticky climate, the building is airy and folds over upon itself in a series of fan-like roofs and slits.
Architecture
Advanced Engineering UQ
HASSELL/Richard Kirk Architect
18.09.13
The Advanced Engineering Building (AEB) at the University of Queensland is a state-of-the-art engineering education building with flexible teaching and learning spaces.The multi-purpose building has the appropriate mix of learning, workplace and social areas. The building co-locates five key materials, science and engineering research centres and occupies a prime site overlooking the University lakes.
Hands-on learning is embraced through an engaging and collaborative education environment. Some spaces follow a 'design studio' model with well-considered learning tools that enhance the creative process.
The building integrates teaching and research laboratories in addition to large scale manufacturing and civil engineering research laboratories. It supports various hydraulic, wind, materials and structural and advanced form processing laboratories within its program. The building also aims to act as a 'live learning hub' for students who occupy the building.
AEB facilitates new teaching and learning spaces that accommodate the University's new curriculum. The building incorporates both passive and integrated sustainability initiatives with a targeted reduced energy consumption. HASSELL and Richard Kirk Architect in joint venture won the limited design competition for AEB.
Architecture
Noosa House
MORQ
26.06.13
Our design for the house negotiated a very steep densely forested site as well as tight planning controls. In response to such constraints, and to cater for the required generous program, the house was thought as a sequence of pavilions connected by a north-south circulation spine at their back.
This comb-like plan allowed for a sequence of independent interior spaces with large openings towards the bay and privacy from the street, while still preserving the existing trees found on site. Between the pavilions, terraces and outdoor spaces fill the gaps and bring family life close to the trees and the landscape.
The one-level East elevation – the circulation spine – consists of a continuous screen of timber battens. Concealed behind the vibrant skin of irregular geometry are small openings for cross ventilation, selected views and the main entry. Following the steep incline, the West facade is of two levels and consists of individual timber volumes with large openings towards the ocean and the bay. The site topography also presented the roof with a crucial visual role, as it can be seen when approaching the house from the street.
Almost hesitant to build in such pristine forested site, we aimed to generate a dialogue with the tones of the surrounding landscape through a careful selection of materials, which could give the house the ability to age and weather with the site. To this end, the house is entirely wrapped in Ironbark timber – vertical planking with open joints – creating an outer skin all around the building that is left to weather and oxidize alongside the bark of the surrounding trees. Similarly, the copper roof takes part in the aging process of the building towards the tones and shades of the forested hill.
Architecture/Hotels
La Plage du Pacifique Vanuatu
Kristin Green Architecture
13.06.13
Kristin Green of Kristin Green Architecture invited photographer Peter Bennetts to accompany her to La Plage du Pacifique, Vanuatu. The resulting photographs are anything but “in progress” documentation.
Green has bravely allowed Bennetts to present her work at it’s most vulnerable but revealing such strength of form that we can already imagine the finished work.
We see the bones, the inner working, the structure – the important business of architecture before the detailing of surfaces and slick styling. This is architecture at its rawest.
Bennetts’ own unique vision has captured a profound stillness in the half-completed buildings and surrounding landscape. Time has shifted to such a degree that past, present and future/birth, life and decay, merge in one. Light and form create striking compositions that, rather than a direct descriptor, are more evocative of place.
Green is also the architect responsible for the Spring Street Grocer mini-complex. To all her projects she brings a vitality, commitment to concept and a quirky sense of purpose, and this most recent collaboration with entrepreneur Con Christopoulos and photographer Peter Bennetts is no exception.
Architecture
Karri Loop House Margaret River
MORQ
13.06.13
Mature trees located in the middle of the site (a Karri and two Marris) played an essential part in shaping MORQ's project. The first part of the design process was spent in investigating the requirements for retaining these trees, as well as convincing the clients of their unique presence on an otherwise anonymous site. With the support of a renowned arborist, the decision was finally made to keep the trees. As a result, the house sits in between the tree-trunks and its outline defines two open courtyards of irregular shape. These embrace the trees and the surrounding landscape, around which family life occurs.
A tall window in the dining area and a periscope-like skillion in the master bedroom, celebrate the presence of the trees from within the house, framing views of both foliage and peeling trunks. These trees, their root systems and their unstable large branches presented a challenge to the build-ability of the house. We like to think of this project as a mutually beneficial development: where the building is designed to retain the trees, while the trees visually contribute to the quality of the inner space.
To protect the integrity of the shallow root-system a matrix of steel tripod footings was used: each of them had to be dug by hand, and repositioned every time a root was encountered, resulting in an irregular structural grid. These footings also raise the house off the ground and give it a somewhat temporary look.
Any part of the house footprint overlapping the root system would result in an uneven rainwater supply to the roots, which could cause a shock to the trees. Rainwater collected on the roof is therefore taken under the house, channelled into a trickling irrigation pipes and then evenly fed to the tree roots.
Lightweight construction seemed the most appropriate response to the existing trees requirements, however straw-bales were chosen as a preferred form of insulation. This decision required all perimeter walls to be prefabricated as ladder-frames and later assembled on site. It also resulted in unusually thick perimeter walls, seldom employed in timber framed buildings.
The house was mainly constructed out of timber, whose grain and texture inform both interior and exterior spaces. Wall linings use different grades of plywood: rough sawn, painted black on the outside, and sanded, clear-treated on the inside. The floor and ceilings are also in clear-treated plywood. The roof structure is resolved with Laminated Veneer Lumber beams, which are left exposed on the inside of the ceiling.
Architecture/Heritage
Maryborough Train Station
RBA Architects & Conservation Consultants
13.06.13
Maryborough Railway Station is one of the most significant railway heritage assets in Australia. Its conservation has recaptured the former grandeur of the station – not only ensuring its ongoing use, but also providing a means to engender broad public support for the conservation of other parts of the Victorian rail network.
In 2002 RBA Architects and Conservation Consultants was commissioned to prepare a Conservation Management Plan for this highly significant heritage place. Conservation was completed in 2012.
RBA's key objective was to restore the protective exterior of the building so as to prevent further deterioration of fragile interior fabric. A series of complex conservation measures were implemented across a range of traditional crafts and trades including; slatework, leadwork, traditional coloured render treatments, architectural terracotta and cast iron.
architecture
Little Brick Studio
MAKE ARCHITECTURE
13.06.13
Little Brick Studio
Squeezed into a tight space in inner city Melbourne, the Little Brick Studio is the second stage in a larger house renovation project. Our initial brief was to design a house that gave this family enough space to grow. With two energetic teenage boys to accommodate, the project was an exercise in squeezing suburban amenity into an urban site. Creating a discrete space has given this family a way to live in the inner city together and separately.
The 'Little Brick Studio' attempts to engage at the urban scale of the busy street (and brick buildings opposite), but is also sensitive to the smaller residential scale of the houses behind. Comprising a single garage and storage with a studio space above, the footprint of the building is minimised to reduce the spatial impact on the house and backyard. The angled roof form comes from a desire to reduce perceived mass from inside and also control garden overshadowing.
Rather than create another rear garage door turning its back on the street, the Little Brick Studio attempts to provide a positive contribution to the neighbourhood, treating it as a valued street address. The garage door is recessed and forms part of the fence language that wraps the base. The brick studio above hangs out over the street with a large window. The timber entry door gives the building a sense of address, with the projection blurring the public/private interface.
The 'Little Brick Studio' pays homage to the suburbs industrial past. The beautiful brick detailing in the area inspired the design, we wanted to make our own contribution to the brick texture of the suburb. Bricks protrude out by 90mm and slowly disappear into the wall, corners are carefully considered and brick cutting was minimised where possible.
The studio space has been designed as a flexible space that can change with family needs and takes on the idea of 'loose fit' in terms of sustainability. The space can be recycled over time depending on the owner’s needs. The large north window allows excellent sun penetration in winter and the existing plane tree provides shade protection in summer. Materials used have been selected for their durability and the thermal properties they bring. Solar access to the house and to existing properties has been carefully considered and maintained.
The initial brief asked for the provision of a space for the clients' two teenage sons but the flexible nature of the space means that it can also work as a home office, granny flat or guest room. The separate rear entry and relationship to the street also mean that the space could work well as a separate commercial or residential rental.
Melissa Bright
MAKE architecture
architecture
West Kimberley Regional Prison
TAG Architects and iredale pedersen hook architects
13.06.13
Waiting for the flight to Broome at Perth Airport I’m
acutely aware that fluoro-shirted, steel toe-capped boot wearing FIFO workers
outnumber polo-shirted photographers by a factor of about 1000 to 1. I grew up
in Perth, I’ve made this trip a couple of times but I’m a smart-casual outsider
to the mining boom. Instead I’m visiting the Western Kimberley Regional Prison.
For company I’ve alternated with iph’s Finn Pedersen and Adrian Iredale (shorts
and t-shirts, fetchingly accessorised with Akubra and Rip Curl hats
respectively) and TAG Architects Jurg Hunziker (who elects to go native with a
high-vis safety shirt – he vouches for its cooling properties). I visited the prison
first in the hot, hot, hot season to photograph it before it opened and later
in the wet, wet, wet season to document its first occupation by indigenous
prisoners.
In the rented Holden Commodore barrelling mostly east en
route to Derby we slow for lumbering Brahmin cattle crossing and the crocodile
infested Fitzroy River. Talk in the car turns to the Willare Bridge Roadhouse
and the quality of its corned-beef sandwiches and cryo-vac beef*. I silently wonder
if there’s a direct link between the fifty-metre long road trains we pass and
the voluptuous beef display in the Roadhouse. The corned-beef sandwiches are
good, the Roadhouse reminds me of the film ‘Wolf Creek’.
We pass the Boab Prison Tree about 7km from town. Just out
of sight behind the Prison Tree is the West Kimberly Regional Prison. Some
irony, but apart from featuring Boab trees and accommodating indigenous
prisoners they’ve nothing in common. The West Kimberly Regional Prison (WKRP)
does away with the existing paradigm of incarceration for aboriginal prisoners,
tackling the many issues with visionary resolve, a sensitive and deft architecture
and a deep understanding of the cultural and physical landscape of the
northwest.
One of the big ideas in the project is that prisoners are
allowed to have access to their families and Elders, their Lore and Culture,
and that they can develop skills that will enable them to gain employment upon
their release. On my second visit I saw guitar groups, sewing classes, computer
laboratories, commercial cooking classes and football training.
Forty-four small-scale buildings are scattered through a bushland
setting. The overall impression is one of a neatly-planned township with an
overt sensitivity to the Kimberley landscape. Roof-forms fold and undulate
across the site. Verandahs, breezeways and pavilions determine outdoor activity
space and provide deep shading to all buildings. With mean daytime temperatures
of 40° C and abject humidity I can attest to the pre-wet season climate as
cruel. Cyclones frequent the region; inundating the landscape and testing
structures.
Wallabies, goannas and the most amazing birdlife live in and
around the community. The eighty-odd Boab trees that have been relocated within
the interior landscape frame views, provide shade and give poignant meaning.
As a photographer it’s been a great privilege to accompany
the architects (TAG and iredale pedersen hook in association) on these journeys,
to meet the corrections officers and be overwhelmed by their commitment and
understanding of the prisoners, and to meet many of the prisoners themselves
and see the hope that prisoners stand to leave prison with much more than when they
entered.
This is an exemplary and quietly beautiful project that does
a lot of good.
*The photographer and the architects carried cryo-vac beef
back to Perth.
Architecture/Interiors
Park House Hawthorn
Leeton Pointon Architects
13.06.13
The 2013 Australian Interior Design Awards were announced in Melbourne on 31 May. Congratulations to Leeton Pointon Architects and Alison Pye Interiors for taking both the Residential Design and Interior Design Excellence and Innovation categories.
The approach was to seamlessly integrate all elements of the interiors, architecture, furnishings, decoration and landscape into Park House. The setting was carefully considered in the design of the interior, which sits quietly with the architecture, materials and landscape of the project. Organic shapes, curved soft-plastered walls, appropriate textures and finishes, practicality and sustainability are inherent to the house, and are complemented by the artworks. The palette and detailing are restrained, and were chosen with respect to materiality. Subtle nuances differentiate each space and its use, from the more robust and relaxed approach in the kids’ living space through to more refined selections in the “good room.” Seamless transitions throughout the various interior spaces, as well as between the internal and external spaces, are always maintained. Skylights have been used to wash walls with light from above. Furniture, curtains, rugs, lighting, artwork and decorative items were selected for each space with a focus on softness in form and finish, and comfort and integrity in design. Items such as the front-door handles, glass display cabinet and tapware were custom made for the project. The aim was to create a comfortable, inviting and liveable family home.
Source: Artichoke – May 2013 (Issue – Awards Special)
Architecture/Interiors
Toorak Extension
Michael Jan Studio/MBA Design Group
29.05.13
Our client required an extension to an existing 80′s house. We were required to retain the bedroom wing, the pear lined pedestrian entry point, drive in forecourt and the outline of the building to this forecourt which included a double garage entry.
The design is bespoke to the lifestyle and needs of our client.
Architecture/Interiors
Paddington Terrace
BENNETT AND TRIMBLE
15.05.13
A major internal renovation to the ground floor of a terrace house in the heritage conservation area of Paddington. The internal area of the ground floor is expanded and rationalised with the introduction of a glazed roof over the existing courtyard. A continuous timber joinery element forms a multipurpose storage element to the living, dining and kitchen areas and a screening device to the entry hall. A new polished concrete slab reflects light from the new glazed void to increase interior lighting levels and forms a platform within the terrace on which the new elements are arranged.
Architecture/Interiors
Spring St Grocer
Kristin Green Architecture
07.03.13
The Spring Street Grocer complex is a worthy finalist in the 2013 eat-drink-design awards. Enjoyment of the delicious food and drink on offer is enhanced by the bold design features which are apparent in every aspect of this of establishment. Kristin Green of KGA has given consideration to every surface, space and curvaceous shelf. Colours as bright as the organic veggies on offer pop against stone and timber fixtures. Downstairs in the cheese room, the integration of motifs continues. The more than passing reference to the Greek heritage of the owners is a whimsical and quirky delight.
Architecture
Brookfield Place, Perth
Hassell
10.01.13
Brookfield Place has redefined the Perth city skyline. Located at 125 St Georges Terrace, the commercial tower is now home to BHP Billiton. As well as including a retail and food and beverage precinct, this new civic space incorporates a number of the city's most historically significant heritage buildings. It provides an exciting backdrop for bars, restaurants and cafes, along with high end shopping.
HASSELL has been actively involved in designing a public realm that is an inviting and memorable part of the city fabric. Celebrating the modern and historical nature of the site, the public realm bridges the gap between the two creating a series of spaces that compliment the nature of the surrounding built environment.
High quality paving, furniture and finishes throughout the site provide a welcoming environment for pedestrians together with trees that provide shade between the tower lobby and the heritage buildings.
The heritage courtyards connect all the lower levels of the heritage buildings into a series of high quality alfresco spaces, sheltered from the wind and sun. The podium level and ground floors of the heritage buildings are connected by a series of light-weight linking bridge elements that add to the dynamic and original quality of the space. Open plaza spaces and proposed artwork elements encourage activity and add vibrancy to the site.
Architecture/Interiors
House Boone Murray
Tribe Studio
12.11.12
This 1920s bungalow in North Randwick has been updated to suit a young family. A 70s renovation has been carefully removed from the original house, and a new brick addition has been added. The existing house is highly decorative to the street: it is rendered and modelled with some complex corbelling and fretwork. In contrast, the sides of the house are completely utilitarian face brickwork. This face brickwork treatment has been extended into a rear-yard addition housing the living spaces of the house and connecting with the garden. Framed by irregular openings, the garden views develop a new decorative language for the rear elevation.
Architecture/Interiors
Apartment Gregory
Tribe Studio
10.10.12
This apartment has been redesigned to address its incredible view north over Bronte Beach. The plan has been fully reconfigured to create a two bedroom, two bathroom flat with a generous living space and study. The materials palette takes its cues from the beach setting with a concrete floor and oak joinery.
Architecture
Australian Synchrotron - National Centre for Synchrotron Science
Bates Smart
21.09.12
The Australian Synchrotron is a high technology research facility that uses light as a medium for exploration and discovery. Bates Smart's design took its cues from the Synchrotron's scientific purpose, but this rational endeavour is expressed through an evocative, near-magical manipulation of light for architectural and atmospheric ends. Acrylic panels infuse the internal space with ethereal colour. Skylights meanwhile are placed around the perimeter of the building, steeping natural light through the walls and lending the building a constantly shifting, radiant translucency.
Architecture
Paddington House
Anthony Gill Architects
21.09.12
Anthony Gill's Paddington Terrace is really two terraces, amalgamated into a single family home. But for the rejuvenated facades facing the street, mind you, the project doesn't bear much in common with your typical terrace either. Clever planning ensures the interiors are drenched in natural light and a simple material palette of oak and bagged brickwork lends them a warm and inviting quality. A double height void in the main living area, meanwhile, creates spatial drama. It might be called a terrace, but dark and pokey it most certainly isn't.
Architecture
Hill House
Andrew Maynard Architects
21.09.12
At first glance, the key ingredient in Andrew Maynard Architects' Hill House seems like pure delight. A bright green astroturf bulge with chunky black box balanced precariously on top makes up the main extension, and could easily be read as a work of sculpture. This design though is the result of some very pragmatic considerations.
In commissioning Andrew Maynard Architects, a family of five wanted to create a long-term home from what was proving to be a dark and pokey residence. Rather than extending from the rear of the building though, which would likely block even more precious light from entering the house, the practice built a new structure on the rear boundary. This new 'addition' faces north, its cantilevered box preventing sun from entering the building during summer, while letting it flood in during winter. Its curvy form, meanwhile, has proved to be a delightful place for lounging in the sun, year-round.
Architecture
99 Yarranabbe Rd
Andrew Burges Architects
11.07.12
99 Yarranabbe Road was originally designed by the architect John Athelstan Victor Nisbet. Completed in 1937, the design was directly inspired by the 1935 Sunspan Exhibition House by English modernist, Wells Coates. Coates' house was deemed quite controversial at the time, and Yarranabbe Road is an unusual example of Inter War, Functionalist Sydney architecture.
In keeping with the building's significance, Andrew Burges' alterations and additions to this house have been handled with the utmost sensitivity. To increase amenity, while preserving the footprint and masonry of the building, a distinct rooftop pavilion has been added. Internally, functions have been grouped around a rebuilt, highly sculptural stair. Despite the tight floorplates, an expansive sense of light and space has been achieved.
Following the stairs upwards, the visitor's journey eventually culminates in sweeping views of Sydney harbour from the rooftop pavilion and deck - made all the more spectacular for the preservation of the building's flowing, mid-century parapet.
Architecture/Interiors
GUCCI Sydney
10.07.12
While Gucci is certainly not the most ostentatious of luxury brands, it's not afraid to flaunt its glamour either. The new Gucci flagship store in Sydney boasts a burnished gold facade totally in keeping with the brand's reputation for refined bling. Elegant, but hardly retiring, on the damp night of this shoot the store literally seemed to be leaking luxury into the street.
Architecture
Kingston High School Tasmania
Hassell
08.07.12
Staggered down the lush, rolling topography of Kingston, just south of Hobart in Tasmania, this high school has been designed to reflect the very latest in pedagogical thinking. Traditional classroom plans have been avoided in favour of flexible, open-plan learning environments, while the buildings have been organised with maximum connectivity in mind. Their low slung forms sit snugly in the folds of the site, to minimise impact on the surrounding environment - and to help shield their occupants from Tasmania's moody weather.
architecture
Wattle Avenue House Mildura
Minifie van Schaik
07.07.12
In the rural township of Mildura, architects Minifie van Schaik have turned what was a bog-standard, brick veneer bungalow into a playful celebration of fashion, food and family.
Designed for Australian celebrity chef Stefano de Pieri and family, while the previous house was unremarkable for its standard-issue, suburban architecture, the new design is anything but, boasting a plethora of bespoke, non-standard features. In the new internal courtyard, multi-hued bricks have been used to create an abstract pattern that references both nearby Lake Mungo and the eccentric colours and immaculate detail of a Paul Smith shirt. Meanwhile, visitors to the house are confronted at the entrance with a geometric pattern that gives a strong hint something more than your average suburban idyll lies behind the front door.
Wattle Avenue House was awarded an Australian Institute of Architects award for Residential Alterations and Extensions in June 2012.
architecture
10 Hills Place London
Amanda Levete Architects
29.06.12
Located in a side street off one of London's major retail arteries, this office building by Amanda Levete employs a unique aluminium facade system. Crafted with shipbuilding technology, it lends the building a ghostly but captivating presence, side street or no...
architecture
Tree House
29.06.12
As you'd expect from its moniker, Tree House is a celebration of all things arboreal. Richly textured timber surfaces line much of the house's internal spaces, this organic material contrasting beautifully with the precise lines of the contemporary furniture collection contained within. A particular highlight though comes by way of a non-architectural element - the wizened but elegant peppercorn tree at the property's edge. Framed by an expansive sliding glass door, the tree is arrestingly present both outside and inside the building - the architecture quite knowingly allowing itself to be upstaged by this regal inhabitant of the site.
Architecture
Dandenong Government Services Offices
Hassell
29.06.12
Dandenong, south west of Melbourne, is home to a diverse mix of cultures and communities. Unfortunately, for many years it has also had a reputation for being a down-at-heel, dormitory suburb. New government iniatives, however, are revitalising the area, the Dandenong Government Services Centre by HASSELL being just such a project.
Architecture
Medhurst Winery
Folk Architects
26.06.12
Emerging practice Folk Architects' Medhurst Winery cuts a plane through the Yarra Valley.
Medhurst Winery in Victoria's Yarra Valley is the first project completed by emerging practice Folk Architects.
Whilst it was their first commission, they were initially reluctant to build on the north facing slope as the programatic requirements of the brief seemed inappropriate to the scale of the site and its surroundings. The response was to sensitively insert the winery into the hill and reduce its perceived scale - A series of blade walls follow the contours of the site, and frame views to the Warramate forest, vineyard and ranges beyond.
The material palette is retrained yet surprisingly playful - the double height polycarbonate blade wall appears solid on approach, however it allows natural light into the workspace and illuminates the landscape at night.
A second concrete blade encloses an underground barrel store, disguised by a green roof and frames an elevated platform that encourages patrons to view the vineyard and the wine making process.
architecture
NMIT Student Centre Epping
Paul Morgan Architects
20.06.12
The muscular, slightly brutish concrete carapace of Paul Morgan Architects' NMIT Student Centre conceals a sensitive side - a 2200sqm library boasting warm and inviting, light dappled interiors. A building of both brains and brawn, it also contains a fitness centre. Unsurprisingly, it has become a huge hit with students.
Architecture
Opus Apartments Hong Kong
Gehry Partners
05.06.12
Rising from the verdant forest of Hong Kong's the Peak and consisting of just 12 luxury units, Frank Gehry's first asian apartment building is an ascending spiral of floors and glass clad columns.
Architecture
Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Discovery Centre
Minifie van Schaik
23.03.12
Minifie van Schaik's Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Discovery Centre, for Melbourne Water, is perched overlooking the Edithvale wetlands, a remnant of the once extensive and ecologically rich Carum Carrum swamp - now recognised by a RAMSAR listing for being of international significance. Children are the photographer's own!
Architecture
Trunk House
Paul Morgan Architects
17.11.11
In beautiful forest of extant Stringybark trees in Victoria’s Central Highlands rests a small cabin.
Paul Morgan Architects' initial interest was in the bleached bones of sheep and kangaroo skeletons found in forests and farms, and in the thickening of these joints, needed to carry additional loads. This interest transitioned into harnessing the natural load-bearing capacity of timber found in the region by utilizing bifurcations found in tree forks.
The advantage of these bifurcated joints - usually discarded in commercial tree logging - is their great inherent strength. The bifurcations were sourced from forest floors and farmland, and due to their age, were pre-seasoned. They were joined to straight columns with internal metal plates by a sculptor. So this ground fuel became building material. An internal column with radiating beams completed the structure, the complete triangulated system attaining great inherent strength.
Stringybark trees were removed from the site to make way for the new house. A mobile milling machine was delivered to site, and Stringybark lining boards were milled, cured on site, and then fixed internally. This resulted in a minimal carbon footprint for the sourcing and installing of the lining boards.
The design sought to achieve an almost transparent relationship with the surrounding forest, achieved through an eco-morphological transformation of ground fuel into structure.
Architecture
Media-TIC building Barcelona
Cloud 9
04.11.11
Cloud 9's office building for the new 22@ district has won the top prize at this year's World Architecture Festival. Providing a mix of large office space, space for start-ups and public space, the architect Enric Ruiz-Geli hopes for the building to it act 'as a seed for an environmental revoloution'.
Architecture
Carrum Downs Police Station
kerstin thompson architects
21.09.11
Imagined as a mini city, Carrum Downs Police Station comprises of a cluster of programmatic elements each figured as an individual volume, treated materially as a building and distinguished through a particular choice of brick. Internally the variation of the colour, texture, pattern and sheen of the brick expresses each of these zones as a discrete volume and provides a means of orientation and identity, as well as offering durability. Externally the brick face presents as domestic and local, referencing the adjacent suburban condition and re-using bricks from original building that once occupied the site. The 'hit and miss' glazed brick entry tower shifts the scale of the facility from domestic to civic, and as an illuminated beacon at night, heralds the presence of the Victoria Police on the highway. Kerstin Thompson Architects
Architecture/Interiors
House 20
Jolson
28.06.11
Concrete buttresses extrude from sloping ground. These rhythmic elements form a continuous datum upon which the first floor rests; concrete blades in an east-west orientation, which cantilever and stagger beyond the precipice of the bronze wall below. This craning assemblage hovers over an organic knoll of delicately curling asparagus fern, and shelters the entry below.
The house is a sculptural object. The brutal exterior surfaces of the forms jostling concrete blades penetrate the interior, diffusing the interior/exterior threshold and creating a series of individual rooms. The interior unfolds as it is engaged with, rooms fold into each other and are defined by layers not walls.
The interior is dissected by a 3 story void; an empty vertical room within a room. The upper and lower floors are veiled by a knitted stainless steel mesh which allows textured shadow to dance within the interior.
The basement experience embraces dark tones, rich textures, and celebrates ambient natural light. There is a strong dialogue between surfaces and object; polished monolithic black stone, raw mild steel, black leather, knitted mesh, and ‘slick’ body of black water that embodies the indoor pool.
The first floor is the clients retreat with Master bedroom, dressing room and ensuite. The Study hovers above the landscape knoll and engages with the streets’ plane trees. The contrasting light and dark furniture pallet articulate ‘her’ study from ‘his’ amongst the blade walls.
The building faces north and draws in sunlight across its breadth. The void acts as a thermal chimney, drawing fresh air through and expelling above. At its base the pond has a cooling effect. The steel mesh veil reduces direct sunlight entry.
The design affronts the general fascination with mock architectural styles, or adorned boxes with inward looking spaces and a total lack of relationship with site and environment. It engages with the notion of grandness without drawing on imitation, decoration, porticos or columns. Anti-decorative, anti-column.
Architecture
Sorrento House
NMBW Architecture Studio
25.06.11
Sorrento house celebrates the idea of the traditional Australian Beach holiday. A series of flexible and interconnected spaces, the house is a sensitive and deft response to environment and site.
'A HUMBLE beach house, the Sorrento House by NMBW Architecture Studio, has taken out Victoria's top residential architectural prize - the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award.
The ''sensitive development of a sensitive coastal site'' emerged as the winner from a strong field at the Australian Institute of Architects Victorian awards.
Sorrento House, elegantly designed from an economy of materials, impressed the jury with its inventive system of dividing partitions that fold, retract, swing and slide to define social and personal spaces.
Jury chairman John Wardle of John Wardle Architects said the house's ambitions had crossed the boundaries of the site to the benefit of neighbours. Outlook, wind patterns, the structure of the landscape and the composition of building mass had been negotiated with great care, he said.'
Beach house coasts to top design prize - Philip Hopkins and Ray Edgar, The Age Saturday 25 June 2011
Architecture
House Holman Dover Heights
Durbach Block Jaggers
20.06.11
'Sited on the edge of a 70-metre high cliff, the plan of House Holman refers to Picasso’s painting The Bather. It contains a complex series of fluid living spaces set within a meandering perimeter that arcs, folds and stretches in response to sun, landscape and views. Living and dining areas cantilever out over the ocean, allowing dramatic views up and down the coast. The lower floor forms a base that is built from rough stone walls like an extension of the cliff below. These walls continue along the cliff edge to form a series of eccentric terraced gardens and a vase-shaped rock pool.'
Architecture
Law Street House Melbourne
Muir Mendes
15.04.11
ARCHITECTURE/INTERIORS
Potts Point Apartment Sydney
Anthony Gill Architects
14.04.11
The project involved the redesign of an existing 38 sq m (400 sq feet)one bedroom apartment in a Harry Seidler Building in Potts Point. The aim was to create a space that would suit a couple with a young child. The existing joinery (not original) was demolished leaving only the masonry walls to the bathroom which remains untouched. A new joinery element was inserted to re-configure the space, addressing the issues of privacy, storage and a lack of living space inherent in an apartment of this size.
Architecture/Heritage
McConnell House Adelaide
Hassell
24.01.11
One of Adelaide's finest modern homes, McConnell residence was designed and built in 1967 by Jack McConnell. McConnell was one of the founders of McConnell & Hassell Architects now HASSELL. Ably and amusedly assisted by Cameron Bruhn, the house was photographed for the revisit feature Houses® #98. In shooting for revisit we strive for for images that speak of the relationship between architecture and inhabitation.
Architecture
Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl
Durbach Block Jaggers
24.01.11
Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl are offices, a private art gallery, corporate dining room, boardrooms and studio. Originally three industrial buildings Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl have been reconceived as one, reinvigorated and newly clothed in industrial glass panels, transcendent details and breathing with birch forrest heart.
Architecture
one40william Perth
Hassell
22.11.10
Located above the William Street Train station One40 William is the first 5 Star Green Star building in Perth. The multilevel design places the highest tier on the north side to provide a natural shading system for the lower office levels. This, paired with the use of a single glazed façade, prevents excessive heat gain in summer while radiating warmth to its surrounds at night. The stepped and angled floor plan places more than 80 percent of its area within eight metres of full height external windows. This allows for minimal artificial light. In addition the landscape is irrigated using rainwater harvested on site. Featuring rooftop and surrounding gardens as well as a high proportion of fresh air circulation in the office spaces, the design has a focus on worker comfort.
Architecture
Gas Natural Barcelona
Miralles/Tagliabue - EMBT
18.10.10
A flickering flame above the Barcelona neighbourhood of Barceloneta. The new headquarters of the Gas Natural Spanish gas company by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue (EMBT) breathtakingly defies gravity.
Architecture
Alibaba Headquarters China
Hassell
27.07.10
HASSELL's new Alibaba Headquarters is a benchmark for the modern workplace in China. It's 150,000 square metres of flexible open plan office space within a campus style layout.
The design is based on the concepts of connectivity, clarity and community. The workplace has been designed to be a positive and healthy environment to encourage informal and creative meetings throughout the complex. Hubs, internal and external streets, bridges, roof terraces and strategically placed destination points contribute to the collaborative intent. The built form and the designed spaces are integrated so that each defines the other.
The Hangzhou context has been embraced with garden networks and the sunshading screens that represent Chinese ice-pattern window screens prominent throughout the region.
Hard work and fun times with HASSELL's Jackie, Amy and Mr Yang!
Architecture
Alfred St Apartments Sydney
BVN Architecture
21.06.10
Winner of the inaugural AARON BOLOT AWARD for RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – MULTIPLE HOUSING at 2010 NSW Architecture Awards.
Jury Citation:"...timeless plan that is considered at all levels. The simple and disciplined floor plan accommodates a flexible and differentiated apartment layout at each level. A rational and economic structure ensures the basement plan and foundations are simple and profound. They include a plan that does not require complex structural transfer beams. The corners of the building and every one of its junctions are well conceived, well detailed, and well executed with robustness and durability. In the rationality of this building, BVN has created a laconic and timely statement. We hope this assists in the prioritisation of orders of importance in future exclusive buildings; the plan and air and natural light are, as found here, more important than an emphasis on material inclusions, which we are thankfully spared in this clear and rigorous building."
ARCHITECTURE/INTERIORS
Grace Darling House Melbourne
iredale pedersen hook
12.05.10
Conceived as a formal emulation of the hip roof of the existing heritage listed residence this substantial addition to a large home seeks to provide an alternative reading of its suburban context. Distinctive but complimentary materials: copper, recycled jarrah and calacatta marble, have been employed so that the addition both references and develops the life of the architecture. Concealed from the street, the new insertion transforms the nature of the historic domestic language into a dynamic and generous articulation of form and space, suitable for the life of its new family. All in it's a great set of alterations and additions to a Hawthorn mansion. The architects are iredale pedersen hook and the interior design is by Beatrix Rowe. Photographed for Vogue Living.
Architecture
Australian Pavilion Shanghai Expo
Wood Marsh Architecture
21.04.10
PLA soldiers having their photographs taken in front of the Australian Pavilion in the days before the Shanghai World Expo 2010 opens.
From 1 May to 31 October 2010 Australia's national pavilion will showcase Australian innovation, creativity and achievement to some 7 million visitors mostly from mainland China - an average of 38,000 people on each of the 184 days of the expo.
Architecture
Roslyn Street Bar/Restaurant
Durbach Block Jaggers
13.04.10
Durbach Block Jaggers' four storey commercial building in Sydney's Kings Cross is a response to the particular character of this 'colourful' precinct. Known affectionally by locals as the 'Barcelona Building' its tiled 'Catalan' form could be seen as a benevolent angel. As a building it's an extraordinary gesture, an artwork that gives of itself whilst accommodating a commercial program of restaurant, bar and offices. In this pleasurable endeavour I was received warmly and amused by amiable locals and ably assisted by Katherin Lu.
Architecture/Interiors
Cubby House Fitzroy
Edwards Moore
13.04.10
Edwards Moore's extension and renovation of an apartment overlooks Fitzroy's iconic public swimming pool. It's an absolute cracker! The French Bulldog's name is Jimmy.
Architecture
ANZ Centre Melbourne
Hassell
01.03.10
HASSELL's new headquarters for the ANZ Bank is a 'ground-scaper' housing 6500 staff in 10 light filled stories that surround a central atrium. Bovis Lend Lease were the developer and builder of the project. It was my pleasure be joined by Ken Maher, Rob Backhouse and Harley Vincent from Hassell and Nicole Ekert from Bovis Lend Lease for a personal introduction to, and tour of, the building. Indeed it was all pleasure photographing the project until my ALPA and Leaf Digital back went for a quick swim off a floating marina as a motorboat passed by!
Architecture
Corinella House
BKK
28.02.10
BKK's Corinella House sits on a peninsula in Victoria's Westernport Bay, with a view over mangroves, sand flats, sea and black swans to French Island. It's a particularly fine project, realised through that most fortuitous combination of rigorous architects, good builder and great client (also a particularly fine host!).
Architecture
Casa da Musica Porto
OMA
10.01.10
Perhaps my favorite building, the Casa da Musica by Rem Koolhaas/OMA photographed for the 'Music Houses' book - the world's most remarkable buildings for musical performance. Intellectual rigor meets sensual beauty in an original form. Whilst photographing the Casa was pure pleasure I wish I'd seen more of Porto than it, the airport and my hotel.
Architecture
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
Cox Architects
09.01.10
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium is under construction on Olympic Boulevard in the 'Sports and Entertainment' precinct of inner Melbourne. Commissioned by Wallpaper* to photograph the construction for their awards edition, able intern Nils Koenning and I scaled 5 tiers of scaffold and shot the pitch with one of the stadium's geodesic panels being craned into place. The Stadium with its distinctive bio-frame structure and geodesic dome roofs was designed by Cox Architects. Rectangular stadium was awarded Wallpaper* magazine's 'Worlds best building site' in their 2010 Design Awards, you can see my finished photograph over a double page spread in Wallpaper*s February Design Awards special.
Architecture/Interiors
Lyons studio
NMBW Architecture Studio
08.12.09
Lyons Architecture's new studio by NMBW is in an old department store in Melbourne's CBD. This masterful intervention leaves well enough alone while introducing fine detail and material concerns making for a dynamic and sustainable working environment for the whole Lyons crew.
Architecture
MAXXI Rome
Zaha Hadid Architects
04.12.09
Italy's new Modern Art Museum, the 'MAXXI' - National Museum of the XXI Century Arts by Zaha Hadid Architects. Exploring the interface between architecture, landscape and art the MAXXI is a complex, dynamic and fluid set of spaces devoted to contemporary creativity, arts and architecture. Flow form, the MAXXI is not object, it's more a field of buildings making an immersive urban environment. The intertwined galleries and stairs read as rivers and streams.
Architecture/Heritage
Barcelona Pavilion
Mies van der Rohe
05.11.09
The German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition, this is the building that spawned THAT column and THOSE chairs. It was demolished in 1930 but a replica was built in the 1980's. Normally I wouldn't endorse a replica but... I photographed it again this year with the category winners and jurors of this years World Architecture Festival enjoying cocktails and canapes poolside. As you would!
Architecture
Perforated House Melbourne
KUD
19.10.09
This is not a terrace. This is more than a facade. Kavallaris's sustainable critique of a terrace house is a contemporary dwelling for a family - his family! As well as being the cover story of AR Residential 09/City Living you can see Kavallaris's house in Mark magazine No 23/December 09-January 10.
Architecture
Melbourne Convention Centre
NH Architecture & Woods Bagot
10.07.09
For 3 years I've been photographing the Melbourne Convention and Entertainment Centre and adjoining Hilton South Wharf, documenting its construction through to the building's opening. As well as the book you can see the Melbourne Convention Centre and my images in AR 109 and AA Vol 98 No 3.
Architecture
Balencea
Wood Marsh Architecture
01.07.09
The latest St Kilda Road development by developer Sunland. Balancea is a seductive multi-residential project by Wood Marsh Architecture. Buro North designed the building's graphics and signage, you can see the logo sign and beautiful screens. I was commissioned for the art series that features on 11 floors of the boutique 23 story building. At the 2009 Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Awards Balencea was awarded an Architecture Award in the Residential, Multiple Housing Category.
Architecture
Nordpark Cable Railway
Zaha Hadid Architects
26.06.09
Nordpark is a vertiginous ski field perched above Innsbruck. Zaha Hadid Architects have designed four cable railway stations like melting glaciers, to link the city to the chairlifts.
These images are in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York! Publications include Monument and Artichoke magazines.
Architecture/Hotels
St Falls/Quay West Falls Creek
Elenberg Fraser Architecture
15.06.09
Elenberg Fraser's second snowfield development (after Huski) is also situated in the ski resort village of Falls Creek. Saint Falls creates a new portal to the resort and has a form derived from the open wings of a Bogong Moth.
Architecture
Melbourne Recital Centre & MTC
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
07.06.09
The Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC (Melbourne Theatre Company) are conjoined venues in Melbourne's Southbank Arts precinct. The Recital Centre has a form that is part packaging/part object and the MTC is all about the box...or is it?
This project scooped the awards pool for ARM at the 2009 A.I.A. Victorian Chapter Awards.
Architecture/Interiors
Cardigan Street House
FMD
25.05.09
In this wonderful renovation of a labyrinthine Victorian terrace Architect Fiona Dunin has used mirrors and planes to transform the Victorian stair into a periscope where glimpses to rooms beyond reveal beautiful details and light-filled spaces. And while mirrors create prismatic intrigue - you try and photograph them! You can learn more about Fiona and FMD Architects here.
Architecture
Yarra House
Leeton Architecture
23.03.09
Leeton Pointon Architects + Susi Leeton Architects won an Architecture Award for Interior Architecture at the 2009 Victorian Chapter Awards with this beautifully crafted house in Melbourne.
Architecture/Heritage
The Arts Centre Melbourne
Roy Grounds
01.03.09
Roy Grounds' Victorian Arts Centre literally pierces Melbourne's arts precinct and gives seagulls a focus to wheel around!
Architecture
Dalyellup College
Hassell
17.02.09
Dalyellup College is a new school just outside the coastal south-west city of Bunbury in Western Australia. Hassell's design is a ribbon of contemporary architectural spaces around a protected central courtyard. Dalyellup College also received an Architecture Award in the Public Architecture category of the WA Chapter AIA awards. You can see it in Monument 92 August/September 2009.
Architecture
Jane Foss Russell Sydney
John Wardle Architects
06.02.09
John Wardle Architects in association with Wilson Architects and GHD's new building and bridge at the University of Sydney won an Architecture Award at the 2009 NSW Architecture Awards. I'd organised the street to be cleared of traffic...and then the green VW drives by. This project was published in AR #109, BOB (Korea) and ANC (Korea).
Architecture
Vader House Melbourne
Andrew Maynard Architects
09.01.09
Andrew Maynard Architects' Vader House sits behind a Victorian terrace in Melbourne's Fitzroy, a dense inner-city suburb. Everything opens/closes and turns off/on! Decking moves to reveal/conceal lawn or pool. Folding doors make the inside outside or is the outside inside? Electric glass becomes clear or opaque depending on your use of the bathroom. And the floor opens to reveal a cellar. Vader House was the homepage story on the Wallpaper* website, you can see it here.
Architecture
Swan Street Residence
iredale pedersen hook
30.12.08
In a sleepy Perth riverside suburb, iph's Swan Street residence serves as a shrine to everyday pleasure while giving a nod to the materials and forms of the early 20 century Arts and Crafts movement. Swan Street residence won the WA chapter of the Australian Institute of Architecture 2009 Architecture Award for Residential Architecture Alteration + Additions. Did I mention it was about 42 degrees when I shot it - phew! Swan Street was published in AR #110 'adaption'.
Architecture
Burj Khalifa
SOM
07.11.08
Rising 828 meters over the metropolis of Dubai, the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, under construction in 2008.
Architecture
Torre Agbar
Jean Nouvel
21.10.08
Jean Nouvel's Torre Agbar in Barcelona, Spain. It houses the city's water company and fittingly has a geyser inspired form.
Architecture/Interiors
Fjäll Falls Creek
Hecker Phelan & Guthrie
10.09.08
Fjäll (pronounced "fe-yall") is Swedish for mountain. Designed by Salter Architects and interiors by Hecker Phelan & Guthrie, Fjäll is ski lodge that blends rustic traditions with a contemporary designer finish. I was mostly ably assisted by Lars who's quick with a coffee but cooked us overnight turning up the thermostat because he was cold - you'd think a Dane would know...
Architecture/Advertising
Q1, Gold Coast
Sunland Design
08.08.08
Q1 on Queensland's Gold Coast was designed and developed by Sunland Group and is Australia's highest apartment tower. I was commissioned by Sunland to mark the company's 25th anniversary with a series of new images of their milestone projects.
Architecture
RMIT Architecture School
NMBW Architecture Studio
04.06.08
RMIT's New Architecture School, housed in a recycled building, expertly fitted out by NMBW.
Architecture/Hotels
Southern Ocean Lodge
21.04.08
Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island, South Australia for Wallpaper*.
Architecture/Heritage
Singapore Cottage
RBA Architects & Conservation Consultants
09.04.08
This pre-fabricated cottage won the John George Knight Award for Heritage at the 2009 Victorian Architecture Awards for RBA Architects & Conservation Consultants + JAM Architects. Originally imported from Singapore in 1852-3, the restoration and conservation of this modest South Melbourne building is described by the awards' jury as an inspirational example of heritage architecture: "a revelatory intersection between history and the present".
Architecture
Elwood House
NMBW Architecture Studio
19.03.08
An addition to an addition to an addition. Originally a California bungalow, this house was first given a second storey, then a new wing and now NMBW's addition which is that rare project that gives more than it takes...adding quality to the public thoroughfare, the built and natural environments, the life of the family that it houses...a timber extension that demonstrates an enormous generosity of spirit. Evocative of camping by a billabong in the outback Flinders Ranges, the landscape is by Rush/Wright Associates.
Architecture
K House Anglesea
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
27.08.07
Brought to you by ARM and the letter 'K'. The house's form is the k-mart 'K' in plan and elevation.
Architecture
Skinners Adventure Playground
Phooey
16.07.07
A small project that has made big waves. PHOOEY's recycled containers house a children's activity centre in a community playground in South Melbourne, and have won awards locally, nationally and internationally.
Architecture
1010 Building Melbourne
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
03.03.07
Part of the new development at Digital Harbour in Melbourne's Docklands. The facade of this building by ARM produces a visual effect called the Münsterburg or Café Wall Illusion. Despite its appearance the facade panels are parallel. ARM note that the "presence of the coloured horizontal line at each floor level is essential to the illusory effect".
Architecture/Interiors
New Gold Mountain
Cassandra Complex
22.02.07
New Gold Mountain is a bar designed by the ever-intriguing Cassandra Complex that joyfully riffs on the opium den aesthetic of gold rush Melbourne.
Architecture
Hildebrand House
Lovell Chen
18.01.07
This is the last project of the firm Robinson Chen and dates from 1990. In 2007 I photographed the Hildebrand House in Somers, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, for Monument magazine as a part of their series on Classic Houses. I was awe struck by the project and its presence nearly 20 years after its construction. It is more than a classic house, and was the precursor to a new style of Australian 'beach house' architecture.
Architecture
Cape Schanck House
Paul Morgan Architects
28.11.06
Set in a stand of native tea-tree on the southern end of the Mornington Peninsula is Paul Morgan Architects' Cape Schanck House. The house won the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture at the 2007 National RAIA Awards. I love the project's response to its slightly eerie coastal setting. That and the fact that its location is referred to by some as 'Cape Shag'.
Architecture
Sheep House Daylesford
iredale pedersen hook
02.07.06
This image of 'Sheep House' was acquired by Kodak for their permanent collection of photography as an 'exemplar of architectural photography'. The beautiful and pragmatic house was designed by iredale pedersen hook and does indeed have a small flock of sheep (and Diego the donkey) that graze around the house perimeter.
Architecture/Hotels
Millennium Hilton Bangkok
BAR STUDIO
06.06.06
Bangkok's new urban resort perched on the Thon Buri bank of the Chao Phraya River. One of Bangkok's half built ghosts of the 90's has been transformed by BARstudio into a luxurious new retreat. Photographed for Hilton.
Architecture
Yve Apartments Melbourne
Wood Marsh Architecture
13.04.06
Curves define Yve, designed by Wood Marsh and developed by Sunland Group. The continuous ribbons of the glass balconies snake around the perimeter of the building, creating effects of compression and expansion. This was one of the first projects I photographed with the full digital set up and it had some fantastically abstract moments.
Architecture/Hotels
Huski Lodge Falls Creek
Elenberg Fraser Architecture
19.06.05
Apartment hotel Huski sits amongst the snow gums in my favorite Australian mountain resort of Falls Creek. Elenberg Fraser's faceted facade was inspired by the crystalline forms of snow flakes. Best of all the Huski Produce Store serves the best coffee on the hill (and you can ski to the front door).
Architecture
Marion Cultural Centre Adelaide
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
16.06.05
In the Adelaide suburb of Marion, ARM (Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Phillips Pilkington Architects in Association) have created a Cultural Centre and its surrounds formed from the word "Marion". My photographs of this project were published in AR and Domus, and one was selected as the cover of Australia Architecture and Design published by Daab. The car park image was the poster for Australia's exhibition at the 2006 Venice Architecture Bienale...which makes perching in a swaying cherry picker on a freezing night to take the shot finally worthwhile!
Architecture
Wheatsheaf House
Jesse Judd/JLMA
04.06.05
Jesse Judd's house is set in a eucalyptus plantation and has a stained plywood interior that seems to glow amongst the monochromatic trees.
Architecture
QV
NH Architecture
01.03.05
Construction at QV. Where else can you see new buildings by NH, Kerstin Thompson, McBride Charles Ryan, DCM, John Wardle and Lyons on the same block?! This photograph was one of a series commissioned by AR and art directed by the legendary Peter Citroni.
Architecture
Barro House
Wood Marsh Architecture
08.12.04
The clients for this house by Wood Marsh were in the concrete business and the quality of the off-form concrete throughout is amazing. There are also wonderful traces of the construction process forever captured in some of the concrete ceiling panels. Notably the house also features a life size replica column from the Barcelona Pavilion.
Architecture
ACCA
Wood Marsh Architecture
15.11.04
The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) by Wood Marsh Architecture is like a Cor-ten steel Uluru and has the most interesting contemporary art exhibitions and installations in Australia. It's an uncompromising building in an uncompromising landscape and I love it.
Architecture
Toorak House
Allan Powell Architects
28.04.04
This house by Allan Powell Architects gives nothing away from the street but stepping inside was like immersing yourself in a brandy alexander.
Architecture
TarraWarra Museum of Art
Allan Powell Architects
09.03.04
TarraWarra Museum of Art is a privately funded public art gallery set in the picturesque Yarra Valley. The gallery focusses on Australian art from the mid-twentieth century to the present day and has an ever-changing roster of exhibitions. The gallery by Allan Powell Architects is not so much a building as a set of constructed interventions in the landscape, playing with concealment and revelation.
architecture
Centre for ideas
Minifie van Schaik
01.01.04
Minifie Nixon completed this building in 2001 and it is both seductive and confounding. The form is generated from an investigation of Voronoi tessellations realised in brilliant stainless steel. The architect had a little sleep on the floor while I was photographing it.