The renovation of a house or apartment is often a result of the need to address our ever-changing needs as we move through the different stages and phases of our lives. “It provides an opportunity to create a built manifestation and realisation of a personal way of living,” adds architect Thomas McKenzie of Melbourne-based Winwood McKenzie. The architecture studio has recently completed renovation works on Brunswick House, extending the back half of a Victorian cottage for a scientist and her two dogs.
A key component of the brief given to Winwood McKenzie was to extend the Victorian cottage to include new study and living zones into the garden without disturbing the existing natural, native garden. When the doors are open, “the living space effectively becomes a large verandah within the garden” care of the timber floor which extends from the inside living space to the outside deck. The architecture draws inspiration from the client’s past while working towards enhancing her future.
“Traditional Scottish farmhouses with black pitched roofs and white masonry walls; a focus on the fireplace and bookcases; and rooms of a modest scale connect ideas and atmospheres to the existing conditions and location of the house,” says Thomas.
Large sliding doors provide protection from the outside and a barrier against the weather when necessary. Glazed glass works to ensure the temperature inside is affected as little as possible by the weather outside, aiming to insulate the warmth in winter and keep out the heat in summer.
The renovation to Brunswick House has been designed around passive design principles taking into account the natural ebb and flow of the Victorian climate. For example, the building’s orientation allows the eastern and northern light to flow in.
On a more national scale, local and native materials such as eucalyptus timber veneer, Victorian Ash and bluestone inform the material selection, giving the residence a particularly Australian feel.
“The project considers notions of Australian domestic life providing an adaptive space that responds to the weather, time of year and different uses throughout the day,” says Thomas. “A seemingly simple space provides for a diversity of atmospheres and activity.”
Winwood McKenzie was meticulous in its attention to detail to ensure that the renovation was consistent with the existing building yet still had its own character. This is evident in the internal openings of the new living/study space, specifically orientated to afford an unobstructed line of sight to the kitchen.
Self-described makers of peaceful spaces, Winwood McKenzie’s Brunswick House unites the interior and exterior spaces while, at the same time, ensuring they are reassuringly intimate and cosy.
Winwood McKenzie
winwoodmckenzie.com.au
Photography by Benjamin Hosking
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Large sliding doors provide protection from the outside and a barrier against the weather when necessary. Glazed glass works to ensure the temperature inside is affected as little as possible by the weather outside, aiming to insulate the warmth in winter and keep out the heat in summer.
The renovation to Brunswick House has been designed around passive design principles taking into account the natural ebb and flow of the Victorian climate. For example, the building’s orientation allows the eastern and northern light to flow in.
On a more national scale, local and native materials such as eucalyptus timber veneer, Victorian Ash and bluestone inform the material selection, giving the residence a particularly Australian feel.
“The project considers notions of Australian domestic life providing an adaptive space that responds to the weather, time of year and different uses throughout the day,” says Thomas. “A seemingly simple space provides for a diversity of atmospheres and activity.”
Winwood McKenzie was meticulous in its attention to detail to ensure that the renovation was consistent with the existing building yet still had its own character. This is evident in the internal openings of the new living/study space, specifically orientated to afford an unobstructed line of sight to the kitchen.
Self-described makers of peaceful spaces, Winwood McKenzie’s Brunswick House unites the interior and exterior spaces while, at the same time, ensuring they are reassuringly intimate and cosy.
Winwood McKenzie
winwoodmckenzie.com.au
Photography by Benjamin Hosking
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It can seem like post-rationalising, to point back to someone’s childhood and pick out a pattern in their path. But in Jeremy’s case, it does seem like this relentless pursuit of better outcomes runs in the blood. Growing up with two activist parents, whose peripatetic tendencies gave a young Jeremy many towns to call home, the would-be trailblazer recalls memories of pitching a tent embassy on the lawn of Old Parliament House with his father to lobby for more public housing in Melbourne.
All of this protesting and pushing for change instilled a sense of the potential for good that design has within society – but it was another type of design that Jeremy originally had his sights set on.
“It’s very funny, I actually never wanted to be an architect,” he says. “I had a thing for steel bridges. Some of my happiest memories as a child were of driving back to our home – a small town in New South Wales – and of lying in the back seat of my parents’ Holden looking up through the rear windscreen and seeing the steel-frame bridge above and hearing the click-clack of the bridge as we went across. So in high school, I spoke to my careers teacher, and she said, ‘Oh yeah, to design a bridge you need to be an architect’. I got into architecture school, and halfway through the first semester I asked, ‘When do we start working on the bridges?’ And they said, ‘That’s not this department, you need to be a structural engineer to do bridges. That’s the next department over. You’re in the wrong course.’ But by that stage, of course, I was hooked.”
After graduating, Jeremy went to work for one of his design idols, the inimitable Nonda Katsalidis of Fender Katsalidis. “I remember vividly when Nonda completed Melbourne Terrace, and seeing that new housing typology and finding out that was led by an architect,” says Jeremy. “It showed me how much impact architects could have, and that architecture was so much more than the building itself.” But as Fender Katsalidis grew bigger – from eight architects when Jeremy first started to 50 when he left – and Jeremy started to feel smaller, he realised he needed to create his own firm if he was to deliver the kind of architecture that was important to him. Cut to Breathe Architecture, which ever since has abided by a mission statement to maintain a small team of like-minded and dedicated individuals.
“The reason it was called Breathe was because we wanted every room to have a window; we wanted every room to be able to breathe,” he explains. “It was also never going to be called Jeremy McLeod Architecture because I knew it was never going to be about me. I’m surrounded by incredibly talented individuals who all come together and play really collaboratively.”
The values-driven approach that leads Breathe Architecture’s hiring practice and general operations have led to projects such as The Commons, the medium-density residential development in Melbourne’s inner-north that went on to spawn Nightingale – which in turn has led to a whole new development model for Australia’s property industry.
According to Jeremy, The Commons was a project borne out of necessity. At that point, the firm had worked on a number of award-winning, multi-residential projects, and what they’d found in the existing property development mandate was quite simple: it didn’t work.
“We found that the entire property development system is designed for housing failure,” he says. “It is built around building investor stock to sell to investors to rent back to Australians at the highest possible profit margin. It’s about building cheaply, selling at a high price and renting out at a higher price with no care about the comfort of that building.”
More than a project, The Commons has now become a movement. Its continuation, Nightingale Housing, is soon to have a presence in six different locations around Australia. The model is based on eschewing the traditional development model by putting architects back in control of financing, using their own learnings around social design and sustainability to deliver outcomes that are high-performing, transparent, affordable and that facilitate community connections. From the first Breathe-designed project in 2014, Nightingale has since grown to encompass accomplice firms Six Degrees, Austin Maynard Architects, Architecture Architecture, Clare Cousins Architects, MRTN Architects and Wolveridge Architects – yet another iteration on the theme of teamwork.
These days, Breathe Architecture has 16 architects working under its roof. Rather than to grow for the sake of growing, Jeremy says the practice wants to continue to avoid “hero architecture” in favour of projects that create meaning.
“I’d like to keep working with our incredibly talented young architects to share with them what I know and to continue learning from them. The more I share with them, the more powerful we become as an organisation,” summarises Jeremy. “Each year as we grow and as we start getting these incredible people joining our team, it helps us distil who we are as a practice and who we want to be. Over time, our message has gotten clearer. For us, we need to be incisive about what projects we take on; they need to be projects that make the city a better place for all of humanity.”
Breathe Architecture
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Sections of bright turquoise paintwork and matching furniture, for example, offset the otherwise white-washed treatment rooms. These rooms are draped with back-lit curtains – providing a neutral backdrop for the brightly coloured furniture.
As well as designing the interior, Space Popular also created bespoke furniture, including manicurists’ tables, adjustable massage chairs and shelving with niches designed to hold specific nail polish bottles.
“The lack of architectural features lets the eye travel from object to object undistracted. The furniture pieces are in extreme contrast with the background: while the space is monochrome, white, soft and textured, the objects feature a high saturation polychromy with smooth materials such as metal, marble and leather.
Together they constitute a collective identity through their forms and colours, constructing the identity of the space while addressing very important and distinct issues of comfort and ergonomics,” say Lesmes and Hellberg.
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“Greenery is seen as the most important material in the house,” said VTN Architects. “Various local species were selected for different ways of greening: indoor plants, creepers, outdoor plants, according to different environmental conditions. This strategy seeks to preserve and enhance the regional biodiversity.”
The inclusion of vegetation within the dwelling does not simply represent a landscape gesture but also functions as a passive energy system within the house. The ivy covering the façade of the house, together with layered glazed sliding doors diffuses the harsh sunlight and helps to filter out the air pollution, while indoor vegetation helps in reducing heat gain internally and cools the breeze from the outdoor spaces. The diagonal void penetrating the house also aids in bringing natural ventilation in, ensuring steady air movement through the spaces and minimising the use of air conditioning.
The latest instalment in the “House of Trees” series, Stepping Park House is a step in the right direction for urbanisation-driven Ho Chi Minh City. With this residence ,VTN Architects hopes to begin the transformation of the cityscape into a more sustainably-minded environment. “The lack of greenery generates many problems including increasing air pollution, inability to retain rainwater, insufficient amount of green space to cool the streets, and human inactivity overtime,” says the studio. “Stepping Park House was our rare opportunity to create a sustainable response next to a green space in the city and we wanted to take full advantage of that.”
VTN Architects
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Breaking the norm by bringing an embodiment of Brutalist architecture to the beachfront, Hotel Bocage is located in Hua Hin, the Gulf of Thailand. Designed with the intention of having strong geometric lines juxtapose organic elements of the beachside, Hotel Bocage is located atop a shopping mall.
The neo-brutalist concrete construction and stripped back décor adds a sculptural element to the entire guest experience. The bathroom especially so, utilises floor-to-ceiling glass walls to give guests a dramatic in-tub view of the Gulf while the sanitary-ware underlines a clean and calm setting. Bunnag successfully delivers equal parts brutalist minimalism and refined luxury.
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DBALP
Found on Japan’s east coast, and part of the luxury hotel brand Aman, Amanemu references the traditional Japanese ryokan. It comprises a series of structures, with 24 suites and four villas, each with its own private hot spring bath. Amanemu is an epitome of the perfect balance between contemporary architecture and Japanese minimalistic traditions and delights visitors with sweeping views of the surrounds from every room.
The interiors highlight Japanese hinoki cypress wood, woven bamboo furniture and lighting, as well as a black wood-panelled façade. Each ensuite is fitted with charcoal-coloured basalt stone tub and tiles that elevates luxuriousness and tranquillity with hot and cold mineral-rich water. It is a full-blown private onsen experience on tap, allowing visitors to submerge themselves in a holistic experience that very much focuses on wellness. The hotel bathroom design is completely influenced by natural hot springs and the therapeutic powers of water, centred on Japan’s centuries-old onsen tradition.
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Kerry Hill Architects
One of the most Instagrammed hotels in 2017, Jackalope Hotel opened its doors to the public in April that year and received ample attention for its 46 designer rooms and luxury suites. The boutique hotel, which takes the name of a mythical rabbit-like creature with antlers, is fitted with custom-built furniture, a 30-metre infinity pool, and artworks that also include a seven-metre-tall Jackalope structure.
The floor-to-ceiling windows as well as private terraces, consistently seen in every room, allow visitors to connect with the rural surroundings. Clad in zinc, and themed black and gold, Carr Design Group has produced a modern interpretation of agriculture buildings and barn-like structures. This is luxurious theme continues within; where bathrooms feature a black Japanese deep-soak tub, rain showers and double vanities. The holistic design-driven experience is a sensory overload, including copper, silver and gold mosaics. The spa-like interior and exclusive bath products have developed by Melbourne’s Hunter Lab also include a pinot grape skin and seed bath soak and body scrub, made from the hotel’s vineyard. It is definitely a hotel bathroom design deserving a nice glass, or bottle, of local wine.
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Carr
With views of the bush, beach, and the rainforest, Elements of Byron is one of Byron Bay’s most voguish resorts. As Byron Bay is recognised for its laid-back aesthetic and lifestyle, Shane Thompson Architects combined a balanced level of Japanese simplicity with an informal Australian feel for its interiors. The wood stools, ladder towel racks, rattan armchairs and shell chandeliers nods to the bohemian reputation of the entire site, and are also respective to the sensitive surrounding wetlands.
The roomy hotel bathroom design boasts an organic and pared-back feel, featuring a generously sized stone stand-alone bathtub. Here, guests are not only seduced into a holiday vibe with musing sounds of native birds, but they are also submerged into a state of relaxation that is rare with busy lifestyles.
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Shane Thomspon Architects
The in-house production team of highly skilled artisans effortlessly balance physical and decorative aspects of stone, which culminates unmatched qualities. Each bathroom fitting by Claybrook is hand polished for over 60 hours through a four-stage precision process without compromising the material’s integrity. One of the many benefits of submerging in a marble bath includes heat retention and the feel of stone, especially in comparison to synthetic materials.
Furthermore, Claybrook is established as an eco-friendly bathware brand that utilises recycled materials. All Marbleform products are 100 per cent recyclable and emit 0 per cent carbon waste during the manufacturing stages.
Emily Green, marketing director at Claybrook describes the collection as “ a marriage of technical excellence with a truly natural touch and feel… Whether you are interested in a simple organic form or a more traditional re-worked roll top bath, our products do not date.” The recently launched Claybrook Collection is exclusively available at Rogerseller showrooms and online.
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But, as always with Ian Moore, the magic lies in the details. One enters the house straight from the street with the door on the left. Once inside the circulation continues to range left. A wonderfully luminous – and beautifully proportioned – doorway leads into the kitchen. This luminosity comes from the reflected light of the kitchen tiles, themselves illuminated by an oculus in the kitchen ceiling which, with the passage of the sun during the day, projects constantly changing shapes on to the wall. In turn, the kitchen leads out to the rear courtyard through another superbly scaled glass door.
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He elaborates, “We always seek to work with the site, to create comfortable conditions for living while preserving and connecting to the natural environment. We hope that the resulting architecture is an experience that is both visceral and pragmatic, also one that is about economy and sensitivity.”
The Artists’ Retreat at Pittugala sits on a 3,700-sqft sloping site flanked by paddy fields and a busy expressway. The sloping terrain provided an opportunity to create split-level zoning, avoiding costly cut-and fill processes.
Spaces unfold between brick walls both solid and perforated, creating effective passive ventilation. A lush courtyard garden serves as both a private oasis and a buffer for the noise coming from the expressway.
The entire ground floor, which is dedicated to the workshop, living and gallery area, is roofed but open to the elements, doing away with doors, windows and glass while the upper floor houses three bedrooms and a lily pond that serves as a meditative zone. Meanwhile, wide steps inspired by Sri Lankan monastic gardens lead to a studio with a high ceiling where large-scale paintings and sculptures dwell.
The wabi-sabi quality that permeates the residence emerged from its material palette, which comprised locally available and hand-built materials. Only the studio wall has been finished with paint to achieve the light quality required for painting.
Elsewhere, the brickwork is plastered with earth or left raw. Flooring is cut cement. The woods are reclaimed. The furniture pieces are repurposed and upcycled. The building process was personal and collaborative, with the clients managing the project, working with a local workman and hand-building several elements themselves.
Colombo-born Kannangara had completed a degree in mathematics before he found his calling in architecture. He enrolled in a course conducted by the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects and received his charter in 2004. He established PKA the following year and has kept the practice small and its service personalised since then.
PKA is a team of nine people (with the occasional addition of one or two interns) operating from Kannangara’s home and office by a marsh in Rajagiriya, one of the larger suburbs bordering Colombo. Dubbed the Studio Dwelling at Rajagiriya, the award-winning four-storey building completed in 2015 is a haven to work and live in, featuring a cool microclimate.
It is sealed from Sri Lanka’s heat with perforated brick walls to the west and south and kept permeable to the views of the marsh on the other sides.
Its garden sponges off water during the monsoon season, sparing the interiors from flooding. The interior palette is minimal, featuring board-marked concrete, wood and brick.
“We believe in an architecture that is about the process of reduction; of using available resources wisely and consciously, especially in our tiny island country; of ‘de-cluttering’ both visually and physically; and of course respecting the environment. The ethics of minimalism and environmentalism which are part of the Sri Lankan ethos are also vital to our works,” he says.
These themes are apparent in PKA’s recent works, which include the Urban Sanctum at Colombo and Frame at Immaduwa.
The latter is a home for a jazz drummer and ethnomusicologist that features an exoskeleton built with scaffolding. It sits gently on the client’s ancestral agricultural lands that had been abandoned for several years due to flooding.
Although small, Sri Lanka is blessed with biodiversity and has a relatively untouched natural landscape. This, Kannangara believes, provides architects and designers with an opportunity to work across various environmental conditions while pushing them to be wise with their limited resources.
Asked about what the Indo-Pacific region can learn from Sri Lanka’s architecture and design community, he shares: “Sensitive solutions for tropical architecture based on a philosophy of minimalism, resourceful use of materials and simple architectural language reflecting the people’s way of living while being integrally connected with the landscape.”
The year 2018 was a year of recognition for PKA. In addition to an Honourable Mention at INDE.Awards 2018, the Artists’ Retreat at Pittugala also received a commendation in Interior and Exterior Connections at Habitus House of the Year Award. Studio Dwelling was named one of the winners of RIBA Award for International Excellence. PKA was also won the Architect of the Year Award for Foreign Countries at JK AYA 2018 in India, which was presented by Pritzker laureate Balkrishna Doshi.
“These were all milestones for our small practice,” says Kannangara. He is currently working on PKA’s first monograph. His hope for 2019 includes seeing more design and architecture award programs that provide “more opportunities and recognition for projects from developing countries irrespective of scales, budgets and typologies [and] opportunities to present, exhibit, exchange ideas and publish works.”
Palinda Kannangara Architects
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“Taking cues from the site’s heritage status, the design for ISH reflects a traditional and modern sensibility with a nod to our Indian heritage,” says Annu.
Upon entry guests are greeted with a dark and moody atmosphere, communicated through an exposed brick wall, custom black leather banquettes designed by Anna, tanned timber, and accents of brass. The brass is a reference to India’s ancient heritage, yet modernised taking the form of bespoke decorative plates and light fittings.
The brass-striped bar is another custom design by Annu, made from stained oak veneer. It works well spatially with the large communal table it diagonally faces, and the black and white-striped pews.
Split across two floors, upstairs ISH takes on a slightly lighter aesthetic with white walls to counterbalance dark timber flooring. The leather banquettes are repeated, lining the walls and complemented by an eclectic mix of leather, timber and brass chairs and circular and rectangular tables.
Along the walls upstairs and down is a unique selection of artworks. Some were created in collaboration with Melbourne’s famed design studio, Studio Round, others are pieces from Annu’s personal archives. “In the upper hallway, small framed illustrations and painting depict traditional Indian fables, while monochromatic prints were made from original photos showing vignettes of Indian life I captured in India while scouting locations for a documentary,” she says.
ISH
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Sympathetic to the natural world, the environmentally sensitive structure of Four Leaves Villa creates an honest dialogue between architecture and site. This is primarily evident with the concave and convex roof configuration. Divided by interconnected volumes, each of the curved roof surfaces resembles gently twisted leaves with slopes that join on top and arch over each other. The straight laminated veneer timber joists are left exposed on the ceiling, forming a sea of geometric and organic shapes. Internally, the ceiling beams are left exposed to detail high dark wood ceilings. This ceiling form does not just respond to the site, but also reacts to the exterior environment through the sun, wind and weather patterns, while also aiding in storm and rainwater drainage.
An aerial view of the villa reveals a picturesque landscape of fallen leaves, an aesthetic inspiration from the natural world. This references the dominant aesthetic features apparent within Japanese heritage designs, but with a contemporary twist.
The purpose of architecture is not just to create a building, but also to create an atmosphere that will enmesh itself within a context. It is for this reason that each room within Four Leaves Villa is oriented differently to maximise natural light and scenic views. Specifically, the living and dining space face southeast for increased brightness, while the master bedroom and bathroom face west, fitting cosily into a densely wooded area of the forest. Completed with a central courtyard, the Four Leaves Villa is an exemplary use of “architecture as an aggregate of diverse living spaces,” explains the designer, and is an integration that occurs as a result of blending nature with built context.
KIAS
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