World Architecture Festival: Aussie and NZ Homes in the Finals
In part two of our 2019 World Architecture Festival story, we invite you to step inside Australian and NZ home finalists
Georgia Madden
2 August 2019
If you were in any doubt about the standing of Australian and New Zealand architects on the world design stage, take a look at the recently released shortlist from the 2019 World Architecture Festival – a whopping six out of the 14 contenders from around the globe in the ‘Completed Buildings – Houses’ category are from Australia and one is from New Zealand. Winners will be announced at an event in Amsterdam that runs from 4 to 6 December 2019.
Keen to see what all the fuss is about? In the second part of our story, take a peek at three of the houses that made the cut and offer the architects’ descriptions of their projects. You can view the other four homes in part one of the story here.
Keen to see what all the fuss is about? In the second part of our story, take a peek at three of the houses that made the cut and offer the architects’ descriptions of their projects. You can view the other four homes in part one of the story here.
Images by Derek Swalwell
1. Project: Powell Street House by Robert Simeoni Architects
Location: South Yarra, Victoria
Powell Street House occupies a compact site in the inner Melbourne suburb of South Yarra. The existing 1930s brick duplex in a restrained art deco style comprised a ground-floor and a first-floor apartment, each sharing the same floor plan, and each with its own external access.
Our clients – an architecture and design writer and his partner, with an eclectic collection of artworks and furniture – had been living in the property for a number of years. They wished to unite and augment the two dwellings to form a cohesive single residence with a private aspect.
1. Project: Powell Street House by Robert Simeoni Architects
Location: South Yarra, Victoria
Powell Street House occupies a compact site in the inner Melbourne suburb of South Yarra. The existing 1930s brick duplex in a restrained art deco style comprised a ground-floor and a first-floor apartment, each sharing the same floor plan, and each with its own external access.
Our clients – an architecture and design writer and his partner, with an eclectic collection of artworks and furniture – had been living in the property for a number of years. They wished to unite and augment the two dwellings to form a cohesive single residence with a private aspect.
While not the subject of a formal heritage grading, it was felt that the house represented a good, if modest, example of a substantially intact two-storey duplex of its era, with a floor plan that had been subject to minimal intervention over the years.
From the outset, the aim was to understand the qualities of the existing building and to intervene quietly and sensitively, working with, rather than against, the existing fabric, and retaining the original layout wherever possible.
The alterations and additions endeavour was to capture the spirit of the 1930s duplex, and respond to an understanding of the qualities of these simple, yet noble, dwellings. This approach, we believe, results in a validation of the qualities of the original.
From the outset, the aim was to understand the qualities of the existing building and to intervene quietly and sensitively, working with, rather than against, the existing fabric, and retaining the original layout wherever possible.
The alterations and additions endeavour was to capture the spirit of the 1930s duplex, and respond to an understanding of the qualities of these simple, yet noble, dwellings. This approach, we believe, results in a validation of the qualities of the original.
The existing house had a quiet interior and muted light, and the design was developed in response to this, with a deliberate quietness and the creation of long diagonal views through the existing shallow floor plan.
The design approach was to treat the new elements as interventions that were clearly distinguishable from the original fabric, yet respectful to it. Minimising structural alterations to the original fabric was also a means of achieving a cost-effective outcome on a limited budget.
Dining, kitchen and laundry facilities were located in a new addition to the rear of the site, with a polished-concrete floor.
Find an architect on Houzz to bring your design vision to life
The design approach was to treat the new elements as interventions that were clearly distinguishable from the original fabric, yet respectful to it. Minimising structural alterations to the original fabric was also a means of achieving a cost-effective outcome on a limited budget.
Dining, kitchen and laundry facilities were located in a new addition to the rear of the site, with a polished-concrete floor.
Find an architect on Houzz to bring your design vision to life
The kitchen and dining area enjoy a northern aspect to the property’s rear courtyard via a steel-framed window wall, which has a serrated profile and delivers an intriguing quality of light to the newly created space.
This ground-floor addition forms a double-height volume, which incorporates a carefully located high-level window, and was conceived as a quiet space, with ambiguous connections between the existing and the new, and the outside and inside.
This ground-floor addition forms a double-height volume, which incorporates a carefully located high-level window, and was conceived as a quiet space, with ambiguous connections between the existing and the new, and the outside and inside.
A compact central staircase in dark-stained timber and raw steel connects the two previously separated levels of the building, and was located within the former bathroom space to each level to minimise the need for internal alterations.
The bathrooms were designed with a selection of materials evocative of 1930s architecture.
Pro Panel: The 8 Biggest Kitchen Blunders
The bathrooms were designed with a selection of materials evocative of 1930s architecture.
Pro Panel: The 8 Biggest Kitchen Blunders
Where openings have been formed or modified, they have been executed in a way that leaves clear traces of the original. Views are limited and curated through new steel windows that feature a combination of clear and opaque glazing, and narrow reeded-pattern glass that is sympathetic to the original era of the house.
Internal colours were selected to connect the spaces and respond to the varying volumes and light conditions throughout the house, including the use of dark colours to blur the connection between old and new.
Internal colours were selected to connect the spaces and respond to the varying volumes and light conditions throughout the house, including the use of dark colours to blur the connection between old and new.
Images by Brett Boardman
2. Project: Castle Cove House by Terroir
Location: Castle Cove, NSW
The history of this single-family house in Sydney during the past century is one that fuses an evolving approach to our relationship with the landscape with a history of experimentation in residential design. These two strands have come together most memorably in the occupation of the steep and often spectacular landscapes around Sydney’s inner harbour.
This project is sited in Castle Cove where steep ravines contain tributaries that flow through bushland down to the harbour. The sandstone geology is omnipresent and takes many forms, from mighty escarpments to minor ripples in the bedrock.
These landscape tectonics inform the design of the house, where a concrete shell of irregular geometry steps around outcrops and contours, creating an indeterminate form that is distinctively new but could equally be a strange object ‘unearthed’ during excavation.
The concrete escarpment is roofed in a continuous zinc membrane that folds over to form a smaller pocket to the rear, which contains private rooms. Both materials will patinate over time, moving again from a new to pre-existing form.
2. Project: Castle Cove House by Terroir
Location: Castle Cove, NSW
The history of this single-family house in Sydney during the past century is one that fuses an evolving approach to our relationship with the landscape with a history of experimentation in residential design. These two strands have come together most memorably in the occupation of the steep and often spectacular landscapes around Sydney’s inner harbour.
This project is sited in Castle Cove where steep ravines contain tributaries that flow through bushland down to the harbour. The sandstone geology is omnipresent and takes many forms, from mighty escarpments to minor ripples in the bedrock.
These landscape tectonics inform the design of the house, where a concrete shell of irregular geometry steps around outcrops and contours, creating an indeterminate form that is distinctively new but could equally be a strange object ‘unearthed’ during excavation.
The concrete escarpment is roofed in a continuous zinc membrane that folds over to form a smaller pocket to the rear, which contains private rooms. Both materials will patinate over time, moving again from a new to pre-existing form.
Crafted timber linings inside the house recreate the spirit and glamour of California’s mid-century houses by John Lautner and other architects. The resulting interior spaces connect inhabitants with the wondrous nature of the landscape while still providing for intimate moments.
11 Ways to Create Indoor-Outdoor Connections
11 Ways to Create Indoor-Outdoor Connections
A number of brass, steel and mirror insets serve to visually expand the scale of the building.
The basement acts as a cold sink that allows cool air to be constantly drawn through the main living spaces via floor vents and operable skylights, which are purposely tilted north to draw heat and assist in the convection process.
A thermally stable environment that requires little active power consumption has been created by combining cross ventilation, generous overhangs, thermal mass, double glazing, internal and external blinds and underfloor heating.
Images by Atelier Aitken
3. Project: Contemporary Boatshed Home by Atelier Aitken
Location: Omaha Beach, NZ
The word ‘stealth’ comes to mind when approaching this home from a distance. But as you get closer, the carefully detailed black timber screen slowly reveals its domestic interior and invites you in.
The form is simple, inspired by gable-formed timber boat sheds. It is designed to fit quietly within its suburban-like surroundings, while at the same time catching the eye a little with its contemporary crispness.
3. Project: Contemporary Boatshed Home by Atelier Aitken
Location: Omaha Beach, NZ
The word ‘stealth’ comes to mind when approaching this home from a distance. But as you get closer, the carefully detailed black timber screen slowly reveals its domestic interior and invites you in.
The form is simple, inspired by gable-formed timber boat sheds. It is designed to fit quietly within its suburban-like surroundings, while at the same time catching the eye a little with its contemporary crispness.
This project is a five-bedroom family home located in the modern seaside town of Omaha, New Zealand. The home has been meticulously detailed to create a space that is both sleek and sharp – as desired by the client at the outset of the design process – while still achieving a sense of domesticity.
Inside, a two-storey timber bookshelf divides the two gabled forms with sleeping quarters to the east and living quarters to the west. The internal palette of white solid surfaces and natural oak creates spaces that have a sense of lightness and warmth, while black details bring the exterior facade to the interior.
An exterior timber screen creates a sense of privacy, while allowing the house to play with the natural light on its interior faces. As the sun moves throughout the house, the strips of lights follow along, falling on the textured surfaces and revealing the details of the timber cabinetry and floors.
At night the house disappears into the dark, while columns of light escaping from the interior light up the surroundings, turning the monolith of the daytime into the lantern of the night.
Your turn
Which of these homes do you like the best? Tell us in the Comments, like this story, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Did you see the first four stunning finalists in last week’s story? Catch up here with our World Architecture Festival: Antipodean Houses Lead the Charge
Your turn
Which of these homes do you like the best? Tell us in the Comments, like this story, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Did you see the first four stunning finalists in last week’s story? Catch up here with our World Architecture Festival: Antipodean Houses Lead the Charge
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Which do I like best ? Them all , in their own ways .
The Powell Street place looks dark and therefore less inviting to me , but the overall concept is well executed .
The second place I admire the history and provenance , and how it is true to that , even if it is too 'industrial' for my taste .
Likewise , the interior of the NZ place is beautiful , personally I feel the outside is too stark and boring , but I'm guessing that is the contrast they are after .
In other words -- I understand why each is as it is , and admire the concepts and executions .
I like house 2 the best. It looks like the Jetson's house and is more visually interesting than the other dark grey "boxes" in this story.
II like that it has been designed to work with it's site and also heat/cool without using much power.
Powell St is my favorite, I am partial to industrial looks. They're all beautiful and artistic.