- Cantilevered geometric glazed façade facing the courtyard in Middle Park.
Photography: Garth Oriander
- Black timber clad living, dining and kitchen in Middle Park.
Photography: Garth Oriander
- Dining room and exposed steel beams in Middle Park.
Photography: @simple_dwelling
- Terracotta terrazzo bathroom with custom towel rail in Middle Park.
Photography: @simple_dwelling
- Job in progress – Green colourway proposal for an ensuite in Malvern East.
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
- Job in progress – Ensuite in Malvern East
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
- Floating marble island bench contrasted against black timber veneer in Middle Park.
Photography: @simple_dwelling
- Proposal for a home extension in Glen Iris
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
- Job in progress – Green wall façade presenting to the courtyard in Malvern East.
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
- Job in progress – Timber, brass and marble kitchen in Malvern East.
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
- Job in progress – Brick façade in Malvern East.
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
Job in progress – Balcony screening blades in planter boxes in St Kilda.
3D model of a flourishing green balcony in St Kilda.
Visualization & sketch design for a curved internal courtyard in St Kilda.
- Job in progress – Concrete swimming pool, timber-clad balcony and master bedroom facing the rear of a 3-level home in Mt Martha.
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
- Job in progress – Neo-70’s inspired façade for a 3-level home in Mt Martha.
3D Artist: Wapo visualization
Bathroom, Middle Park House
The client wanted to bring colour into their bathroom and we were grateful they did. The bathroom provides a counterpoint to the monochromatic interior elsewhere. The vanity colour was pulled from the darker stone chips in the terrazzo tiles.
Builder: In2Projects
Photo: Garth Oriander
The site size and location meant that walls had to be built on boundaries. This limited access to light and had the potential to be claustraphobic. To overcome this we pushed the study out over the garden. This allowed better shading to the sitting room and allowed us to create a void that spacially benefits the study and sitting area. By doing this we could ensure that the room felt large and that light was abundant.
Builder: In2Projects
Photo: Garth Oriander
We wanted to make the stone island bench seem ‘lighter’ by raising it on a plinth. This allowed the flooring to pass under it and gives a greater sense of space within the room. A skylight above the kitchen brings light into what would be the darkest area of the house. Exposed structural steel also gives a lightness to the space and clarifies the volumes that it supports.
Builder: In2Projects
Photo: Garth Oriander
This project was a renovation of a single story Victorian house on a long site. One of the driving factors of the design was to bring light into the centre of the house. Over the hallway the roof is made of translucent insulated panels, the walkway uses perforated metal and gaps to either side to allow that light to permeate the house.
Builder: In2Projects
Photo: Garth Oriander
The pergola functioning well.
Builder: Builtmarc
Rear elevation, Kew House.
The elevation faces a garden and the setting sun. To mitigate the effects of solar gain a louvre bi-fold shutter was installed across this façade which allowed views out but controlled heat gain. The northern façade includes a pergola with deciduous planting again to prevent too much solar gain. The pergola and bi-fold screen allow winter sun into the house.
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Hallway, Kew House.
This brick wall was used to anchor the house to the site. Elsewhere lighter volumes are used to give the sense that the house is touching the earth lightly. This contrast between weightiness and floating forms creates a dynamic that adds interest to the house. The niches and the roughness of the brickwork also add a sense of permanence to the house.
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Deck, Kew House.
A good connection to the landscape was paramount for this project. The connection of living room, dining room, kitchen, vegetable patch, garden and deck allows the house to work beautifully. The deck is shaded in summer by deciduous planting while allowing the sun to penetrate the house in winter.
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Bedroom, Kew House
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Vegetable Patch, Kew House.
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
External stair, Kew House
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Interior, Kew House
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Pool, Kew House
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Dining, Kew House
Builder: Builtmarc
Photo: Tatjiana Plitt
Dining, Albert Park House.
The client’s brief was to design an extension to a Victorian house that would provide a new living/ dining/ kitchen area with a good connection to the rear yard. They also wanted a new master bedroom suite.
The site dictaded the spacial organisation of the house and resulted in an upper floor rotated 90 degrees over the lower floor. Roof pitches were used to allow maximum ceiling heights whilst preventing overshadowing and visibility from the street.
The opportunity to design something that related more to rear lane aesthetics rather than the original Victorian dwelling meant that we had freedom with the massing of the house and it’s materiality. A mixture of charred timber and concrete was used externally including an in-situ wall formed with shuttering from the old shed.
Key to the ethos of functionality was a focus on sustainability. The house is orientated to maximise solar gain and rainwater is collected under the building for the pool, toilets, laundry and garden. The house was heavily insulated and achieves a much higher energy rating than required by the Australian Building Codes.
Builder: Inquire Invent
Photo: Garth Oriander
Kitchen, Albert Park House.
The project used charred timber made by the builder. It is an ancient method of making timber fire retardant, pest retardant, and weather resistant. We used this externally for cladding of walls and soffits and continued the soffits indoors to create the kitchen ceiling and to delineate the forms of the upper floor.
We also recycled the original shed walls that held the outside toilet as formwork for an in-situ wall that extended from the garden to the kitchen; from outside to inside. This was a way to incorporate some site ‘archaeology’ to remind users of the building’s history. The plaque to the left of the image reads:
‘This house was purchased by Kasimiersz and Lucia in 1955. They were two displaced persons who had escaped a war-torn Europe. They worked hard, found a new life and started a family. As with all of us they had successes and failures, especially in a country that was not always welcoming to foreigners. But time passed, they were accepted and they saw their lives grow and the house became a home. Their greatest achievements were their profound love for their children and the unshakable faith that all hope for the future was vested in these same children. If you are fortunate enough to live in this house I would ask that you think of those who have come before you and reflect on the love and hope that filled its rooms’.
Builder: Inquire Invent
Photo: Garth Oriander
This renovation required a sensitive restoration to the original front of the house and a new extension to the rear. Internally the original rooms were refurbished, and new flooring was used throughout the house to tie the old and the new together. Importantly we sought to bring plenty of light into the new work. This was achieved by clerestory windows, full-width bi-fold windows and a glazed kitchen splashback leading to an internal courtyard that also services the staircase and a bedroom. We also wanted to blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor space. This was achieved by timber decking at internal floor height and by bringing external materials in (timber clad ceiling, in-situ concrete).
Builder: Inquire Invent
Photo: Garth Oriander
The Kitchen of the St Kilda Sustainable House showing recycled floorboards and thermal floor.
Photo: Diana Snape
Rear elevation of the St Kilda Sustainable House showing recycled bricks from the demolition of the back of the house
Photo: Diana Snape
A view to the St Kilda Sustainable House.
Photo: Diana Snape
The house won an award for sustainability. Some of the strategies are shown in this diagram.
This hut represents a design process that is sculpture driven. Typically, architectural form is a mixture of the arrangement of spaces and shape making; the brief and the form. Often our work is brief driven because of site constraints and town planning issues and it is a good exercise for us to design with greater freedom. In this proposal for a Bush Hut we start with sculpture – a solid timber form is created using a saw, a drill and chisels. In the back of our mind, we know that this is a hut, but we try to keep the form making unencumbered by function at this stage. The form is affected by knots in the timber, the shape of the grain and the making process. Once a form emerges that we are happy with we photograph the sculpture and bring it into CAD software where we can insert functionality (the bed, a seating area, a kitchenette, and a bathroom). From this point we create a floor plan but no elevations. The next stage of work is to build a cardboard model using the floorplan. The cardboard model mimics the shape of the timber model and we maintain the original dynamism of the timber version. Finally, that work is re-entered into 2D CAD and from there to a 3D render.
A proposal for a resort made up of villas in Fiji
One of seven prefabricated bures used as part of a small resort that we designed.
A small resort we designed using prefabricated ‘Bures’. Each Bure was built in a day using unskilled labour.
Prefabricated Fijian ‘Bures’ structures for a small resort in Fiji. These arrived in a container in the morning and were ready to sleep in that night. Construction didn’t require skilled labour but the result was to a very high finish
A suburban family house prototype designed for sloping sites
A family house that was prepared for developers for suburban lots.
The setting of this house was on a slope overlooking a winery in Dunsborough, Western Australia. The site was exposed, and the proposal sought to provide shelter from prevailing winds. Entry to the house was via a twisting gravel road that lead through an orchard to a simple in-situ concrete wall with a rusty steel entry. Beyond that entry the house opened around a u-shaped courtyard with all major rooms being able to enjoy the view across the winery.
The house used a limited palette of material – black concrete floors, timber shuttered concrete walls and coreten (pre-rusted steel) roofing. The palette was robust and simple to reflect a rural sensibility.
Passive solar strategies were employed – orientation, shading, thermal mass – to ensure that the building would perform well and allow a high level of glazing.
Builder: Cape Constructions
We prepared this cardboard model of a house proposal in Dunsborough, Western Australia, as part of our design process. It shows a proposal where the house looks over a slope but is protected from prevailing winds with a courtyard form that is fronted by a swimming pool. A large flat area shown at the back of the site is the location of an orchard.
The final construction was closely aligned to this early design work.
A proposal for an extension to a farm building at Southcote, South Australia
Town Planning elevations for a new house in Merricks
A cardboard model as part of the design process for a new house in Merricks
A cubby house we designed as part of the Eco-Cubby program. Shown here before it was overgrown with plants
A proposal for a prefabricated house on Kangaroo Island
This was a proposal for a house on the West coast of Kangaroo Island. The proposal was for a prefabricated system.
A proposal for prefabricated school rooms that could be made into a variety of forms to suit different requirements
A proposal for portable school rooms using a prefabricated system of triangular panels. This image shows construction systems that can be incorporated.
A house we designed in Phuket Thailand
A section showing the shading for a prefabricated mining house
A prefabricated mining house perspective showing materials
A proposal for a prefabricated system for housing in remote locations. This image shows a perspective for one configuration. The system allows for flexibility so that different layouts could be created to cater for a range of families