There's two key aspects to the brief, one is in the client's words let's say, this idea this house
needed to be a glorified lock-up-and-leave because of their traveling lifestyle
the other interesting aspect of the brief was that it needed to be a house for two people,
but also a house for many people, as they're quite sociable so it needed to be a house
large enough to do that but also not necessarily feeling empty when those
parties or those gatherings will not happen. My name is Andrea Quagliola and along with
Matteo Monteduro and Emiliano Roia, we are the directors and founders of MORQ.
The location is an interesting one because it is a very desirable location
in real estate terms and it's kind of tucked away around behind the river,
near some shops and so on but it is also quite suburban feel to it. Well it's a
street where at certain times of the day there's quite a bit of movement and that
kind of prompts also that kind of response for a design that values privacy as well.
Once you enter the front door in continuity with the same path,
you have a sort of walkway, it's really there to create an experience entering
the project as well as hosting the majority of the storage.
Then you you find this space that has a completely different light condition, it is a light condition
of an outdoor space because this is now the main space of the house, it is a moment of surprise.
Imagine there is this kind of large empty void that hosts all the public areas and in the centre
of the block, to want it to be this indoor-outdoor transformable sort of hosting type of space
around which there is an array of more private type of areas
The next part that we needed was a system that enabled the spaces as you know to function as one,
which is this moving glazing system by Vitrocsa that can open on the corners and just allow that
kind of, continuity of space which is really key. All the kind of engineering that is required in
order to move those large panels of glass is all concealed. The idea of customisation is
interesting because you know, many manufacturers they all claim that their products are customised,
until you ask them to actually do something they custom and then they say that for a
reason now they can't do it. Which I guess fortunately was not the case with Vitrocsa.
It's kind of self-evident looking at the space because the purity of the lines of
the Vitrocsa glazing systems tune in very well with the purity of the lines of this
project and so that minimum look is possible, where the product kind of recedes and the
architecture becomes centre stage. It's been very good working with Vitrocsa. In general,
in our work we try and and and employ a reduced palette of materials
a harmonised palette of materials.
A tonality that connects. This particular project relates to
the Iron Ridge country really of Western Australia particularly the idea of country
which has this amazing ability of you know having this sort of base redness,
which is something that we somehow engaged with by the use of weathered steel.
There's interesting story about this amazing steel fabricator we worked with, so he created a field,
he laid all the steel and then the steel has been watered like as if it was a a field of crops, you
know has created that sort of base rust then when that base rust was ready the steel was installed.
These planks have a significant thickness and the
rust only affects the kind of surface of that plank.
There is a bit of a misconception about the idea in general of minimalism,
because it's often associated with a kind of sterile environment but in reality the
minimalism is is more to do with a certain purity and harmony of the lines that define the space,
so it is a relationship between the geometry, the materiality and the
light that come together you know to give presence to this architectural background.
The sense of security and privacy that this house gives from the outside,
it feels impenetrable although it is so open so this idea of lock-up-and-leave
is actually quite literal, like you lock the entire house before you leave.