Our clients didn't really have much of a brief when they came to us,
it was surprisingly an open brief but they sent us a photograph of
the artwork and their collectibles, that became an important part of the brief.
Part of the concept that we had was to block up the noise of the suburb around
it, the harsh coastal conditions that we have here with respect to the design of the house,
we wanted to offer the client a shelter from that hence the name D_Residence which relates
back to the dunes and the way that one could find protection in those.
We wanted the building to have a robust exterior to it so that the
client wouldn't have to spend a lot of money later down the track with ongoing maintenance.
We also wanted the building to look as new as it could do for as long as it could.
It's really important for us to go beyond thinking of building as object
and instead to take our clients on a journey having to develop
our projects with landscape at the start and at its heart.
When you have landscape at the start of the project you really get the opportunity
to structure and envisage spaces being connected to a landscape view and vista,
ultimately what this does is even though we're working with a compact
site it gives you a greater sense of space, openness and generosity.
From the street the residence presents as quite a strong centrally structured residence,
we're wanting to use that to provide a backdrop to a landscape filter at the front.
We decided to go for an endemic landscape character,
we have a sanctuary garden space and we've integrated a small swimming pool
and a lush garden that really does well in this protected environment.
Often landscape and interiors are spoken about as being seamless inside-outside,
but for us and for this project, we've actually done the complete opposite.
We've considered the interiors as being very separate to particularly
the front exterior and working the interiors as this soft sanctuary space.
As one ventures through the entry, we wanted to have the house open up once you've stepped inside
that space, walking through it's quite solid you come into a void space which is quite open. The
thought there was that we wanted the house to have quite a communal aspect to it and a space which
the family would come together and this void space was a way that we could stitch that all together.
When our clients came to us they bought a builder along for the ride and when we
sat down and talked to them about what medium he would like to use, he mentioned concrete.
As architects that was something that was really great for us to hear,
we then threaded concrete throughout the house, from the landscape elements through
to the void spaces in the balustrades we really tried to use it as a way to ground the house.
We used a mix of light brickwork and dark brickwork to articulate elements of the facade.
The darker brick to recede elements around the garage and basement level and
also around the entry to create a more intimate experience when coming into the home.
We really love the range that Brickworks and Austral Bricks offer,
we think they bring a really wonderful quality to projects
it's textural quality and variation made for a much more nuanced facade.
There is no real need to differentiate the material palette other than to allow the
owner's artwork and collection of objects feature within the space. We didn't want
to have this competing palette with their artwork.
My favourite part of the project is the atrium void
space it's just fun and a little bit adventurous.
You can come to the edges and have conversations across the void, I also love how the atrium is
connected with windows and apertures, it creates this lighting effect that is baffled and soft.
For us we're really proud of the fact that our clients really love the house,
they get a lot of comments from their friends about how warm and friendly it is,
we love how our clients have made it their own and given another layer of colour, joy and vibrancy.
Being a younger client, this is the first house they've ever built and for them to
trust an architect to take them on that journey was quite extraordinary. We love that they trusted
us to design their house and they believed that we could deliver something that was special for them.