My name's Chris Haddad and I'm an architect
and director at Archier. This is a house that we did for my parents Kerry and Paul.
View House is located in Hobart, Tasmania. It's in the suburb of Sandy Bay.
One of the fantastic things about designing a home in Tasmania and especially Hobart
is that a lot of the sites have fantastic views and this was no exception.
Amazing long views down towards Hobart but also shorter views to
Mount Nelson and also shorter views to the surrounding landscape.
And it is an interesting location because it is a suburban block but it is surrounded by bushland.
One of the most important aspects of the brief was to have a home that was
inviting, warm and comfortable. Both my parents have retired recently so
this was going to be a home that they were going to be spending their later years in.
With the upper level functioning almost like an apartment for my parents this was an idea about
aging in place and having all the amenities that they need close at hand on the one level.
In the future if they did need in-home care a nurse or carer could
use that downstairs area almost like their own apartment while mum and dad are upstairs,
and when you are retired and you are going to be spending a lot of time at home with your
partner we did feel that it was good to have a plan that instead of being open was about
shifted forms so spaces were connected but they were connected diagonally
which meant that you did have views between spaces but you also have more private nooks.
It's quite interesting, their master bedroom comes off the dining and kitchen space which
is probably a little bit unusual for a house of this size but the
beauty of this is we actually have a really big large sliding door.
It's this mix of having moments to see through but also moments to retreat.
It's a very steep site and we had to excavate a lot of stone. What that meant is that the house
is buried into the hill so we wanted to give that lower level this sort of sense of being buried.
When the site was getting excavated the excavator got almost five meters down and they hit a really
hard patch of stone and as much as the rock breaker was hitting it they just could not
get through it. And it just so happened that this huge stone was sitting directly
in the middle of the courtyard space. We've turned it into a fern garden so it really does
reflect the top of the landscape you see in nearby Mount Wellington.
Courtyard spaces at the end of corridors bring light down into the lower areas of the house and
they also act as a beacon that pull you through that lower area. We've got dark-stained timbers,
we have concrete block walls that have been rendered in a really nice concrete render,
and it's all about bunkering down and embedding yourself in the hillside.
Viewing the house from the street with the black brick can actually look quite
imposing but as you walk towards the house and towards the entryway
this is where you get your first look at the terracotta that's used throughout the project.
The aspects of this house that make it unique for us at Artedomus the combination of products used.
Certainly the most striking is the Cotto Manetti terracotta,
he ended up really embracing it so you see it used throughout this house in different
areas and it really adds a brilliant sort of colour to the place, brings in a warmth
and it's obviously a very durable material so it will look better with time as well.
There's also the beautifully textured clay tile from INAX called Homura in the lobby which is one
of Chris's favourite things. It's a clay tile with a very subtle slightly metallic glaze on
it and it's not installed with grout so you get this lovely shadow play in between the pieces.
There's the new INAX Format or it's a new version of INAX Format in the upstairs bathroom.
Rectangles and squares in a random pattern. There's even the beautiful Agape Spin Mirror
used in the makeup area. There is also the Vigo Lena marble, it's so nice to see it used in both
the bathrooms and in the kitchen, I think the fact that those two areas tie together because
of that marble is really clever. The Portuguese matte black or dark gray tile in the bathroom
downstairs in a rectangle, it's very subtle. Plus also the Agape bath and the Agape Pear Basins,
they've got a very unusual shape, one of Patricia Urquiola's early product designs and yet they look
years ahead of their time and they contrast with the rest of the rather structured architecture.
When it comes to artificial lighting one of the big ideas we were playing with with this project
was really focusing on indirect light. Over the island bench we have a Capital
Pendant which is actually one that we designed ourselves. You can have direct down lighting
for task lighting when you're cooking but you can also turn that off and actually light the ceiling.
All the light fixtures we've been driven by this idea of having the
flexibility to light the ceilings and do things in a more indirect way.
You can be up in the kitchen and you can look down into dad's workshop or you can be in the
lobby space and you can look up to the study. Gives this idea of retreat and connection.
Probably my favourite part of the house is the upstairs terracotta courtyard.
It's wonderful to see it used on the floor and up onto the wall.
The colours, the textures, the materials and the design overall is just so striking.
The terracotta adds a warmth to that light which reflects off the ceiling which is timber so you
get these really warm tones throughout the whole house. The Manetti family that have
made these tiles it's a family business and they've been making the tiles since 1780.
An incredible legacy and it's really great to be able to bring a product that they've cared
about within their family for so long then be able to put it into a home for my family.
I'm very proud of what we offered for this house because of the end result it's just terrific to
see all of our materials used in this way in a house that is of great significance.
Made me very proud and in fact that's made all of us at Artedomus very proud.
Mum and dad are immensely happy and that's the whole point for doing this.
This project isn't about me it's about giving them
a space that they're really happy with. I feel very privileged to do that.