Australia's Award-Winning Angophora House By Richard Cole Architecture (25 Photos)

The stunning Angophora House by Richard Cole Architecture, a small design based studio located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, was just shortlisted in the Australian 2013 Houses Awards in the category of New House over 200 square meters. And I've got a thorough look at both the exterior and interior for you.

Stunning Modern Remodel Makes The Most Of A Small Space In A Sydney Apartment.

Here's a look at a recently completed remodel that makes great use of a small space for a couple who reside in the Vaucluse Waters Apartments in Sydney, Australia. The solution was designed by Rudolfsson Alliker Associates Architects.



The key aim was to maximize the feeling of space in a small apartment -and at the same to take advantage of the incredible views north east to the ocean- in this apartment fit-out in Harry Seidler’s ‘Vaucluse Waters’ in Sydney.


above: The Vaucluse Waters Apartments in Diamond Bay, Sydney was designed in the early 1960′s by Harry Seildler and Associates

The approach was to remove every existing wall in the two bedroom apartment and to add back the bare minimum needed for a couple to live in. The clients were brave in their brief and in their trust in RAAA's proposals, and they ended up with a white base box of the original apartment and a Walnut wood veneered timber box inside that contained the required functions.

The timber box is solid to enclose the office, guest bath, and wardrobe (all accessible with pivot doors) and then breaks open to reveal the ensuite: a step up bath and the bed. This allows the owners to enjoy the ocean from the shower, bath and bed.


above: the corner of the walnut veneer "timber box" opens up to reveal the stunning view

Where the timber box is opened it is lined in Calacatta marble (an Italian marble not to be confused with Carrera) , across the joinery, bath and ceiling. The rest of the apartment walls are lined in polyurethane panels that contain the kitchen, pantry storage and the TV cupboards.

The Calacutta surround to the bed and bath opening:

The perimeter of the timber box is emphazised with the veneer and marble cladding bulkhead continuing around the bed:

The view toward the kitchen, which has marble backsplashes. The front door can be seen on the right in the furthermost corner:

View from the front door. (The sculpture podium disguises the service risers):

The use of strip lighting is a minimal design intrusion:

The veneer clad walls and the 6m long strip light create strong horizontals in the apartment:

Even the strip along the ceiling, dividing the space is a slab of marble with wood veneer edging:

The timber box has some built-in shelving, making even more use of space:

The guest bathroom has a Calacatta marble slab floor and a timber veneer pivot door:


The walk in closet has recessed lighting and a timber veneer pivot door:

The small study has a built-in Walnut desk and floor and recessed poly shelves:

The tv monitor is recessed into the wall opposite the timber box and has a wall-mounted storage cabinet:

The view from the windows looking in toward the kitchen:

From the Marble Bath one has a view of the ocean and the flat screen tv:


Photographs by Product K.

About The Architects (from their web site):
Rudolfsson Alliker Associates Architects is a design oriented architecture practice based in Sydney, Australia. We offer a high level of client service backed with strong design skills to provide unique solutions to complex jobs. We provide full architectural services including design, documentation and contract administration.

Design Process
Rudolfsson Alliker Associates Architects is a boutique architecture firm that offers intelligent design solutions and a strong client focus. Our approach to each project is holistic and systematic. We aim to understand our client’s requirements and motivations as well as evaluate the site’s constraints and opportunities. We focus on exploring sustainable ideas and technologies in order to provide the maximum possible environmental performance of our buildings. Our designs are thoroughly researched and our strategy is to create solutions that seamlessly integrate all the diverse requirements of a construction project.

All Rudolfsson Alliker Associates Architects projects are designed and documented using ArchiCAD in 3D. This makes it possible for the clients to have regular 3D updates of the project and ensures that there are no drawing conflicts. We also produce physical models for design development and for presentation when required.

Please contact them at info@raaa.net.au for further information.

Rudolfssen Alliker Associates Architects

The Kharkov, House Awards "Outdoor" Finalist By Australian Architects Collins And Turner

Here's a look at one of the finalists in the Outdoor category of Australia's 2012 Houses Awards. The Kharkov House by architects Collins + Turner:

The Hillhouse Of Melbourne, Australia By Andrew Maynard Architects.

Interior:








Text about the home from Andrew Maynard Architects:

The problem/opportunity:
Design is complex. There is little that is more complex to design than a home, however fundamental issues offer an architect a starting point; where is the sun? How do we capture it in winter, how do we exclude it in summer?

The thin allotments that dominate Melbourne's northern suburbs often provide indomitable constraints to solar access and therefore require the production of unorthodox ideas to overcome these constraints and convert them into opportunities.

Original conditions:
The site faces north therefore relegating the backyard, the family’s primary outdoor space, to shadow throughout the year. In the 90s a two storey extension was added reducing solar access even further while creating deep dark space within the house. A family of five wished to create a long-term home, which could meet the requirements of three small children and their slow transformation into young adults over the years.

Response:
Rather than repeating past mistakes and extending from the rear in a new configuration, the proposal was to build a new structure on the rear boundary, the southern edge of the block, upon the footprint of what had been, until now, the back yard. The new structure faces the sun, the pure cantilevered box above acts as the passive solar eave, cutting out summer sun, while letting winter sun flood in.

Following the decision to build at the rear of the block a ubiquitous modern box was first imagined. Soon it seemed necessary to pursue the opportunity to activate this new, once shaded, now sunny facade. A seat along the new northern facade? Perhaps a series of steps like the Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti? But how does one lounge in the sun on steps. Perhaps a slope instead .... And the hill house evolved/emerged.

The new structure faces the original house. The backyard is now the centre of the house activated by the built form around it. Beyond solar gain, the benefit of the new structure being in the backyard is that it borrows landscaping from its neighbours’ gardens. The high windows about the entertainment cabinetry and the dining area are enveloped in trees. Internally one gets the sense that Hill House is enveloped by bush rather than part of the suburban mix.

Along one boundary a 2m high fence was created, but unlike most houses the Hill House has a one metre wide fence; a corridor lowered into the site to achieve head height. This in turn creates a lowered dining area. One rises into the living space. The change in floor level creates a bench seat for the Maynard designed ZERO WASTE TABLE.

Front Street no longer provides the main entry to the home. Family now enters via the side lane. The original house, now private dormitory spaces, no longer has a typical relationship to the N#@$%k street’s “front” door. The original house, as with most narrow blocks throughout Melbourne, demanded that visitors walked a long corridor past bedrooms to the living area. Stolen quick glances into dark private spaces always occurred along the journey. At the Hill House the entry is reorientated. The kitchen, the nerve centre, the hub of the house, is the new greeting point. Beyond is the park. Adjacent is the living space, the yard and the "kids’ house" beyond.

The old house is converted into "the kids’ house". The old house is as it once was. The rear of the simple masonry structure, though spatially connected, is not reoriented, a face is deliberately not applied. It is left honest and robust. With a restrained piece of “street art” to be applied.

Form:
Andrew is from Tasmania, a place dominated by its landscape. Built form is secondary and subservient to landscape. Melbourne is predominantly flat. Could this be why Melbourne’s architecture is adventurous? There is no landscape to confine therefore building is free to become landscape. Hill House is a response to this possibility. Melbourne is flat. If one is to explore the possibility of cantilevering off a cliff (a desire of many architects) one is forced to manufacture that landscape. A monolithic form is unsheathed from the hill and placed atop. A celebration of the synthetic, the manufactured. A simulacrum of both an undulating landscape and the pure architectural form.

You can view the construction of the Hillhouse here

Thanks to Knstruct for bringing this to my attention

Jackson Clements Burrows' Cape Schanck House

This modern cantilvered home with edgeless pool by jackson clements burrows is located on a high dune at Cape Schank Victoria. The primary design is elevated to take advantage of expansive views across the Mornington Peninsula from Bass Strait to Port Phillip Bay. The house engages with the landscape in both form and materials.  The upper level extends Westward toward the views appearing to emerge from the Ti-tree over an artificial escarpment formed by the lower level.










Above: basement

Above: ground floor









Architects: Jackson Clements Burrows Pty Ltd Architects
Location: Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia
Project Team: Tim Jackson, Jon Clements, Graham Burrows, Kim Stapleton, George Fortey, Brett Nixon
Design duration: 12 months
Construction duration: 18 months
Landscape: Site Office Landscape Architects
Mechanical: Griepink & Ward Pty Ltd
Structural: Adams Consulting Engineers Pty Ltd
Contractor: BD Projects
Constructed Area: 400 sqm
Photographs: John Gollings