Architecture & Urbanism
In an ever-evolving technological world, one’s focus and engagement is increasingly concerned with the virtual. In my view, the very physicality of architecture provides a stabilising anchor to one’s sense of self through its unique capacity to engage all our senses simultaneously. The haptic realm that is unique to architecture acts a counter-measure to the cerebral but strangely hollow space of the virtual.
This design for a renovation to a full-floor apartment in Melbourn’e heritage Toronto House building in Flinders Lane, seeks to express these ideas. The project uses a modest client brief, - add two bedrooms with en-suite to an existing linear apartment loft volume, and create a new space that provides a spiritual anchoring for a much travelled family with teenage children.
Ideas of permanence, anchoring, nesting, enveloping and gravitas became important factors in our design thinking.
Blue Cave - A curvilinear vessel of space, the blue cave, finished in a fine, sky-blue venetian plaster, houses the two bedrooms and defines them as quiet personal retreats. Light falls into their interior through the large, spout-like forms on the caves.
White Nest - The linear white storage wall, the white nest, glossily white and sleek, houses multiple functions: office, ‘garage’, storage, reading niche, bar niche. It also houses a small army of seating and storage mobiles on that are used to create seating banquettes and social gathering settngs when required.
Traditional and Continuing Land
Country of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunerong people
Client
Private
Area
375 m2
Levels
1
Status
Complete
Genre
Meta-Modern
Themes
Anchoring / Formal Dissonance / Retreat
Award
House Magazine Award:
Finalist; Best Apartment, Unit, or Townhouse (2013)
This design for a renovation to a full-floor apartment in Melbourn’e heritage Toronto House building in Flinders Lane, seeks to express these ideas. The project uses a modest client brief, - add two bedrooms with en-suite to an existing linear apartment loft volume, and create a new space that provides a spiritual anchoring for a much travelled family with teenage children.
Ideas of permanence, anchoring, nesting, enveloping and gravitas became important factors in our design thinking.
Blue Cave - A curvilinear vessel of space, the blue cave, finished in a fine, sky-blue venetian plaster, houses the two bedrooms and defines them as quiet personal retreats. Light falls into their interior through the large, spout-like forms on the caves.
White Nest - The linear white storage wall, the white nest, glossily white and sleek, houses multiple functions: office, ‘garage’, storage, reading niche, bar niche. It also houses a small army of seating and storage mobiles on that are used to create seating banquettes and social gathering settngs when required.
Traditional and Continuing Land
Country of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunerong people
Client
Private
Area
375 m2
Levels
1
Status
Complete
Genre
Meta-Modern
Themes
Anchoring / Formal Dissonance / Retreat
Award
House Magazine Award:
Finalist; Best Apartment, Unit, or Townhouse (2013)