We hope to have some images of the finished work in the next couple of days. For the moment here are a few images of the Vizzini Alberta stone bath being craned up to the seventh floor.

Vizzini bath being craned into the Vaucluse Apartment building

Bath heading for the seventh floor

Below is the link to the e-book:

http://www.ebooks.trendsideas.com/Book697

New pond inserted into the original concrete floor.

New lightwell and kitchen in Newtown Warehouse, Sydney.

Another area in which terracing is appropriate is multifamily housing. This three-unit building in Australia designed by Rudolfsson Alliker is particularly well done, partly because it resembles a single-family house in execution. This backyard view reveals each level, but only the top two levels (comprising one unit) are visible from the street. Terracing works to deal with the steep topography of the site.

Here is the dining room of the middle apartment, which is afforded a double-height space. A mezzanine overlooking the dining space takes advantage of the height and the views from the glass over the sliding wall.

Here is a view from the kitchen and dining area of the lowest unit, the lucky one that is afforded a lawn right outside the sliding glass wall.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/2050818

It will house two shops and eight apartments and should be quite a contemporary addition to what is currently a pretty rundown streetscape.

Early sketch design for mixed use building

Shops below and two levels of apartments above.

The article is titled “12 Singular Architectural Interiors -Modern materials and masterful architecture make these interiors visually arresting”. Here is the link:

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/1808616/list/12-Singular-Architectural-Interiors

And the image that John Hill selected:

Stair and kitchen at the Clovelly House

The scope was to renovate the existing 1950′s brick and tile house and to add a living room at the rear and a carport at the street front. The design underwent many changes during the council process but the simple form of the house remained in place.

The inspiration for the form of the house was Griffins ideas of how the houses in Castlecrag should be developed. It might be 90 years ago he penned his ideal suburb guidelines but they are still relevant today.

The ones that we cherrypicked were:

1. Use simple, unified forms to reduce the visual business of the building.
2. Use flat roofs and try to use these roofs.
3. Open the living areas to the garden with “as continuous band of glazing as possible”.
4. Make the house subservient to the landscape.

I don’t think we were completely successful in making the house subservient to the landscape however that may have change in five years time when the planted roofs are in full growth. The superb landscape design and construction is by James Salvaggio, the son of the owners.

The clients were owner builders and have done an amazing job in putting the house together and finalising all the finishes. Normally the words “oner builder” are terrifying to an architect but in this case the build quality is exceptional.

Here is the text from the awards entry:

The Griffins hated red brick and red tiled houses to the point where in 1939 Marion Griffin placed a covenant on the sale of her own properties stating that a purchaser was “not to erect a building having walls of red coloured bricks, or roofed with red coloured tiles.”

In 1954 Frank Warburton Eastwood built a house at 6 The Parapet, Castlecrag  It sat between the Johnson House and the Grant House both single storey, singular form, sandstone houses by the Griffins. The two storey walls were red face brick and the pitched roof was red tiles. It remained in it’s original state for 66 years.

The intent of the design was to increase the size of the house to allow for a family of five to live in it comfortably but at the same time to reduce the visual impact of the property. The Griffins’ 1920’s ideals are still relevant  and the primary improvements to the existing house were to remove the red tiled roof and install a flat roof and render the red face brick. The next step was to create an addition that would be a contemporary interpretation of the Griffins’ ideas.

The Griffins strongly advocated for flat roofs “Elimination of these, [pitched roofs] leaves a terrace for outlook, for secure and airy sleep-outs and for promenade and garden” Walter Burley-Griffin. It was unlikely a ‘sleep-out’ would be accepted by the neighbours however planted roofs front and back would help to reduce the scale of the additions and provide a beautiful outlook from the first floor bedrooms. The additions became two horizontal planted roofs that sit either side of the cube-like form of the original house.

Underneath the heavy slab roof the living room extension is designed to provide the maximum connection between the house and garden with oversize sliding doors opening up to the garden to the north and the pool and reserve to the east. “The proper objective in a house should be as continuous a belt as possible of windows between the landscape or garden outlook and the point of view of the eyes when seated or standing” Walter Burley-Griffin.

Stone retaining walls and garden beds have been used to integrate the house and garden into the wider landscape with the stunning landscaping designed and installed by James Salvaggio.

North facing living area opening up to garden

Living room looking east to the Castlecrag reserve

The planted roof and timber awnings seen from the bedroom

View of the extension from the swimming pool

The joiners at Kvänum have made the most beautiful solid timber drawers and doors and there is a seamless line between the splashback and the concealed cupboard behind the benchtop – a very nice product that appears unavailable yet in Australia.

The rangehood is a quad fan Miele and is available in  Australia.

New kitchen in Sweden by Rudolfsson Alliker Associates Architects

Splashback cupboard closed

The wine fridge is hidden at the end of the kitchen