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Revisited: The Treehouse by Christine Vadasz Architect
Nestled into the hillside above Wategos Beach in Byron Bay, the home Christine Vadasz designed for her young family in 1977 was a testing ground for a holistic approach to environmental design. Almost 50 years after it was completed, it endures as an unpretentious example of architecture in equilibrium with landscape.
ResidentialFirst House: Avalon Beach House by Sam Crawford and Emili Fox
Abundant enthusiasm outweighed limited experience for Sam Crawford when his sister called with an invitation to renovate a tired 1950s beach shack. Sam reflects on how this house, designed in collaboration with Emili Fox, kickstarted his career in architecture.
ResidentialFirst House: Honeydew by Sparks Architects
In the design of their own home on the Sunshine Coast, Dan and Margo Sparks relished the chance to investigate sustainable design and construction. Dan looks back on the lessons they learnt about efficient, small-scale living.
ResidentialRevisited: HH House by Donovan Hill, 1993
Unencumbered by convention and brimming with ambition, this remarkable addition to a Brisbane cottage is likened by its owners to “living in an artwork.”
ResidentialRevisited: Wright House II
Designed by Robin Boyd in 1962 to replace an earlier house that had been destroyed by bushfire, Wright House II united a robust, fire-resistant material palette with an expansive spatial language. The lovingly preserved house endures as one of Boyd’s most compelling designs.
ResidentialRetrospective: CH2 (2006)
Melbourne’s Council House 2 has achieved celebrity “green building” status in the 16 years since its completion. On a recent site visit with Rob Adams, who oversaw the project for the City of Melbourne, Stephen Choi considered what the profession might learn from CH2’s still-evolving sustainability measures.
CommercialRevisited: Glass House by Bill and Ruth Lucas
Designed in 1957 by Bill and Ruth Lucas, the Glass House was a radical experiment in living. Elevated on its sloping Castlecrag site, the building was both a prototype for an economical structural system and a vision for life lived in the landscape.
ResidentialFirst House: Sugar Gum House by Rob Kennon
Tasked with replacing a tumbledown but treasured Otways beach shack where he had spent his own childhood summers, Rob Kennon aspired for an efficient and elemental home that framed the rugged landscape. Twelve years on, Rob reflects on how this formative first project shaped his practice.
ResidentialRevisited: Lobster Bay House
Designed by Ian McKay for photojournalist David Moore, Lobster Bay House (1972) sustains an elemental occupation of its remarkable, rocky site. Carefully preserved over the decades, the house endures as a cherished retreat for Moore’s family.
ResidentialRevisited: Fisher House
In the bushy Melbourne suburb of Warrandyte, the modular design of Alistair Knox’s Fisher House (1970) has been sensitively updated to retain its celebration of the unique Australian light and the surrounding “sun-evolved” landscape.
ResidentialFirst House: Mary Residence
Drawing inspiration from the dexterously planned terraced house renovations of London, Matt Gibson’s first house spurred a passion for melding heritage elements and contemporary design that continues in his practice today.
ResidentialFirst House: Armature for a Window
In the process of designing their first house – and their own house – Anita Panov and Andrew Scott re-imagined a small and narrow terrace house as a frame for an overscaled window to the garden.
ResidentialRevisited: Wilson Beach House
Wilson Beach House on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast offers an enduring example of elegant and expressive Australian design.
ResidentialFirst House: Vincent Street House
Sketched on a napkin, the first house of Perth architect Finn Pedersen was designed “with great bravado” and inspired by the houses of Le Corbusier and Charles and Ray Eames.
ResidentialRevisited: Porter House
Located in Warrandyte, Victoria, Porter House launched the practice of young mid-century architect Albert Ross, who had cut his teeth working at celebrated studio Grounds, Romberg and Boyd.
ResidentialBushland machine: Osborne House
With a panorama of bush and water as its backdrop, the design for this house, built in 1995, uses materials and details reminiscent of wooden boatbuilding to immerse those who dwell there in the magic of the surrounds.
ResidentialFirst house: Clare Cousins Architects
Clad in pleated copper, this addition to a Federation-era house was the first “real” commission for architect Clare Cousins, who reflects on how projects like this one went on to become a staple for the practice.
ResidentialRevisited: Ooi House
Ooi House by Kerry Hill Architects is a seminal project in Australia’s modern architectural canon. Revisiting the icon more than two decades after its construction leaves the striking impression of a nuanced home inextricably bound to its site.
ResidentialFirst House: 632 Bourke
When architect William Smart found a pair of dilapidated buildings in Sydney’s Surry Hills, he immediately saw their potential and set to work designing a new home for himself and his partner and for his then burgeoning practice.
ResidentialFirst House: Zigzag Cabin
Acting as a “billboard in the bush” for architecture, this colourful cabin that was completed almost twenty years ago, was a first foray into the design-build process for architect Drew Heath.
ResidentialBirdsong and rain: Rosebery House revisited
Responding to a ridgeline that runs west across the gully, this Brisbane home designed by Brit Andresen and Peter O’Gorman illustrates the expressive capacity of Australian hardwood timber and creates a visceral connection to the rainforest.
ResidentialFirst House: Essex House
Working with an experienced engineer, a young Andrew Maynard used his first project as a testing ground for ideas, many of which form the basis of the design fundamentals he applies today.
ResidentialRevisited: Bridgford House 1953
Thanks to dutiful custodianship and light-handed restoration, Bridgford House, designed in 1953, is transportive. Harking back to 1950s summer vacations, the house in Black Rock, Victoria, is a testament to Good Life Modernism.
ResidentialFirst house: House Shmukler
Taking inspiration from the whimsy and rigour of artist Sol LeWitt, Tribe Studio’s inventive, sustainable first house paints a “portrait” of its clients and hints at what would become the studio’s prevailing concerns.
ResidentialRevisited: Carpenter Hall House
This extraordinarily creative, somewhat bewildering timber-and-tin tower on the slopes of Brisbane’s Eildon Hill has been a labour of love for more than thirty years and was declared finished by the architect Russell Hall, and the client in 2018.
ResidentialPainterly vision: Crigan House
Allan Powell’s distinctive St Kilda home, that “reveals a Palladian strand in its lineage … a structure designed to host parties.”
ResidentialFirst House: 1+2 Architecture
1+2 Architecture revisits Walla Womba Guest House, the practice’s first project from 2004.
Hospitality, Residential