This new residence in Mt. Eliza responds carefully to its remarkable corner site. In addition to following the contours of the land, the living and master bedroom pavilions angle off the street grid to frame the prioritized ocean views to the north and west as well as orient the primary spaces of the home to maximize the sun.
The front of the home is accessed via a cascading steel canopy covered pathway into a seemingly modest single storey home. Upon entering however, the grand scale of the residence is revealed. A truly impressive master suite has a north and east facing balcony which will allows the clients to both wake up with the morning sun and maximize the view corridor down Kunyung Road to clearly highlight the striking Melbourne skyline across Port Phillip Bay. The light flooded main entry “spine” leads to a double height void containing a floating staircase to the second living area below. The spine and stair intentionally culminate and focus the eye into a two storey window wall which greets guests with spectacular framed views across the bay.
Adding to the visual extension and feeling of space which is apparent upon entry, the stepped down open living, dining and kitchen area is just beyond the double height void. Finally, a shaded west facing deck, extends off the living area above the pool towards the sun’s final dramatic destination over the faint silhouette of the Mornington Peninsula National Park in the distance.
For over a decade, Christopher Megowan, director of M – A, has passionately dedicated himself to the study, teaching and practice of Architecture, design and development. Christopher earned a Bachelor of Architecture (5 Year professional degree) from the University of Southern California in 2008 where he received numerous honours, scholarships, grants and awards. Acting as owner, designer, and developer, he completed his first built work prior to graduating University. Since then, he has been involved in projects ranging from bar & cafe fitouts to single family homes & 50 unit mixed use developments. Prior to starting M – A, Christopher cut his teeth working for award winning Architecture practices in Los Angeles, London, and Melbourne. Christopher has taught multiple design and construction studios at the University of Melbourne and Monash University at both undergraduate and graduate levels as well as served as a guest critic in Architecture for several different courses.
The owner’s of ‘The Ash’ came to Dalecki Design looking to create a light, bright home with a functional layout utilising a layered, mixed material palette. As a young, growing family, it was imperative that the home was not only suited to their current lifestyle needs, but also supported them through the different stages of life. It was also extremely important for the family that there be a strong connection between the indoor and outdoor living zones that takes advantage of the block’s northern aspect.
Working closely with the client, Dalecki Design was able to create a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom family home with a durable, mixed material palette that will stand the test of time, with the inherent beauty of each product ageing alongside the growing family.
Dalecki Design created a ‘U’ shape layout for the home, which wraps around a central courtyard and alfresco zone, creating a cohesive indoor/outdoor connection. This layout allows the home owners to have views to the outdoors from all areas of the house, whilst also allowing the northern sun to penetrate through the open courtyard and into the home.
Openings throughout the home are strategically positioned to gain winter northern sun whilst also capturing the summer breezes. The pond on the southern orientation of the home acts as a ‘cooling zone’ to further assist in cooling these summer breezes before they enter the home, whilst also providing a dual sided outdoor view from the open plan living zone.
Given the home’s footprint takes up a large percentage of the block, layered landscaping has been incorporated to ensure that wherever the family may be within the home, they will have clear views of external greenery. This includes the rooftop garden which has been incorporated to provide a sense of being grounding with the surrounding environment from the upper level of the home.
The layered material palette incorporates feature brick and block work which seamlessly flows from inside to out, as well as exposed concrete and timber to add a textural dimension to the simple form of the house. The continuation of the layered, mixed material palette from the internal to external zones aids in the flow between the indoors and outdoors, creating cohesion between these two spaces. The home owners experience the sense of cohesion between the two zones as soon as they walk through the front doors, being greeted with obscured views of the central courtyard through a breeze wall screen, providing an immediate connection whilst still retaining an aspect of privacy.
The home has been separated in to two distinct zones over two floors, allowing both the children and the parents to have their own space and privacy as they grow. The home’s compact, yet spacious functional layout means there are no large distances to travel between internal spaces, with the ability to easily site and communicate between spaces creating a sense of connection internally between all zones.
A feature two and a half storey entry void, with north facing clerestory windows have been incorporated to flood natural light to the central passage, brightening a traditionally dark area of the home and diffusing light throughout to create a light, bright home.
Dalecki Design is a multi award winning boutique Perth Building Designer.
Founded by Janik Dalecki, the firm delivers bespoke design solutions tailored to meet each of their client’s unique ways of living.
With over a decade of experience in the industry, Dalecki Design has developed a reputation for delivering contemporary designs and interiors finished to exceptional quality.
Specialising in custom home design, with a particular focus on adaptive reuse, Dalecki Design enjoys the challenge of utilising character structures as a basis for modern homes that meet current living needs.
Dalecki Design has provided design solutions catered specifically to client’s needs and budgets across a variety of scales and functions, for home additions and renovations as well as new developments.
As a firm, Dalecki Design has a strong belief that design should contribute positively to the environment. This has led to a focus on sustainable design solutions, in particular passive solar design.
After living in Manhattan for decades, the owners sought to trade the confines of city living for a site with sweeping views of the Hudson River. They wanted a compact home that was as extraordinary as the vista it offered, equipped with just enough space for two.
The site is entered via a winding gravel drive through meadow grasses and lilacs up to a framed view of the Hudson River through the carport. The lightness and reflectivity of the façade enhance the reading of a hovering volume in the sky, resting on just a few thin steel columns. Located on one of Croton-on-Hudson’s highest overlooks, the house was conceived around maximizing panoramic views of the town and river below via floor-to-ceiling windows across the façade. Meanwhile clerestory windows along the front maintain privacy from the drive, while providing natural daylight.
The slatted ipe volume contains a stair and elevator to the main level. The living space is open and airy – fitting for a house floating in the trees. A long kitchen island and low cabinetry near the built-in banquette provide ample storage while maintaining sight lines to the landscape. The interior palette of white oak and light grey provides a muted backdrop to highlight select pieces from the owner’s pottery collection. The master suite has built-in wardrobes flanking either side in lieu of a master closet to maximize space. The built-in bed conceals a TV on a lift mechanism, so it can be hidden when not in use, preserving the view through the full height windows. With the bath open to the bedroom, the couple can get glimpses of the water from the vanity.
The home office, serving as a threshold to the guest bedroom, offers additional views when seated at the built-in desk. The guest room features a murphy bed, so it can be used as additional living space when unoccupied. A covered central deck, enclosed on three sides, can transform into a seasonal outdoor room with a firepit and drop-down insect screens. Below, a long lap pool and deck provide shade while exercising or lounging in the water. Metals panels on the underside bounce light and reflections from the pool water below.
The exterior materials were chosen for durability and longevity – metal paneling, untreated ipe, and pvc – guaranteeing that minimal maintenance is required. The Hudson River House’s simple form, extensive glazing, and subdue material palette reinforce the project’s initial goal – prioritizing the stunning natural landscape.
RESOLUTION: 4 ARCHITECTURE is an internationally published and highly acclaimed ten-person firm, completing projects in the residential, commercial, and public realms. Founded in 1990 by Joseph Tanney and Robert Luntz, RES4 is dedicated to addressing 21st century conditions through intelligent architecture and design. The firm consciously works to enhance sustainable practices that address the current and long-term challenges facing our dynamic communities. Through iterative investigation, RES4 works to shape the palpable, illuminate the obscure, and understand the interface of architecture, its users, and its context.
Recipient of the NZIA New Zealand small project architecture award, the simple skewed form of this house has an appropriate scale and presence within the wider landscape. On arrival visitors are led up a path alongside tall cedar screens before stepping up onto a deck and informally entering. Capturing this sense of informality was a key design driver in creating a small family home that felt like a retreat. The kitchen is the hub of the home with the deck slicing through the plan. The living space steps down into a light filled volume reaching out to the river. A mezzanine pulls over above with an exposed bookcase balustrade providing a sense of homeliness. The rear of the house, delineated by the seamless pivot door, provides a place to retreat.
Capturing a sense of informality was a key design driver in creating a small family home that felt like a retreat. The Bach typology of blurring of spaces and breaking down of thresholds corresponds with the expressed natural materials and tectonic detailing.
Tarragona’s historical stone construction tradition, as well as the image of the Roman city walls, made us decide to treat the house’s ground floor as a dry stone plinth emerging from the ground.
The pine forest where the land is located creates a series of vertical and repetitive shadowy traces of trunks, branches and leaves. The light that sifts through the forest generates pleasant atmospheres of lights and shadows.
The first floor’s white volume, as a purer and lighter piece, rests on the stone base. Like a white ribbon, it seems to break up softly on the south facade as voids, terraces, white lattices and pergolas appear. These elements filter the light, more geometrically, but generating similar atmospheres as those of the natural environment. On the bedrooms’ terraces the lattices provide us more privacy.
The slightly sloping terrain forces us to compose the house on 3 levels, the entrance, the ground floor and terraces and garden. Integrating the position of the house to the existing ground. Its L-shaped plan embraces the space, creating a visually enclosed environment, whilst integrating it in the natural one. This move converts the rest of the garden in an area of enjoyment.
The two very contrasting types of facades, the white and the stone, are related in balance. The white facade made with a single layer of mortar and paint on thermal insulation panels prevents thermal bridges and guarantees the climate efficiency of the house. The stone facade is placed on prefabricated concrete panels. The prefabrication allows for a relative easy in construction system, reducing time, cost and waste generated on site.
The ground floor layout encompasses the house’s main rooms: living room, dining room and kitchen. This floor possesses wide-open spaces, giving maximum visual continuity with the outside terraces. The first floor overlooks the sea. This floor hosts the bedrooms, forming terraces to south protecting the interior facade from direct solar radiation during the warmer months.
The Studio Dom Arquitectura is located in Barcelona, where architectural works, landscaping interventions, ephemeral installations, interior design and refurbishments, and renovations, both in Spain and abroad are created, projected and developed.
Pablo Serrano Elorduy
Blanca Elorduy
Pablo Serrano Elorduy (Barcelona, 1979), during his studies at ETSAB Barcelona, he carried out the course “Cátedra Blanca” coordinated by Carlos Ferrater, with whom he later worked in his studio in 2003. He graduated as an architect in 2004 and in 2005 he worked at Scott Brownrigg Architecture Office in London.
Back in Barcelona, Pablo worked in Bach Arquitectes studio until 2006, when he began his own career as an architect, and in 2009 founded Dom Arquitectura.
The studio won the ideas competition for the Music School “Taller de Musics” in Barcelona. Since 2010 the studio has expanded working on projects all around Spain and abroad in other countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, Angola, Brazil and the UK.
In 2014 studies the Passivhaus module, from the Master of Sustainable Design and Architecture Bioclimatic to nearly zero energy buildings.
Blanca Elorduy (Bilbao, 1951), studied Interior Designer Interior at Llar School of Interior in 1972, where she later taught. Since then she has exercised as interior designer in refurbishments of premises, homes, offices and restaurants among others. Blanca has an extensive experience in landscape architecture, with several projects in gardens, houses and renovation.
CONTACT
dom arquitectura
Studio Dom
Bordeus 22-24, Low Floor
08029 Barcelona
+34 93 410 08 14
info@dom-arquitectura.com
Situated on a secluded lot in Quogue and offering views of the bay from its rooftop terrace, this new modern house is composed of a series of stacked rectangular volumes that loosely form an L-shape. Clad in tongue-and-groove horizontal cedar and punctuated by square and rectangular windows, the house features multiple glass doors on the ground level that slide into the wall. All public spaces — living room, dining room, family room and kitchen — flow seamlessly onto the ipe wood terrace and lap pool. Above are three bedrooms, the library and a second-floor roof garden, all of which provide access to the rooftop terrace. Ground source heat pumps, an extremely well insulated envelope, and solar panels are some of the elements that provide this 3,400 square-foot house with sustainable and efficient energy.
All images courtesy of Austin Patterson Disston Architects
Austin Patterson Disston Architects
David E. Austin, AIA
McKee Patterson, AIA, NCARB
Stuart L. Disston, AIA, LEED GA
Austin Patterson Disston Architects is a full-service architectural and planning firm with offices in Southport, Connecticut and Quogue, Long Island. Founded in 1982 the firm includes three partners: McKee Patterson, AIA, Stuart Disston, AIA, LEED GA, and David Austin, AIA, and a staff of 23 — 6 registered architects, 2 LEED accredited and 12 architects/designers. The firm’s work is largely focused on bespoke projects, residential, hospitality and private clubs.
Alella is a municipality located between the Mediterranean Sea and the coastal mountain range: in a relatively short distance, the orography of the territory rises from the sea level to 400 meters high. Due to this situation, sloping areas were historically organized on terraces stabilized with stonewalls, to be cultivated. The territory outside the urban nucleus was structured by means of large farms, where large houses with different architectural, landscape, social and heritage interests were built in each one of them; those who gave name to each one of the zones that occupied. Subsequently, during the 20th century, the demographic pressure and the change in the economy led to the appearance of several urbanizations that meant the fragmentation of the territory.
The housing lot is located in an enclave between a fragmented and consolidated area with recently built buildings and another area occupied by a historical estate of the ones described above. So that it transitions between a landscape before the 20th century and another one of the present century. In its initial state, the lot presents a composition more typical of the historical landscape than fragmented. Being stabilized horizontally by means of three longitudinal containment walls – north / south direction – of three meters of height each, that structure the terrain on three terraces. It also contains an old dry stone chapel and a series of vegetation and consolidated own trees, with an interest in being conserved.
Maintaining the original character of the place becomes the main project premise. To preserve the soul and the morphology, to preserve each one of those things that make it unique and characteristic: the terraces, the retaining walls, the different elements of pre-existing vegetation and the dry stone chapel. These elements are delimited and identified to be preserved in the plant and once they have been delimited, a respectful implementation of housing directly on the existing land is established, so that the house coexists and interacts spatially and functionally with these elements. The resulting ensemble seeks to be a whole, timeless and heterogeneous, that is part of the place and the landscape. Likewise, it is proposed to naturalize the unbuilt spaces and rehabilitate and re-landscape landscaping.
The housing program consists of a living room, dining room, kitchen, rooms, studios, bathrooms, cinema, wellness area, parking for vehicles and spaces for storage, services and facilities; with a constructed surface resulting from 869m2, and therefore, a size more typical of the old stately houses existing in the municipality of Alella than of the houses built in the last half century. Due to the dimensions of the program, a strategy of implementation and hybrid landscape integration is included which includes two concepts: harmonization and monumentalization. The harmonization in terms of using the same stone in the area with which the chapel is made to finish pre-existing retaining walls, plant new Mediterranean vegetation in line with the existing one and place wood and stone together with elements of water. And the monumentalization to create a monolithic structure of reinforced concrete, punctually supported by steel pillars and lime mortar lined with the will to be a Mediterranean sculpture that emerges from a natural field that maintains its historical roots.
When analyzing the program and the size of the housing required, the volumetry is implemented through two floors in each preexisting terrace, concentrating the larger volumetrics on the two lower terraces, so that the terrace most visually exposed has the smaller volumetry. The house is structured in four differentiated levels: 181, 184, 187 and 190. The floor level 181 contains parking, wellness space, and storage areas; the floor level 184 contains the day zone; the floor level 187 contains the night area and the floor level 190 contains a study that connects with a green terrace. Each one of the rooms focuses on the different visuals that the landscape offers: the sea, the valley, the olive fields and the small neighbouring pond. As for the pre-existing stonewalls, once rehabilitated and covered with dry stone from the area, they go through the house coinciding with the most relevant spaces. The covers are landscaped with varying degrees of inclination, with the intention of visually collecting the landscape, pretending to be part of it and also pretending that from a bird sight the presence of the house is not perceived, but rather a completely naturalized terrain.
The housing structure itself provides solutions of passive solar architecture, through porches of different dimensions and pergolas of wooden beams on the southern facade. Rainwater from landscaped covers is collected in buried deposits and reused for irrigation of the unbuilt garden area. In addition, the house integrates a system of air conditioning through aerothermal technology and double-flow ventilation, which, together with the natural thermal insulation of the covers, the home automation installation, the construction system itself and the exhaustive study of the composition of the different skins of the building; they have made this house to have obtained an energy certification A.
The equipment of the house is resolved by incorporating integrated furniture that enhances the spaces in which it is part. Regarding the final materiality, it is proposed that this generates a cozy, friendly and connected home with the outside. Made with openings and pavement with stony texture that goes through the house from outside to inside and from inside to outside, and the use of neutral colours and warm wood for the rest of the materials.
