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Darling Point
When deciding to build a new home in a harbourside suburb of Sydney, the owners’ desire was simply to create a family home where they could take advantage of the home’s proximity to parks, city and harbour, as well as powerful vistas to the Bridge and Opera House.
With a fairly open and flexible brief, architects Marsh Cashman Koolloos Architects knew the design had to be responsive to the site.
Careful mapping of the sites features, including fall of the land, view corridors, potential acoustic, overshadowing and privacy problems, all determined roof form, wall and window locations, finishes and landscaping.
A mapping of local context also gave the architects a palette of traditional materials such as slate, and timber shakes, stone, copper and face brickwork. This material selection was a conscious decision to allow the new house to blend and integrate, while also addressing issues of heritage conservation.
The street facade of the demolished house was rebuilt in a similar scale, but with a different patterning treatment, that provided a memory of the past occupant. Built in the same brick colour and bond, with an introduced Flemish bond pattern becoming hit and miss screening to open terraces behind.
Face brickwork introduces you to the house, continuing inside forming the finished surface on many walls. This ribbon of brick is legible as a skin that wraps the interior and as a device to continue the cinematic journey through the house, working parallel with recycled timber boarding forming wall and floor.
Salvaged bricks, all Bowral Blue in appearance, were re-used as floor and walls to basement guest’s rooms. Re-used sit next to, and in dialogue with, the new Austral Bricks in Bowral Blue providing an intriguing textured surface.
The final architecture is unorthodox in appearance with a sculptural quality. Through the use and transformation of traditional finishes and forms a challenging work has evolved. Construction was equally challenging for the home’s builder and bricklayer, however a talented, and patient team of tradesmen working collaboratively with the architect and home’s owner produced an ideal result.
Face brickwork is an intrinsic and important part of the design concept and final product, providing strength, solidity, pattern, expression and character, even personality, that provide delight and amenity.
Quick Facts
House NameDarling Point
State NSW
Brick Type Austral Bricks in Bowral Blue
Contact Marsh Cashman Koolloos Architects
Web Site http://www.mckarchitects.com
