Design
A large sink at the far end of the kitchen counter is multipurpose. “It can be used for laundry, as a bath for children and for the washing of large pots and pans. It’s a memory of the precast tubs found beneath many Queenslanders,” says Ellway, referring to traditional Queensland homes that are often elevated. A semioutdoor bathroom with a shower is at the end of the kitchen, enclosed by a textured-glass sliding door. It’s next to a fern-filled garden and opens to the front void, enhancing the terrarium-like space.
A large concrete countertop extends along the western wall of the house, which is partly below ground level to protect the living areas from afternoon sun. The cantilevered concrete counter is structural, poured as part of the wall construction and then honed and polished. Wide wooden drawers and the dishwasher hang from the underside of the counter. “Keeping the polished-concrete floor visible below the cabinetry makes the space feel larger and wider — an important strategy in a house of only [1,130 square feet],” Ellway says. A wood pelmet hides the custom exhaust fan and the LED lighting. The fridge, washer, dryer and pantry are at the other end of the kitchen. “The pantry has a secret,” Ellway says. “A large metal hinge allows it to pivot away from the wall as a complete piece of cabinetry. Behind it sit many of the services for the house, including instantaneous hot water, patch panels, LED transformers, a solar inverter and a space for future batteries.”
The kitchen island sits on a narrow, rendered-block plinth, which reduces the island’s scale and makes it feel more like a piece of furniture floating in the space. The island is made of solid blackbutt and topped with black granite. Ceramics fill the open shelves, while appliances are concealed on the other side.
Look up from the dining area and you can see the bathroom vanity, giving a sense of the openness and connection within the interior.
The rest of the space is lit by garden lighting outside the windows to enrich the sense of being surrounded by lush greenery.
The lower level has been designed and detailed to conjure memories of the former shadowy undercroft, with black-stained ceilings creating compression as you enter,” Ellway says. A solid wall to the west protects the space from afternoon sun, while fine-textured glass to the east captures winter morning sunlight.
The stairs at the front of the house descend to the garden at the bottom of the void. Concrete blocks on the retaining wall create a terraced garden.
Ellway worked closely with cabinetmakers and carpenters. Carpenter and welder Ash Brown did much of the steel work, experimenting with less conventional ideas such as the bathroom’s rail and shelf.
Blackbutt boards offer a warm, free-draining surface. Regular floor tiles lie beneath them.
Everyone can communicate while breakfast or dinner is being made. Not just on the upper floor of the cottage, but down through the void to the kitchen and living areas.”
Inside the foyer, Strand composed a Mondrian-like window to “create a connection and transition between the outside and inside,” he says. “So when the clients come home from their offices, they come in via a space that has a commercial storefront window and door assembly.” The rectangular oculus punctuates the roof line, which juts out into space. “A lot of architecture has punched windows,” Strand says, “but I really go for corner windows, corner glass, so you’re more interactive with the outside.”
At the rear of the house, you can see a fourth shed, which wasn’t built for cost reasons but will be added
Checkerboard Water Garden, a checkered arrangement of water pools and beautiful maples, was designed by architect Kengo Kuma and assembled with lumber. Its cool, breezy ambience is in keeping with Japanese gardens that create natural scenes in a limited space. If you are tired from walking the grounds in the midsummer heat, take a break and soak your feet in the cool, refreshing water. See more photos of the project
Enter the Hiragana-no Spiral House, enclosed in a circular wall. The interior has almost no physical objects, except for a kitchen island and a square core holding the bathroom below and a bedroom on top. The entire curved wall is a projection screen where one can indulge in movies and videos, music, and the internet via the Internet of Things from anywhere in the home.
This home looks like a four-by-four enlarged to a massive size. The facade displays impossibly huge growth rings, but in fact all the wood-grain patterns inside and outside the home are prints. The facade growth rings are a print of a super-high-resolution scan of a Yoshino cedar plank enlarged 20 times. Toppan Printing’s state-of-the-art gravure print technology achieves exquisitely detailed grain gradation and the realism of polished wood.
A system designed by the LixiI corporation addresses this problem by clustering all key water amenities and directing pipe ducts to the ceiling. Wastewater is drawn up and away with a pump. This eliminates the construction and layout limitations imposed by underfloor plumbing, thus making it possible to install wet area equipment anywhere inside the home.
The ground floor serves as a meeting space for the community, and includes a kitchen for preparing tea and meals. The table, tableware and other furniture and accessories are made of Yoshino-sugi cedar, considered the finest in Japan. The second floor is for guests. The building will be relocated to a site next to the Yoshino River, so it was designed with a long shape for enjoying a view of the water. A room on the second floor provides a magnificent view of the sunrise. See more photos of the project
Gold-anodized aluminum sheets line the ceiling of the chapel.
Inside, it’s cool and comfortable thanks to the 18-inch-thick rammed-earth walls and the 3-foot-deep sand hill above. A restrained, natural and robust selection of materials and furniture is featured throughout.
Last, but not least, is this lap pool in the lower-level basement, used by the owner every day. The pool area was created by completely rebuilding the foundation of the barn, which was no small feat.
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