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GardenHOUSE by Tzannes Associates• S Y D N E Y, N S W •

This house, comprising two beautifully detailed brick pavilions, responds directly to its environment and is attuned to the way the family intends to inhabit their new home.

Words by David WelshPhotography by Michael Nicholson

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01 The concept of twin pavilions arose from the cranked configuration of the block of land. Artwork: Isaac Julien.

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02 A covered walkway leads towards the main entrance to the internal spaces of the house, at the fulcrum of the two pavilions.

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03 The proportion, colour and texture of the exterior materials give a feeling of both warmth and strength.

04 The first pavilion, the more public of the two, contains the formal living and dining space.

Contemporary architecture, particularly the single domestic variety, is often used by the architect as a vehicle to explore any number of artistic interests. The line that exists between art and architecture can be a wiggly, cranked and blurry one

– that’s if you assume there is a line there at all. Architecture can be fashion(able), and it can sometimes even be art, but the strength of architecture – its fundamental purpose being to provide occupants with any number of requirements – can be found in itself. An architect putting a building together the best way that they can, to create something special for a client, can result in a place, an act, of real delight.

Tzannes Associates was approached by the owners of a property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs to design a new family home on a leafy site surrounded by a phalanx of long-established homes. The architects

began the process of building up a design response that was generated by considerations about how this house would respond to the site, the family that would inhabit it and the way they might use their new home. With a flood easement running through the site, the footprint of the building required careful consideration to ensure any potential flooding was ameliorated. The cranked configuration of the block suggested a building form that folded around the elbow of the site. From this, the concept of twin pavilions evolved, the pair folding around a parcel of land to form the new garden. The first pavilion, the more public of the two, contains the formal living and dining space and is set off a 4.3-metre-high loggia that runs along its length. This covered way leads towards the main entrance to the internal spaces of the house, at the fulcrum point of the composition. There is an elegant informality about this sequence. You’re not really coming up Ground floor 1:400 First floor 1:400

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1 Entry2 Garage3 Living4 Dining5 Kitchen6 Pantry7 Guest suite8 Rumpus9 Laundry10 Study

11 Bedroom12 Main

bedroom13 Terrace14 Loggia15 Pool16 Garden17 Barbecue18 Drying court 19 Shed

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05 A series of skylights delivers light deep into the pavilions, as seen here above the kitchen bench in the second pavilion.

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to a front door; after all, you’re already “in” once you come through the front gate and in under the loggia. The “front door” is more like the side door that you might duck into on your way back from the beach, or in this case the twenty-metre lap pool.

Materially, the pavilions are brick composites. The house is by no means a traditionally constructed brick building; steel and concrete are used together to adjust the composition to fit standard brick dimensions. The proportion, colour and texture of the materials chosen elicit a feeling of both warmth and strength. This is very much a sophisticated city house however, it also has a relaxed feel to it – a result of the deliberate informality that has been created

here. The choice of the elegantly proportioned bricks fits in with the practice’s long history of investigating the idea of using masonry as a curtain of sorts: sometimes thick, sometimes thin, the material – however it is used – has an innate feeling of strength, security and longevity. Like most Tzannes Associates buildings, this house is designed to last forever, to age gracefully and reinforce the practice’s approach to sustainability by providing an architecture that is built once and built well.

Robust, cost-effective brick pavers have been used on external floor surfaces. While these pavers are a material seen more often in the public realm, they are a perfect colour complement to the

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brick walls of the pavilions proper, and serve to reinforce an idea of considered robustness in the composition of the house.

Internally, the dark masonry exterior falls away to reveal blackbutt timber, white plaster walls and travertine floors served with discerning detail. Bespoke furniture elements designed by the architects work well with other furniture selections by Darren Palmer Design Studio. Bedrooms are on the upper level of the rear pavilion, the main bedroom featuring a series of large square windows that slide away to create the impression that you are in a treehouse. Windows are placed to encourage natural cross-ventilation in each pavilion, and a series of skylights delivers natural light to the kitchen, the stairwell

and some of the bathrooms beyond. I realize that I’m listing a series of quantifiable features now, which doesn’t particularly make for good reading, but it does go a way towards understanding how good, responsive architecture is created. To paraphrase Adam Caruso’s short essay “The Feeling of Things,” the skill set of a good architect, in putting together these material assemblies, creates atmospheres. These atmospheres elicit a response, and a relationship is formed between the building and the occupant.

Architecture’s relationship with our environment and with us, and the architect’s intent to make it as good as it can be, matters – and that’s what this house is about.

06 An internal material palette of blackbutt timber, white plaster walls and travertine floors contrasts with the dark masonry exterior.

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ArchitectTzannes Associates63 Myrtle StreetChippendale NSW 2008 +61 2 9319 3744tzannes@tzannes.com.autzannes.com.au

Practice profileTzannes Associates has provided architectural, urban design and interior design services since 1983 across Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

Project teamPeter John Cantrill, Neil Haybittel, Lily Tandeani, Adam Brewer, Bruce Chadlowe, Carl Holder

BuilderPaul King

ConsultantsEngineer: M Zimmerman and AssociatesLandscape design: William Dangar and AssociatesInteriors: Darren Palmer Design Studio Flood consultant: CardnoMechanical engineer: Obrart and Co Hydraulic engineer: Glenn Haig and PartnersQuantity surveyor: Donald Bayley and AssociatesSwimming pool engineer: Geoff Ninnes Fong and PartnersTown planner: Moody and Doyle Town PlanningArborist: Tree Transplanters AustraliaSteelwork: South Coast Welding and Fabrication

ProductsRoofing: Lysaght Longline 305 and Custom Orb in Colorbond ‘Loft’External walls: Austral Bricks Bowral50 dry-pressed brick in ‘Gertrudis Brown’; Lysaght Longline 305 in Colorbond ‘Loft’; Woodform

Architectural Expression Cladding in blackbutt with Sorrento profileInternal walls: Rendered brick and blockwork in Dulux Professional Enviro2 low-sheen ‘Natural White’ Windows and doors: Aneeta Windows frameless sash windows with bronze anodized frames by Evolution Windows; Panoramah double-glazed sliding door with bronze anodized frames by L’Officina By Vincenzo; custom-made blackbutt windows and doors by Woodsense JoineryFlooring: Vein-cut travertine marble from STS Stone; blackbutt timber floorboards; Cavalier Bremworth Lisburn carpet in ‘Venise’Lighting: XAL pendants from Space Lighting; Bocci pendant from Hub Furniture; LED lights (integrated into joinery/skylight) from TEC Lighting; Bega external fittings from Zumtobel Lighting; garden lighting by Hunza Lighting

Kitchen: Miele appliances; Liebherr integrated fridge; Oliveri sinks; Franke tapware; Hafele and Hettich joinery fittings; Vintec wine fridges; Smeg half dishwasher Bathroom: Astra Walker tapware; Rogerseller fittings; Duravit fittings; Kaldewei bathHeating and cooling: Daikin airconditioner installed by R&J Air Conditioning; EcoSmart ethanol fireplace in custom-designed joinery unit by Tzannes Associates External elements: Austral Bricks paving in ‘London Chestnut’Other: Custom joinery by Tzannes Associates and made by Hammercraft Joinery; custom garage door by Graham Day Doors

Floor area831.5 m2 site430 m2 floor

Time scheduleDesign, documentation: 3 years 7 monthsConstruction: 1 year 4 months

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07 The main bedroom features a series of large square windows that slide away to create the impression of being in a treehouse.