River Loop House | Vokes and Peters
River Loop House is an alteration and addition to a midcentury detached house in suburban Brisbane. New works reconfigure the original plan to improve social connectivity, respond to climate, and emphasise the presence of the suburban setting, including the revegetated garden and the pleasant neighbourhood streetscape (part of a popular inner city cycling route known as the ‘River Loop’).
Reconfigured internal planning, circulation and new openings create expansive and generous volumes, with only 14m2 added to the overall GFA.
The resulting building is more open and generous than its predecessor, providing a pleasant living environment for its occupants, promoting social engagement through the active occupation of the front garden and street elevation, and establishing a lush, native garden that contributes to the visual appeal of the local streetscape and the broader suburban garden setting of Yeronga.
T House | Reddog Architects
T House presents to the neighbourhood as the existing post war home small in size but big in heart. The design response was to undertake minimal interventions within the existing house while providing additional amenity via a new extension. The renovation seeks to revisit the brief for a family home 70 years after the original home was conceived, without diminishing the intrinsic qualities.
The extension was designed to break down the bulk of the of the building; giving the appearance of a collection of individual forms rather than one large house.
The first element of the extension contains the new living space located at the existing house level, the second is raised to form a vertical space which contains the primary bedroom and a small studio; enabling these spaces to be private and regenerative while also providing moments where the house can project into the public life of the neighbourhood.
Surrey Hills Garden Terrace | Kieron Gait Architects
A gentle reconfiguration of a decorative 1920’s home.
A new garden terrace acts as a filter between house and garden, managing change of level and orientation to allow the spaces to naturally connect. The terrace takes its material palette from the existing house, whilst its form anchors itself to the garden whilst bringing in light.
Internal reconfigurations used the strong lines of the existing picture rail to curate openings. The new kitchen connects to the dining room and can be configured to open to the garden or terrace with shutters that can be drawn to shield from the low western sun. Small interventions include a window seat, bathroom, laundry, powder room and lighting.
The swimming pool was given a new setting by bringing garden to the coping and building a pair of diving platforms hovering over the pool edge whilst much of the lawn has been given over to native planting .
The Hub, GHD Brisbane | GHD Design
The Hub on level 8 of GHD’s Brisbane CBD office was initiated following a two-year _Future of Work_ research project identifying aspects that draw people back to the office and attract a new generation of employees. The key spatial elements of the project are the social café, the collaboration lounge and the innovation hub. The social café, a vibrant communal space with stunning views, fosters connection. The adjacent innovation lab provides adaptable workshop settings or combined with the café for large networking events. Stepping up to the raised lounge creates a sense of formality and privacy for more structured communication in softer meeting settings. The Hub creates dynamic solutions to address the changing facets of the contemporary workspace. The result is increased employee engagement, smarter solutions and increased client satisfaction.
The Ninth Middle Ridge | Cox Architecture
The Ninth was developed for Aura, a private operator of Independent Living design on an existing 18 hole Golf course. It occupies an underused site in the northeastern corner of Middle Ridge Golf Club comprising 74 independent retirement living units apportioned across three buildings.
The proposal was structured around the creation of a village green at the heart of the three buildings.
Pedestrian access is organised under sheltered links to promote social activity, community and connectedness between residents. The village green looks out over the putting greens of the golf course and reciprocal relationship of views and backdrop are formed.
The stepped buildings use language of brick screening elements to direct views.
The scheme minimises the removal of existing vegetation and maximise views to the course and Silver Ridge beyond. The project creates a community identity within the site and has a symbiotic relationship with the Club offering shared services.
UQ Brisbane City | BVN with Architectus Conrad Gargett
The UQ Brisbane City establishes a distinctive, state of the art learning environment through the adaptive reuse of the iconic, state heritage listed Queensland National Bank and its 2008 tower extension. The reimagining of these two parts provides new environments for alumni of the University of Queensland, alongside postgraduate students within the Architecture and Business Schools.
The project sought to honour and highlight the innate gravitas and permanence of the Queensland National Bank, whilst establishing a new layer of character and identity for the University. This is achieved through a series of contemporary, floor based architectural insertions that are rooted in function and delight. The outcome is a highly functional, top tier educational facility that demonstrates how heritage sites can be respectfully adapted for modern use, while still celebrating and preserving their historical significance.
Verandah Terraces | Phorm architecture + design
Verandah Terraces is a residential building intended specifically to reflect upon Brisbane’s identity, a bridge between its past and future. Verandahs are a specific cultural territory which we, as a Practice, advocate as the appropriate ‘platform for living’ in our Subtropical City.
Verandahs were the local adaptations, introduced to temper the climate and protect the Georgian core of early colonial buildings. Verandahs are now appreciated as liminal spaces, mediating the contrasting conditions of exterior and interior, their interface with the elements creating a poetic and particular experience of place.
Our strategy has been to utilise the existing internal rooms of the cottage as the required interiors to the brief and introduce a counterpoint of open living platforms or ‘terraces’ to the Site. There is an immediacy to the structural legibility of the recycled hardwood timber frame and expressed tectonics. A build that demonstrates and celebrates its own making and crafting.
Six Chimney House | Vokes and Peters
Improving early twentieth century housing is a recurring project type which calls for an appropriate response to the specific and evolving societal, cultural, environmental and economic contexts.
The palette of the heritagelisted interwar bungalow was adapted and abstracted in the new works. Each trade is elaborated in the composition, in the manner of the arts and crafts movement.
The elevated ‘Street Terrace’ maintains the leafy character of the neighbourhood. By placing the new kitchen into the former front room, the social life of the family spills out onto the street terrace and enables one to feel a part of the city.
The ‘City Terrace’ is a private outdoor space that offers an unexpected place of prospect.
A façade of many windows sits in constant dialogue with the panoramic view of Perth CBD.
The ‘Sunken Garden’ is imagined as a cool, shady forest supporting biodiversity and idealising the presence of nature.
Blok Belongil | Blok Modular with Vokes and Peters
Blok Belongil is a new beach house produced in collaboration between Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters, exploring the adaptability and sustainability of volumetric modular building procurement.
Our client purchased a triangular shaped site, located between a public beach car park, a train line, and a busy neighbourhood feeder road, but blessed with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, the hinterland mountains, and Point Byron.
The house is conceived as a communal building (reception vestibule, lobby lounge, restaurant, private garden, guest suites etc) for our clients, their young adult children, and visitors to share time together. The house is small but spatially and experientially generous.
Modular procurement not only meets the local planning objectives (the house has to be removable in the event of rising sea levels) but building in a factory helps minimise the level of disruption (often toxic) to the local ecology of the building site and locale.
