Ebb and flow
Baber Studio with Marc and Co
Informal interaction is encouraged within this tactile and flexible space for a young family.
An open kitchen in this Brisbane home supports informal interaction, providing a tactile, imaginative and flexible space for a young family.
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01 Living spaces occupy the ground level, expressed as an undercroft that opens to the front and rear gardens. Artwork: Deb Mansfield.
Responding to a brief for a new house with “spaces that would be memorable for [the clients’] children,” architects Kim Baber of Baber Studio and Angus Munro of Marc and Co have designed a bold and experimental house to nurture the imagination. This new residence in Brisbane’s West End “reinterprets the tectonics and spatiality” of the traditional Queenslander cottage, explains Kim. The idea is to allow the ancillary spaces of the Queenslander – the attic and the undercroft – to inform the design of the entire house, removing the conventional but arguably less architecturally interesting cluster of rooms and perimeter verandah that are the principal living quarters of most houses of this type. For the architects, the residual zones of the attic and the undercroft – informal, yet so characteristic of the Queenslander – are beguiling places of mystery and adventure.
Living spaces in the undercroft emphasize the connection to landscape, a feature at odds with the typical raised cottage. The sense of flow that is characteristic of the undercroft has been retained, allowing visual connection and cross-ventilation between the front and rear gardens. Structural elements are evocative of the undercroft but have also been adapted beyond their utilitarian precedents. Square concrete posts have become more elegant circular columns, formed in situ, and the exposed roof above has been painted white. Atop the columns, lights wrapped with folded brass are a decorative interpretation of the steel-cap termite barrier.
The kitchen, immediately adjacent the garden and living zones,
fulfils the client brief for a social and interactive space. In keeping with the idea of informal occupation, joinery is conceived as loose furniture with slender timber legs and cabinets elevated off the ground. The pantry and laundry are concealed under the stairs, allowing the kitchen to feel open and less structured. Encaustic tiles set into the concrete floor are a more robust version of putting a rug down.
Joinery in a deep green hue and the large windows overlooking the garden are sympathetic to landscape. Interior designer Rachael Gwaro of Marc and Co explains that the abstract, leaf-like pattern of the encaustic tiles gives the impression that leaves have blown in from outside and pooled on the kitchen floor. Materials, including handmade timber handles from In-Teria and brass tapware, celebrate tactility.
In the attic space, the interior volume is defined by the pitched ceilings, with few walls and doors. Kim describes the passage through the attic as a “journey into the canopy of a tree,” in which different rooms are gradually discovered. In the ensuite, the raked ceiling accentuates the sensation of occupying the roof. Smallformat mosaic tiles on the wall change subtly in colour with shifts in the light throughout the day. A change in flooring, from cork to tiles, separates the dressing room from the ensuite without the addition of a door, while a long concrete bench does dual function as vanity and dressing table.
02 Large sliding doors enhance the relationship between kitchen and garden. Tiles inset into the concrete act as a decorative rug. 03 The kitchen joinery is raised off the ground to look like loose furniture. Handmade timber handles were selected for their tactility.
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04 A concrete vanity connects the dressing room to the ensuite, with a change in flooring marking the threshold. 05 Exposed trusses emphasize the expression of the upper level as an attic.
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Architect
Baber Studio
9/173 Boundary Street West End Qld 4101
+61 7 3192 9640 mail@baberstudio.com.au baberstudio.com.au
Marc and Co
5 Paris Street
West End Qld 4101
+61 7 3844 0880 mail@marcandco.com.au marcandco.com.au
Project team
Kim Baber, Angus Munro, Joe Pappalardo, Rachael Gwaro, Julia Thorpe
Builder
MCD Constructions
Consultants Structural engineer: Optimum Structures Landscaping: Steven Clegg Design Kitchen products
Internal walls: Off-board concrete; plasterboard Flooring: Burnished concrete with wax sealant; Bespoke
Tile and Stone by Earp Bros encaustic terrazzo tiles Joinery: Concrete benchtops; 2-pac polyurethane cupboard fronts; In-Teria Tasmanian oak timber handles
Sinks and tapware: Blanco stainless steel under-counter sink; Brodware Yokato fittings; Belfast Sinks Butler ceramic sink
Appliances: Pitt Cusin threeburner cooktop; Miele 60 cm pyrolytic oven and integrated dishwasher; Smeg side-byside fridge
Furniture: Custom-made solid timber dining table by Darby Munro
Bathroom products Internal walls: Classic Ceramics Seed ceramic mosaic in ‘Nuova Lino’ (ensuite)
Flooring: Corksribas natural cork tiles; Renditions Tiles vitrified porcelain mosaic (bathroom); Agglo Baghin Ecostone terrazzo tiles (ensuite)
Joinery: Concrete benchtops; 2-pac polyurethane cupboard fronts; Auhaus brushed-brass handles
Tapware and fittings: Brodware City Plus basin taps, shower fittings and accessories in chrome (bathroom); Brodware Yokato basin taps, shower fittings and accessories in brushed brass (ensuite)
Sanitaryware: Caroma toilet suites; Rogerseller undercounter white ceramic basins Furniture: Custom built-in bookshelf