House Taurus, 2010-2020.

Photography: Brett Boardman, Andrew Cowen, Tom Ferguson and Kien Van-Young.

The Kings Cross intersection is an iconic place in Sydney, memorable for the bright red, looping coke sign at its apex.

An adaptive re-use of the Crest Hotel, the tower is modelled as a curvaceous hourglass form on a tiled podium, a pale green version of the Coca-Cola sign.
The building’s hourglass shape is formed by adding a shaped edge to the existing slabs, tapering up and down, to maintain surrounding views. The façade system consists of double height elements, emphasising the vertical while creating a woven field across the shapely form.

The building houses 132 apartments. Many of the apartments are dual level and L-shaped in section, allowing city and harbour views and sunlight to the majority of the interiors.  

A communal garden occupies the space between the podium and tower, adding life and landscape to the streets and  grand intersection. 

Photography: Brett Boardman, Anthony Browell and Tom Ferguson

AIA NSW judge's citation:

"As you walk through the Tamarama House your eye is continually drawn to remarkable details: of animated handrails, folded steel and carved concrete. However, it is the purposeful and sequential manipulation of volumes — from the compressed entry portico to the vast living space, layered cabana and intimate master bedroom — that leaves a lasting impression of delight. This is a timeless and extraordinary piece of architectural craftsmanship where the hand of the architect is ever present. The overlapping geometries of the form and dual garden arrangement of the plan masterfully respond to the particularities of the site. Central to this gesture is the sunken front garden facing the street. Sheltered from wild weather, it acts as both a place of repose and respite, and a balanced juxtaposition to the expanse of ocean adjacent. Views are carefully framed, reflected and enclosed throughout the house, capturing moments to dwell on sky or surf.
Whilst the budget was significant, this was managed with remarkable acumen, the elegant palette of materials conveying at once a sense of casualness and grandeur. Viewed from both the street and the ever—popular coastal walkway, the beautifully sculptural form of Tamarama House is offset by the layered textures of a highly integrated garden that anchors the house within its coastal setting."

Photographers: Andrew Cowen, Erieta Attali, Tom Ferguson, John Gollings and Brett Boardman

Sited on the edge of a 70-metre high cliff, the plan of Holman House refers to Picasso's painting The Bather. It contains a complex series of fluid living spaces set within a meandering perimeter that arcs, folds and stretches in response to sun, landscape and views. Living and dining areas cantilever out over the ocean, allowing dramatic views up and down the coast. The lower floor forms a base that is built from rough stone walls like an extension of the cliff below. These walls continue along the cliff edge to form a series of eccentric terraced gardens and a vase-shaped rock pool.

Photographers: Peter Bennetts, Brett Boardman, Anthony Browell, Chris Cole, John Gollings and Reiner Blunck

5 level warehouse conversion and new 2-storey penthouse. An addition that is both contemporary and contextual.

Photographers: John Gollings and Patrick-Bingham Hall

The house hugs the sloping rear boundary, orienting to the northern sun and a new garden with established trees. It has is a simple L-shaped plan, both containing and extending into the stepping garden. An internal garden court is hidden in the depth of the plan, bridging between the floors and inverting the line of inside and outside. The brick facade is given a fabric like quality through its pattern, texture and treatment. The underside of this looping facade tilts and lifts, admitting light and views to the ground floor public rooms, through clerestory glazing.

Photographers: Peter Bennetts, Anthony Browell, Julia Charles, Neil Durbach and Camilla Block

Multi-residential building containing 56 apartments, forming part of a new urban development in a promient site in Newcastle, Australia. Currently under construction.

Inspired by the interiors of Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation, the Balmain apartment celebrates the intimacy and immediacy of the everyday. Functions overlap in this tiny renovated space, 7m x 9m in plan and only 2.4m high. A dado line is introduced at 900mm above the floor, weighting the base of the room with dark and lustrous materials, form ply and dimpled rubber. Above the dado, the walls and ceilings are chalk white, coved to soften corners and junctions. This centres the eye at the dado line, increasing the perceived height of the room.

Reflections and secret views connect the spaces, creating complexity and depth. Drawn from the clients’ love of birds, brightly coloured moments flash into view, a bright blue desk, the red alcove, a yellow door edge, the coloured inside of a door handle.

Photographer: Anthony Browell

A new cottage in the Watsons Bay heritage conservation area works within a prescribed envelope and design constraints. The language of weatherboard seaside cottages, street verandas and simple connections to gardens and light were explored. Essentially south facing, the light scoop and entry skylight provides sunlight, light and ventilation for all spaces.

Photographers: Anthony Browell, John Gollings and Brett Boardman

Conceived of as a peninsular jutting out from the circulation box abutting the slope, the planar inflection of the space opens to the shimmering expanse of harbour towards Sydney Heads. Essentially a strip of terraced hillside hemmed in by glazed 'piles' sporting steeply retained pools and patios that exploit Sydney's premier views, the Hrdlicka House seems unduly modest in siting and compactness. The entry sits tightly against the parking deck, retained from an earlier development. Although the bulk of the house spreads horizontally along the site, the tight southern entry pays dividends to the north, where the easy patio extension to the living area incorporates natural rock and the contours of the site. At the far end the shaped pool, like that of an Aalto vase, is both remote from the house and discrete in its placement.

Photographers: Brett Boardman and Neil Durbach

An alteration to an existing heritage villa house. A new house is made within the existing envelope behind the heritage facade. A major skylight on the rear roof scoops light, passing into the depth of the building through a variety of means. A simple palette of materials is used for screen walls, book lined walls, niches and small openings. These simultaneously complete rooms and make connections to neighbouring spaces. Views across and through rooms and to a new landscaped courtyard increase the sense of complexity, depth and spaciousness. A looping, elastic staircase and void links all three levels.

Photographers: Anthony Geernaert and Martin Van Der Wal

A single luxury home on a harbour site. The Spry house fits a large brief on to a small site, creating a spacious north facing house and pool garden. The veiled upper story, made with thin strips of timber and glass, rests on improbably thin columns. This slender pavillion appears to lightly stand on the open living and garden platform.

Photographers: Anthony Browell and Brett Boardman

Two small (120 sqm) courtyard houses are designed to sit side by side, capable of repetition. They make a dramatic street wall with elevated roof terraces and a tower like main bedroom. In comparison to the traditional semi detached dwelling or terrace house, these houses have only one adjoining wall, two private lighted perimeter edges and cross ventilation in all habitable rooms. The house is organised by the courtyard, intimately related roos and garden. The rooms of the house wind around the court. The central garden is still and open, the informal circulation through the house. Noted by Waverly Council as Model Infill Design.

The design was configured to respond to the site and its nominated development controls. The building conforms precisely with the envelope and height controls. The building is conceived of as a porous perimeter block slipped horizontally and vertically. Two L shapes hold the north west and south west corners of the site, programmatically separating commercial and residential uses.

In association with Joseph Grech Architects. 38 Apartments and a two storey community hall in Sutherland.

The site is a tiny-wedged shape place bounded by a very old stone retaining wall set at the top of thirty-nine steps. Arriving it is sometimes surprising to find it there- like a ship in a bottle a large and delicate object passed through an improbably small opening. The house is an unfolding and endless promenade through and across the inside and outside spaces. The site is woven into the house, linking and locking - side to side, back to front, up and down.

Photographers: John Gollings, Anthony Geernaert and Reiner Blunck

Design competition Stage 2. Residential, multi-unit housing, childcare, art gallery, community club, swimming pool, work live and retail space. 40 levels, 851 apartments.

With ever shrinking sites and expanding houses, the Infinity House regains the balance between these two essential elements, house and garden. The looping form of the house allows an endless surface where house and garden meet, generous and elastic. Generic and flexible, the'Infinity House' can be occupied in many ways - for single families, for families with older children, in laws or homeshare. The house explores the endless flexibility and beauty of brick as structure and enclosure, as arches and curving walls, as flooring and vaulted ceilings. 'Generous in terms of garden, this is the typical suburban dream house with a new architectural solution. Beautifully conceived and crafted, the simplicity of the approach is breathtaking and manages to achieve the essentials of brick without being heavy.' Jury, Think Brick Awards. 

Each house is suitable for a small site. The two storey houses maximize garden space. Each house has an integrated covered outdoor space. Each house has moments of spatial complexity, within a simple envelope. The Bridge house arcs to exaggerate the main living room, intimate at the entry and outdoor room. Its gentle form echoes landscapes and minimizes overshadowing. The Sky house reaches for light through amplified roof lights, and to the street through an open, one storey entry verandah. The Clock House can be rotated from an open 'L' through to a narrow 'V', depending on the width of the site and the orientation. It effortlessly creates a large covered space and roof garden terrace simply through the shift in alignment between the two storeys. They are all suitable for urban, suburban and rural sites. All houses have been designed to be repeated on adjacent sites or used in a grouping. For more information regarding pricing and deliveries, see the Happy Haus website: www.happyhaus.com.au