Projects | View all

Architecture

Trunk House

Trunk House
Paul Morgan Architects
17.11.11

In beautiful forest of extant Stringybark trees in Victoria’s Central Highlands rests a small cabin.

Paul Morgan Architects' initial interest was in the bleached bones of sheep and kangaroo skeletons found in forests and farms, and in the thickening of these joints, needed to carry additional loads. This interest transitioned into harnessing the natural load-bearing capacity of timber found in the region by utilizing bifurcations found in tree forks.

The advantage of these bifurcated joints - usually discarded in commercial tree logging - is their great inherent strength. The bifurcations were sourced from forest floors and farmland, and due to their age, were pre-seasoned. They were joined to straight columns with internal metal plates by a sculptor. So this ground fuel became building material. An internal column with radiating beams completed the structure, the complete triangulated system attaining great inherent strength.

Stringybark trees were removed from the site to make way for the new house. A mobile milling machine was delivered to site, and Stringybark lining boards were milled, cured on site, and then fixed internally. This resulted in a minimal carbon footprint for the sourcing and installing of the lining boards.

The design sought to achieve an almost transparent relationship with the surrounding forest, achieved through an eco-morphological transformation of ground fuel into structure.

 

Architecture

Media-TIC building Barcelona

Media-TIC building Barcelona
Cloud 9
04.11.11

Cloud 9's office building for the new 22@ district has won the top prize at this year's World Architecture Festival. Providing a mix of large office space, space for start-ups and public space, the architect Enric Ruiz-Geli hopes for the building to it act 'as a seed for an environmental revoloution'.

 

Architecture

Carrum Downs Police Station

Carrum Downs Police Station
kerstin thompson architects
21.09.11

Imagined as a mini city, Carrum Downs Police Station comprises of a cluster of programmatic elements each figured as an individual volume, treated materially as a building and distinguished through a particular choice of brick. Internally the variation of the colour, texture, pattern and sheen of the brick expresses each of these zones as a discrete volume and provides a means of orientation and identity, as well as offering durability. Externally the brick face presents as domestic and local, referencing the adjacent suburban condition and re-using bricks from original building that once occupied the site. The 'hit and miss' glazed brick entry tower shifts the scale of the facility from domestic to civic, and as an illuminated beacon at night, heralds the presence of the Victoria Police on the highway. Kerstin Thompson Architects

Architecture/Interiors

House 20

House 20
Jolson
28.06.11

Concrete buttresses extrude from sloping ground. These rhythmic elements form a continuous datum upon which the first floor rests; concrete blades in an east-west orientation, which cantilever and stagger beyond the precipice of the bronze wall below. This craning assemblage hovers over an organic knoll of delicately curling asparagus fern, and shelters the entry below.

The house is a sculptural object. The brutal exterior surfaces of the forms jostling concrete blades penetrate the interior, diffusing the interior/exterior threshold and creating a series of individual rooms. The interior unfolds as it is engaged with, rooms fold into each other and are defined by layers not walls. 

The interior is dissected by a 3 story void; an empty vertical room within a room. The upper and lower floors are veiled by a knitted stainless steel mesh which allows textured shadow to dance within the interior.

The basement experience embraces dark tones, rich textures, and celebrates ambient natural light. There is a strong dialogue between surfaces and object; polished monolithic black stone, raw mild steel, black leather, knitted mesh, and ‘slick’ body of black water that embodies the indoor pool.

The first floor is the clients retreat with Master bedroom, dressing room and ensuite. The Study hovers above the landscape knoll and engages with the streets’ plane trees. The contrasting light and dark furniture pallet articulate ‘her’ study from ‘his’ amongst the blade walls. 

The building faces north and draws in sunlight across its breadth. The void acts as a thermal chimney, drawing fresh air through and expelling above. At its base the pond has a cooling effect. The steel mesh veil reduces direct sunlight entry. 

The design affronts the general fascination with mock architectural styles, or adorned boxes with inward looking spaces and a total lack of relationship with site and environment. It engages with the notion of grandness without drawing on imitation, decoration, porticos or columns. Anti-decorative, anti-column.

 

Architecture

Sorrento House

Sorrento House
NMBW Architecture Studio
25.06.11

Sorrento house celebrates the idea of the traditional Australian Beach holiday. A series of flexible and interconnected spaces, the house is a sensitive and deft response to environment and site.

'A HUMBLE beach house, the Sorrento House by NMBW Architecture Studio, has taken out Victoria's top residential architectural prize - the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award.

The ''sensitive development of a sensitive coastal site'' emerged as the winner from a strong field at the Australian Institute of Architects Victorian awards.

Sorrento House, elegantly designed from an economy of materials, impressed the jury with its inventive system of dividing partitions that fold, retract, swing and slide to define social and personal spaces.

Jury chairman John Wardle of John Wardle Architects said the house's ambitions had crossed the boundaries of the site to the benefit of neighbours. Outlook, wind patterns, the structure of the landscape and the composition of building mass had been negotiated with great care, he said.'  

Beach house coasts to top design prize - Philip Hopkins and Ray Edgar, The Age Saturday 25 June 2011

 

Architecture

House Holman Dover Heights

House Holman Dover Heights
Durbach Block Jaggers
20.06.11

'Sited on the edge of a 70-metre high cliff, the plan of House Holman 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.'

Architecture

Law Street House Melbourne

Law Street House Melbourne
Muir Mendes
15.04.11

Located in a tight South Melbourne lane the original dilapidated one bedroom workman’s cottage built in the 1880s formed the initial brief for architect’s/owner builders Bruno Mendes and Amy Muir. While working full time in practice the new house was constructed over 5 years of weekends with help from Bruno's father Joe, a master steelworker.
Constructed from plate steel the façade adopts a condition of blankness concealing the second storey within the adjusted roof pitch mimicking the form of the site’s former cottage. A ‘draw bridge’ to the front window provides privacy and curates light to the front bedroom providing a signal of occupation to the house beyond. The double height corridor directs the gaze through the full length skylight to capture a view of the existing palm tree. Inversion of the enclosed cottage corridor is adopted in order to maximise the penetration of natural light to the interior and provide an aspect ‘out’ of the tight site. Sky becomes an important distraction for the gaze while white walls play host to the passage of light that dances across the interior as the day passes patterning the walls as it moves.

ARCHITECTURE/INTERIORS

Potts Point Apartment Sydney

Potts Point Apartment Sydney
Anthony Gill Architects
14.04.11

The project involved the redesign of an existing 38 sq m (400 sq feet)one bedroom apartment in a Harry Seidler Building in Potts Point. The aim was to create a space that would suit a couple with a young child. The existing joinery (not original) was demolished leaving only the masonry walls to the bathroom which remains untouched. A new joinery element was inserted to re-configure the space, addressing the issues of privacy, storage and a lack of living space inherent in an apartment of this size.

Architecture/Heritage

McConnell House Adelaide

McConnell House Adelaide
Hassell
24.01.11

One of Adelaide's finest modern homes, McConnell residence was designed and built in 1967 by Jack McConnell. McConnell was one of the founders of McConnell & Hassell Architects now HASSELL. Ably and amusedly assisted by Cameron Bruhn, the house was photographed for the revisit feature Houses® #98. In shooting for revisit we strive for for images that speak of the relationship between architecture and inhabitation. 

Architecture

Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl

Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl
Durbach Block Jaggers
24.01.11

Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl are offices, a private art gallery, corporate dining room, boardrooms and studio. Originally three industrial buildings Headquarters Sussan Sportsgirl have been reconceived as one, reinvigorated and newly clothed in industrial glass panels, transcendent details and breathing with birch forrest heart. 

Architecture

one40william Perth

one40william Perth
Hassell
22.11.10

Located above the William Street Train station One40 William is the first 5 Star Green Star building in Perth. The multilevel design places the highest tier on the north side to provide a natural shading system for the lower office levels. This, paired with the use of a single glazed façade, prevents excessive heat gain in summer while radiating warmth to its surrounds at night. The stepped and angled floor plan places more than 80 percent of its area within eight metres of full height external windows. This allows for minimal artificial light. In addition the landscape is irrigated using rainwater harvested on site. Featuring rooftop and surrounding gardens as well as a high proportion of fresh air circulation in the office spaces, the design has a focus on worker comfort.

Architecture

Gas Natural Barcelona

Gas Natural Barcelona
Miralles/Tagliabue - EMBT
18.10.10

A flickering flame above the Barcelona neighbourhood of Barceloneta. The new headquarters of the Gas Natural Spanish gas company by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue (EMBT) breathtakingly defies gravity.

Architecture

Alibaba Headquarters China

Alibaba Headquarters China
Hassell
27.07.10

 

HASSELL's new Alibaba Headquarters is a benchmark for the modern workplace in China. It's 150,000 square metres of flexible open plan office space within a campus style layout. 

The design is based on the concepts of connectivity, clarity and community. The workplace has been designed to be a positive and healthy environment to encourage informal and creative meetings throughout the complex. Hubs, internal and external streets, bridges, roof terraces and strategically placed destination points contribute to the collaborative intent. The built form and the designed spaces are integrated so that each defines the other.

The Hangzhou context has been embraced with garden networks and the sunshading screens that represent Chinese ice-pattern window screens prominent throughout the region.

Hard work and fun times with HASSELL's Jackie, Amy and Mr Yang!

 

Architecture

Alfred St Apartments Sydney

Alfred St Apartments Sydney
BVN Architecture
21.06.10

Winner of the inaugural AARON BOLOT AWARD for RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – MULTIPLE HOUSING at 2010 NSW Architecture Awards.

Jury Citation:"...timeless plan that is considered at all levels. The simple and disciplined floor plan accommodates a flexible and differentiated apartment layout at each level. A rational and economic structure ensures the basement plan and foundations are simple and profound. They include a plan that does not require complex structural transfer beams. The corners of the building and every one of its junctions are well conceived, well detailed, and well executed with robustness and durability. In the rationality of this building, BVN has created a laconic and timely statement. We hope this assists in the prioritisation of orders of importance in future exclusive buildings; the plan and air and natural light are, as found here, more important than an emphasis on material inclusions, which we are thankfully spared in this clear and rigorous building."

 

 

ARCHITECTURE/INTERIORS

Grace Darling House Melbourne

Grace Darling House Melbourne
iredale pedersen hook
12.05.10

Conceived as a formal emulation of the hip roof of the existing heritage listed residence this substantial addition to a large home seeks to provide an alternative reading of its suburban context. Distinctive but complimentary materials: copper, recycled jarrah and calacatta marble, have been employed so that the addition both references and develops the life of the architecture. Concealed from the street, the new insertion transforms the nature of the historic domestic language into a dynamic and generous articulation of form and space, suitable for the life of its new family. All in it's a great set of alterations and additions to a Hawthorn mansion. The architects are iredale pedersen hook and the interior design is by Beatrix Rowe. Photographed for Vogue Living.

 

Architecture

Australian Pavilion Shanghai Expo

Australian Pavilion Shanghai Expo
Wood Marsh Architecture
21.04.10

PLA soldiers having their photographs taken in front of the Australian Pavilion in the days before the Shanghai World Expo 2010 opens.

From 1 May to 31 October 2010 Australia's national pavilion will showcase Australian innovation, creativity and achievement to some 7 million visitors mostly from mainland China - an average of 38,000 people on each of the 184 days of the expo.

Architecture

Roslyn Street Bar/Restaurant

Roslyn Street Bar/Restaurant
Durbach Block Jaggers
13.04.10

Durbach Block Jaggers' four storey commercial building in Sydney's Kings Cross is a response to the particular character of this 'colourful' precinct. Known affectionally by locals as the 'Barcelona Building' its tiled 'Catalan' form could be seen as a benevolent angel. As a building it's an extraordinary gesture, an artwork that gives of itself whilst accommodating a commercial program of restaurant, bar and offices. In this pleasurable endeavour I was received warmly and amused by amiable locals and ably assisted by Katherin Lu. 

Architecture/Interiors

Cubby House Fitzroy

Cubby House Fitzroy
Edwards Moore
13.04.10

Edwards Moore's extension and renovation of an apartment overlooks Fitzroy's iconic public swimming pool. It's an absolute cracker! The French Bulldog's name is Jimmy.

Architecture

ANZ Centre Melbourne

ANZ Centre Melbourne
Hassell
01.03.10

HASSELL's new headquarters for the ANZ Bank is a 'ground-scaper' housing 6500 staff in 10 light filled stories that surround a central atrium. Bovis Lend Lease were the developer and builder of the project.  It was my pleasure be joined by Ken Maher, Rob Backhouse and Harley Vincent from Hassell and Nicole Ekert from Bovis Lend Lease for a personal introduction to, and tour of, the building. Indeed it was all pleasure photographing the project until my ALPA and Leaf Digital back went for a quick swim off a floating marina as a motorboat passed by! 

Architecture

Corinella House

Corinella House
BKK
28.02.10

BKK's Corinella House sits on a peninsula in Victoria's Westernport Bay, with a view over mangroves, sand flats, sea and black swans to French Island. It's a particularly fine project, realised through that most fortuitous combination of rigorous architects, good builder and great client (also a particularly fine host!).

Architecture

Casa da Musica  Porto

Casa da Musica Porto
OMA
10.01.10

Perhaps my favorite building, the Casa da Musica by Rem Koolhaas/OMA photographed for the 'Music Houses' book - the world's most remarkable buildings for musical performance. Intellectual rigor meets sensual beauty in an original form. Whilst photographing the Casa was pure pleasure I wish I'd seen more of Porto than it, the airport and my hotel.

Architecture

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
Cox Architects
09.01.10

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium is under construction on Olympic Boulevard in the 'Sports and Entertainment' precinct of inner Melbourne. Commissioned by Wallpaper* to photograph the construction for their awards edition, able intern Nils Koenning and I scaled 5 tiers of scaffold and shot the pitch with one of the stadium's geodesic panels being craned into place. The Stadium with its distinctive bio-frame structure and geodesic dome roofs was designed by Cox Architects. Rectangular stadium was awarded Wallpaper* magazine's 'Worlds best building site' in their 2010 Design Awards, you can see my finished photograph over a double page spread in Wallpaper*s February Design Awards special.

Architecture/Interiors

Lyons studio

Lyons studio
NMBW Architecture Studio
08.12.09

Lyons Architecture's new studio by NMBW is in an old department store in Melbourne's CBD. This masterful intervention leaves well enough alone while introducing fine detail and material concerns making for a dynamic and sustainable working environment for the whole Lyons crew. 

Architecture

MAXXI Rome

MAXXI Rome
Zaha Hadid Architects
04.12.09

Italy's new Modern Art Museum, the 'MAXXI' - National Museum of the XXI Century Arts by Zaha Hadid Architects. Exploring the interface between architecture, landscape and art the MAXXI is a complex, dynamic and fluid set of spaces devoted to contemporary creativity, arts and architecture. Flow form, the MAXXI is not object, it's more a field of buildings making an immersive urban environment. The intertwined galleries and stairs read as rivers and streams. 

Architecture/Heritage

Barcelona Pavilion

Barcelona Pavilion
Mies van der Rohe
05.11.09

The German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition, this is the building that spawned THAT column and THOSE chairs.  It was demolished in 1930 but a replica was built in the 1980's.  Normally I wouldn't endorse a replica but... I photographed it again this year with the category winners and jurors of this years World Architecture Festival enjoying cocktails and canapes poolside. As you would!

Architecture

Perforated House, Melbourne

Perforated House, Melbourne
KUD
19.10.09

This is not a terrace. This is more than a facade. Kavallaris's sustainable critique of a terrace house is a contemporary dwelling for a family - his family! As well as being the cover story of AR Residential 09/City Living you can see Kavallaris's house in Mark magazine No 23/December 09-January 10.

Architecture

Melbourne Convention Centre

Melbourne Convention Centre
NH Architecture & Woods Bagot
10.07.09

For 3 years I've been photographing the Melbourne Convention and Entertainment Centre and adjoining Hilton South Wharf, documenting its construction through to the building's opening. As well as the book you can see the Melbourne Convention Centre and my images in AR 109 and AA Vol 98 No 3.

Architecture

Balencea

Balencea
Wood Marsh Architecture
01.07.09

The latest St Kilda Road development by developer Sunland. Balancea is a seductive multi-residential project by Wood Marsh ArchitectureBuro North designed the building's graphics and signage, you can see the logo sign and beautiful screens. I was commissioned for the art series that features on 11 floors of the boutique 23 story building. At the 2009 Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Awards Balencea was awarded an Architecture Award in the Residential, Multiple Housing Category. 

Architecture

Nordpark Cable Railway

Nordpark Cable Railway
Zaha Hadid Architects
26.06.09

Nordpark is a vertiginous ski field perched above Innsbruck.  Zaha Hadid Architects have designed four cable railway stations like melting glaciers, to link the city to the chairlifts. 

These images are in the collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York! Publications include Monument and Artichoke magazines.

Architecture/Hotels

St Falls/Quay West Falls Creek

St Falls/Quay West Falls Creek
Elenberg Fraser Architecture
15.06.09

Elenberg Fraser's second snowfield development (after Huski) is also situated in the ski resort village of Falls Creek.  Saint Falls creates a new portal to the resort and has a form derived from the open wings of a Bogong Moth.

Architecture

Melbourne Recital Centre & MTC

Melbourne Recital Centre & MTC
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
07.06.09

The Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC (Melbourne Theatre Company) are conjoined venues in Melbourne's Southbank Arts precinct.  The Recital Centre has a form that is part packaging/part object and the MTC is all about the box...or is it?

This project scooped the awards pool for ARM at the 2009 A.I.A. Victorian Chapter Awards.

Architecture/Interiors

Cardigan Street House

Cardigan Street House
FMD
25.05.09

In this wonderful renovation of a labyrinthine Victorian terrace Architect Fiona Dunin has used mirrors and planes to transform the Victorian stair into a periscope where glimpses to rooms beyond reveal beautiful details and light-filled spaces. And while mirrors create prismatic intrigue - you try and photograph them! You can learn more about Fiona and FMD Architects here

Architecture

Yarra House

Yarra House
Leeton Architecture
23.03.09

Leeton Pointon Architects + Susi Leeton Architects won an Architecture Award for Interior Architecture at the 2009 Victorian Chapter Awards with this beautifully crafted house in Melbourne.

Architecture/Heritage

The Arts Centre, Melbourne

The Arts Centre, Melbourne
Roy Grounds
01.03.09

Roy Grounds' Victorian Arts Centre literally pierces Melbourne's arts precinct and gives seagulls a focus to wheel around!

Architecture

Dalyellup College

Dalyellup College
Hassell
17.02.09

Dalyellup College is a new school just outside the coastal south-west city of Bunbury in Western Australia. Hassell's design is a ribbon of contemporary architectural spaces around a protected central courtyard. Dalyellup College also received an Architecture Award in the Public Architecture category of the WA Chapter AIA awards. You can see it in Monument 92 August/September 2009.

 

Architecture

Jane Foss Russell Sydney

Jane Foss Russell Sydney
John Wardle Architects
06.02.09

John Wardle Architects in association with Wilson Architects and GHD's new building and bridge at the University of Sydney won an Architecture Award at the 2009 NSW Architecture Awards.  I'd organised the street to be cleared of traffic...and then the green VW drives by. This project was published in AR #109, BOB (Korea) and ANC (Korea).

Architecture

Vader House Melbourne

Vader House Melbourne
Andrew Maynard Architects
09.01.09

Andrew Maynard Architects' Vader House sits behind a Victorian terrace in Melbourne's Fitzroy, a dense inner-city suburb. Everything opens/closes and turns off/on! Decking moves to reveal/conceal lawn or pool. Folding doors make the inside outside or is the outside inside? Electric glass becomes clear or opaque depending on your use of the bathroom. And the floor opens to reveal a cellar.  Vader House was the homepage story on the Wallpaper* website, you can see it here.

Architecture

Swan Street Residence

Swan Street Residence
iredale pedersen hook
30.12.08

In a sleepy Perth riverside suburb, iph's Swan Street residence serves as a shrine to everyday pleasure while giving a nod to the materials and forms of the early 20 century Arts and Crafts movement. Swan Street residence won the WA chapter of the Australian Institute of Architecture 2009 Architecture Award for Residential Architecture Alteration + Additions. Did I mention it was about 42 degrees when I shot it - phew! Swan Street was published in AR #110 'adaption'.

Architecture

Burj Dubai

Burj Dubai
07.11.08

The world's tallest building, the Burj Dubai, under construction in 2008.

Architecture

Torre Agbar

Torre Agbar
Jean Nouvel
21.10.08

Jean Nouvel's Torre Agbar in Barcelona, Spain.  It houses the city's water company and fittingly has a geyser inspired form.

Architecture/Interiors

Fjäll Falls Creek

Fjäll Falls Creek
Hecker Phelan & Guthrie
10.09.08

Fjäll (pronounced "fe-yall") is Swedish for mountain. Designed by Salter Architects and interiors by Hecker Phelan & Guthrie, Fjäll is ski lodge that blends rustic traditions with a contemporary designer finish. I was mostly ably assisted by Lars who's quick with a coffee but cooked us overnight turning up the thermostat because he was cold - you'd think a Dane would know...

Architecture/Advertising

Q1, Gold Coast

Q1, Gold Coast
Sunland Design
08.08.08

Q1 on Queensland's Gold Coast was designed and developed by Sunland Group and is Australia's highest apartment tower. I was commissioned by Sunland to mark the company's 25th anniversary with a series of new images of their milestone projects.

Architecture

RMIT Architecture School

RMIT Architecture School
NMBW Architecture Studio
04.06.08

RMIT's New Architecture School, housed in a recycled building, expertly fitted out by NMBW.

Architecture/Hotels

Southern Ocean Lodge

Southern Ocean Lodge
21.04.08

Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island, South Australia for Wallpaper*.

Architecture/Heritage

Singapore Cottage

Singapore Cottage
RBA Architects & Conservation Consultants
09.04.08

This pre-fabricated cottage won the John George Knight Award for Heritage at the 2009 Victorian Architecture Awards for RBA Architects & Conservation Consultants + JAM Architects. Originally imported from Singapore in 1852-3, the restoration and conservation of this modest South Melbourne building is described by the awards' jury as an inspirational example of heritage architecture: "a revelatory intersection between history and the present".

Architecture

Elwood House

Elwood House
NMBW Architecture Studio
19.03.08

An addition to an addition to an addition.  Originally a California bungalow, this house was first given a second storey, then a new wing and now NMBW's addition which is that rare project that gives more than it takes...adding quality to the public thoroughfare, the built and natural environments, the life of the family that it houses...a timber extension that demonstrates an enormous generosity of spirit.  Evocative of camping by a billabong in the outback Flinders Ranges, the landscape is by Rush/Wright Associates.

Architecture

K House Anglesea

K House Anglesea
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
27.08.07

Brought to you by ARM and the letter 'K'. The house's form is the k-mart 'K' in plan and elevation.

Architecture

Skinners Adventure Playground

Skinners Adventure Playground
Phooey
16.07.07

A small project that has made big waves.  PHOOEY's recycled containers house a children's activity centre in a community playground in South Melbourne, and have won awards locally, nationally and internationally.

Architecture

1010 Building Melbourne

1010 Building Melbourne
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
03.03.07

Part of the new development at Digital Harbour in Melbourne's Docklands. The facade of this building by ARM produces a visual effect called the Münsterburg or Café Wall Illusion. Despite its appearance the facade panels are parallel.  ARM note that the "presence of the coloured horizontal line at each floor level is essential to the illusory effect".

 

 

Architecture/Interiors

New Gold Mountain

New Gold Mountain
Cassandra Complex
22.02.07

New Gold Mountain is a bar designed by the ever-intriguing Cassandra Complex that joyfully riffs on the opium den aesthetic of gold rush Melbourne. 

Architecture

Hildebrand House

Hildebrand House
Lovell Chen
18.01.07

This is the last project of the firm Robinson Chen and dates from 1990.  In 2007 I photographed the Hildebrand House in Somers, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, for Monument magazine as a part of their series on Classic Houses.  I was awe struck by the project and its presence nearly 20 years after its construction.  It is more than a classic house, and was the precursor to a new style of Australian 'beach house' architecture. 

Architecture

Cape Schanck House

Cape Schanck House
Paul Morgan Architects
28.11.06

Set in a stand of native tea-tree on the southern end of the Mornington Peninsula is Paul Morgan Architects' Cape Schanck House.  The house won the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture at the 2007 National RAIA Awards.  I love the project's response to its slightly eerie coastal setting.  That and the fact that its location is referred to by some as 'Cape Shag'.

Architecture

Sheep House Daylesford

Sheep House Daylesford
iredale pedersen hook
02.07.06

This image of 'Sheep House' was acquired by Kodak for their permanent collection of photography as an 'exemplar of architectural photography'.  The beautiful and pragmatic house was designed by iredale pedersen hook and does indeed have a small flock of sheep (and Diego the donkey) that graze around the house perimeter.

Architecture/Hotels

Millennium Hilton Bangkok

Millennium Hilton Bangkok
BARstudio
06.06.06

Bangkok's new urban resort perched on the Thon Buri bank of the Chao Phraya River. One of Bangkok's half built ghosts of the 90's has been transformed by BARstudio into a luxurious new retreat. Photographed for Hilton.

Architecture

Yve Apartments Melbourne

Yve Apartments Melbourne
Wood Marsh Architecture
13.04.06

Curves define Yve, designed by Wood Marsh and developed by Sunland Group.  The continuous ribbons of the glass balconies snake around the perimeter of the building, creating effects of compression and expansion.  This was one of the first projects I photographed with the full digital set up and it had some fantastically abstract moments.

Architecture/Hotels

Huski Lodge Falls Creek

Huski Lodge Falls Creek
Elenberg Fraser Architecture
19.06.05

Apartment hotel Huski sits amongst the snow gums in my favorite Australian mountain resort of Falls Creek.  Elenberg Fraser's faceted facade was inspired by the crystalline forms of snow flakes.  Best of all the Huski Produce Store serves the best coffee on the hill (and you can ski to the front door).

Architecture

Marion Cultural Centre, Adelaide

Marion Cultural Centre, Adelaide
Ashton Raggatt MacDougall
16.06.05

In the Adelaide suburb of Marion, ARM (Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Phillips Pilkington Architects in Association) have created a Cultural Centre and its surrounds formed from the word "Marion".  My photographs of this project were published in AR and Domus, and one was selected as the cover of Australia Architecture and Design published by Daab. The car park image was the poster for Australia's exhibition at the 2006 Venice Architecture Bienale...which makes perching in a swaying cherry picker on a freezing night to take the shot finally worthwhile!

Architecture

Wheatsheaf House

Wheatsheaf House
Jesse Judd/JLMA
04.06.05

Jesse Judd's house is set in a eucalyptus plantation and has a stained plywood interior that seems to glow amongst the monochromatic trees.

Architecture

QV

QV
NH Architecture
01.03.05

Construction at QV.  Where else can you see new buildings by NH, Kerstin Thompson, McBride Charles Ryan, DCM, John Wardle and Lyons on the same block?!  This photograph was one of a series commissioned by AR and art directed by the legendary Peter Citroni.

Architecture

Barro House

Barro House
Wood Marsh Architecture
08.12.04

The clients for this house by Wood Marsh were in the concrete business and the quality of the off-form concrete throughout is amazing.  There are also wonderful traces of the construction process forever captured in some of the concrete ceiling panels.  Notably the house also features a life size replica column from the Barcelona Pavilion.

Architecture

ACCA

ACCA
Wood Marsh Architecture
15.11.04

The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) by Wood Marsh Architecture is like a Cor-ten steel Uluru and has the most interesting contemporary art exhibitions and installations in Australia.  It's an uncompromising building in an uncompromising landscape and I love it.

Architecture

Toorak House

Toorak House
Allan Powell Architects
28.04.04

This house by Allan Powell Architects gives nothing away from the street but stepping inside was like immersing yourself in a brandy alexander.

Architecture

TarraWarra Museum of Art

TarraWarra Museum of Art
Allan Powell Architects
09.03.04

TarraWarra Museum of Art is a privately funded public art gallery set in the picturesque Yarra Valley.  The gallery focusses on Australian art from the mid-twentieth century to the present day and has an ever-changing roster of exhibitions.  The gallery by Allan Powell Architects is not so much a building as a set of constructed interventions in the landscape, playing with concealment and revelation.

architecture

Centre for ideas

Centre for ideas
Minifie Nixon
01.01.04

Minifie Nixon completed this building in 2001 and it is both seductive and confounding.  The form is generated from an investigation of Voronoi tessellations realised in brilliant stainless steel.  The architect had a little sleep on the floor while I was photographing it.