Houses 104 preview

Houses 104 is on sale from 1 June 2015.

Houses 104 is on sale from 1 June 2015.

When an architect designs their own home, the result gives some insight into their preoccupations and sensibilities. With this in mind, architects’ homes can be a good place to start when investigating which practice to engage for the design of your own house. A number of the projects in Houses 104 have been designed by the architects for themselves and their families. These projects have the same budget, site and regulatory constraints on them as any other project; what is different is the degree of design freedom – as their own client, the architect creates the brief.

Our cover project, Planchonella House, was a labour of love by owner/architect Jesse Bennett and his wife, Anne-Marie, who is an interior designer. It took the couple more than two years to build and craft their home. Jesse not only built the project himself, but also handmade most of the furniture. This project is a clear example of the practice’s commitment to create homes with low environmental impact and a high level of craft.

Architect Brad Swartz and his partner, Rachel Walker, fell in love with a top-floor studio in a block of Art Deco flats in Sydney. After purchasing the Darlinghurst Apartment, Brad rearranged the twenty-seven-square-metre space like a Tetris puzzle so that everything has its place and there is a distinction between public and private zones. Examining this project reveals that Brad is an architect who enjoys a challenge and believes you don’t need much room to live comfortably – it’s the quality and location of the space that counts.

Similarly at the North Perth House, architect Jonathan Lake demonstrated the potential of small housing design through the development of his own site. This home is an interrogation of restraint in terms of size, but also in terms of a reduction of materials used.

Our Revisited article in this issue, the Rippon House in Sydney, reveals another architect exploring his own ideas about living in Australia. Gerry Rippon’s vision was personalized, but is relevant to many of us. In terms of experimentation and research into how we might change the way we live for a more sustainable and fulfilling future, an architect’s own home can be a great reference point.

Katelin Butler, editor

Follow Houses on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Subscriptions and back issues: Print and Digital.

Source

Archive

Published online: 29 May 2015
Words: Katelin Butler
Images: Michael Nicholson, Peter Bennetts, Robert Frith, Sean Fennessy

Issue

Houses, June 2015

More archive

See all
The November 2020 issue of Landscape Architecture Australia. November issue of LAA out now

A preview of the November 2020 issue of Landscape Architecture Australia.

The May 2021 issue of Landscape Architecture Australia. May issue of LAA out now

A preview of the May 2021 issue of Landscape Architecture Australia.

Most read

Latest on site

LATEST PRODUCTS