5
TER
Big budgets, big ideas and big
production values all collide on
The Block. It’s the television series
where contestants and products are put
to the test, and there’s the blowtorch of
a score-card where ‘reveals’ can be as
searing as they are triumphant. Despite
glamour opportunities, contestants
have to fashion an array of materials
and products on tight budgets and
tighter time-frames. For series architect
Julian Brenchley, it’s a process of
bemusement and wonder that has
him returning to create bigger, better,
more imaginative challenges.
The latest series brings together a collection of five
‘misfits’, from original Californian Bungalows to mixed
up Victorian/Edwardians trucked in from the suburbs
and grouped to make a good neighbourhood fit within
Elsternwick’s largely Edwardian and stately building stock.
More importantly, the real architectural challenge wasn’t
to simply update the old, but add double-storey pavilions
to the generous allotments.
How to make this marriage of the old and new
convincing and hugely appealing for auction day?
It’s a first for The Block to buy into a street in this
way and create a new row of traditional houses that
ostensibly appear to have been part of the street and
neighbourhood for the past 90 years or so. It is a bold
and big idea that might have flopped, but hasn’t.
PROJECT
GLASS SUPPLIER
The Block 2017
Elsternwick, Victoria Viridian
ARCHITECT Viridian LightBridge™
Viridian EnergyTech™ Clear
Julian Brenchley,
Brenchley Architects
BUILDER
Erilyan Projects Pty. Ltd.
WINDOW MANUFACTURER
& INSTALLER
Jenmat Building Services
PRINCIPAL GLAZING
TEXT, IMAGES & FILM
Peter & Jenny Hyatt