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Were there moments of grief?
The sloping site provided challenges but also some great
advantages as to how we would evolve the design. We
decided to bury the base of the building, which involved
quite complicated waterproofing and a foundation
solution, but then by setting that into the slope it allowed
the upper levels to project and float into the landscape.
Glass contributes a sense of physical lightness that
helps avoid the common tendency for the ponderous.
Yes. In all the projects we like to work on, we’re always
looking at how best to make spaces connect with the
outside, incorporation of windows, the right proportions
and the right orientations certainly helps us to illuminate
the interiors and also to bring warmth and a lightness
into those spaces.
Is a practice signature evident in this project?
We like to overlap volumes. We have projecting
horizontal plates that define perimeters of the building
and angled and skewed some of those walls to wrap
the building around the site and reference views at the
back by overlapping volumes.
You have the obvious, sculptural sweep of the staircase,
but contrasting that is the seemingly two-dimensional
glass planes that bring to life a whole external canvas.
Yes that’s true. There is a permeability that really helps
bring the house alive.
“We wanted to create an understated
interior aesthetic for the dwelling and
that was achieved by working with
high quality materials and a colour
palette in harmony with the landscape.”
DANIEL XUEREB, ARCHITECT