White Rabbit, White Rabbit

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” - Lewis Carrol

This installation was included as part of the ‘Ghost Town’ exhibition, held at Platform Contemporary Art Space in February 2013. Joining twelve other ‘emerging Melbourne architecture practices’, Architecture Architecture contributed a piece entitled ‘White Rabbit, White Rabbit’.

The work was created in collaboration with photographer Tom Ross of Brilliant Creek and reflects Architecture Architecture’s interest in themes of uncanny perception and the strangeness of the everyday.

A white, empty display cabinet contains a virtual reproduction of the same white, empty display cabinet just out of reach. An alternate reality so close to our own, beyond the looking glass. Caught within, a white rabbit jumps from side to side, impatient for us to follow…

Photography by Architecture Architecture and Tom Ross of Brilliant Creek

Cairo Apartment Fitout

Architecture Architecture have completed a fit-out of one of the Cairo Studio Apartments – an exercise in creating a fully functional abode within a mere 24m2.

Set within lush green communal gardens, the art deco Cairo Apartments are a landmark in Melbourne’s architectural heritage. Designed by Best Overend and completed in 1936, they were (and remain) an exercise in minimal living.

In a studio apartment of such modest dimension, the smallest modifications make a significant difference to the feel and functionality of the space.

Compact robes and clever storage solutions are integrated with a fold-out bed and a handsome full-height curtain, creating the flexibility to quickly convert the single-room space from a study to a bedroom to a dining room to a party space to a media room.

A door has also been moved and a kitchen servery window has been opened-up, reactivating the forgotten entry area, maintaining a strong visual connection from the kitchen to the garden, improving natural light and ventilation and creating greater flexibility in the layout of the apartment.

Embracing the philosophy of making more with less, Architecture Architecture have created a simple space with maximum flexibility to address contemporary living needs within a minimum floor area.

In an era when people are increasingly opting to live in cities and our urban fringes are forever expanding outwards, Architecture Architecture understand the imperative to make more with less, opting for high quality flexible space rather than inflexible specialised spaces – quality over quantity.

Photography by Tom Ross of Brilliant Creek

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Harts Farm

Overlooking a sun-bathed olive grove on the Mornington Peninsular, the Harts Farm project provides high quality ‘bed & breakfast’ accommodation as well as a commercial kitchen and dining facilities. The brief required suitability for a range of uses including cooking classes, guest accommodation, commercial food production and wedding receptions.

The new facilities sit comfortably in the farm environment, taking cues from local agricultural buildings in order to maintain a strong connection with the existing structures on site. Nevertheless, the new facilities assert their contemporary design with subtle modifications to the traditional building type.

For example, two corners of the otherwise simple form have been cut away to create a pair of defined entry spaces. Also, the careful misalignment of building and deck heightens the sense of arrival, casually revealing the olive grove views while establishing a more dynamic relationship between the building and its environment.

Photography by Tom Ross of Brilliant Creek

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Merricks House

Scheduled to commence construction in September, this family house has been designed in the tradition of the rural Australian shed with a few contemporary twists.

The house itself is organised into a loose collection of pavilions, separating guest rooms and service spaces from the core living areas. Whether the whole family comes to stay or whether it’s just Nonno and Nanna, the house can comfortably accommodate any circumstance as pavilions are opened up or battered-down according to requirement.

Set atop a hill in a beautiful natural setting, it was important that this project make the most of the near and distant views. In response, the careful arrangement of pavilions creates a cinematic experience of the landscape, subtly framing and shifting focus as the visitor moves about the site.

Importantly, this somewhat fractured experience of house and site is held together by way of a single-pitch super-roof, its diaphanous canopy suffusing the outdoor areas in a soft natural light.

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Albert Park Renovation

This single fronted, single bedroom, single storey house had a simple wish – to accommodate its occupants more comfortably. The brief called for an ensuite, robes, European-style laundry, extra storage and a study nook, all within the confines of an already small residence. Due to a limited budget and time frame, there were to be no external alterations and no major structural works. The key challenge was to accommodate these requirements without compromising the existing amenity.

In response, Architecture Architecture minimised structural modifications by repurposing existing rooms and ‘thickening’ existing internal walls to accommodate the laundry, robes and other storage requirements.

In order to improve the sense of spaciousness all internal doorways were increased to full height, creating spaces that flow unimpeded from one room to the next. This particularly benefited the narrow entry hall, where extra deep door reveals further contribute to the illusion of generosity. Similarly, in the master suite, a continuous bank of full-height robes extends into the ensuite, dissolving divisions between the rooms to create a sense of natural spaciousness. The robes simultaneously create a buffer between the master suit and the rest of the house, establishing these rooms as an inner sanctuary.

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A Garden Curiosity

The latest project from Architecture Architecture is a piece of garden joinery, designed to weather and age. Eventually the steel will shift from oily black to rusty orange, the timber from warmer yellows to a weathered grey – the slow seasons of a decade or two. Like everything in a garden, its impermanence reveals the passage of time.

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