open and closed

Surface as a site of exchange,

Gordon Crescent Kensington house extension designed in collaboration with Lee Lambrou, 2017

 

This project provided an extension to a family home in Kensington incorporating a new bedroom, bathroom, playroom and study area.

The suburb and street has a heritage overlay and is dominated by quaint little renovated Victorian cottages and virtually no modern architectural expression.

​

The extension occurred on the front carpark space and the dimensions of the site along with the  planning restrictions directed the design of the form. The design responded through a simple built structure wrapped in a rain screen system.

​

Throughout the screen design process experiments occurred through laser cutting designs into expanded aluminium mesh. A material that was lightweight, strong, efficient and clever in its use of material density. Operating from a distance it created privacy appearing opaque. Up close it its textured surface open, are woven like fabric or fish scales.

 

The design to be laser cut into the screens originated  from a graphic, which was a childlike representation of the original stables. In the computer, an iterative process of subdivisions, triangulations and tessellations was explored. The imagery evolved over time through this digital processing  into a final decorative motif that wasn’t just a dumb graphic, randomly selected on Google, but one that was an embodiment of the thought process behind the design. 

​

​