c.Luna

Architects: Jackson Clements Burrows Pty Ltd Architects
Location: Cape Schanck, Victoria, Australia
Project Team: Tim Jackson, Jon Clements, Graham Burrows, Kim Stapleton, George Fortey, Brett Nixon
Design duration: 12 months
Construction duration: 18 months
Landscape: Site Office Landscape Architects
Mechanical: Griepink & Ward Pty Ltd
Structural: Adams Consulting Engineers Pty Ltd
Contractor: BD Projects
Constructed Area: 400 sqm
Photographs: John Gollings

The undulating landscape at Cape Schanck is primarily a combination of cleared grass dunes (locally known as the Cups region) and expansive areas of dense Coastal Heath and Ti-tree shrub. The site is a designated wildfire zone and prior to the landscape being significantly cleared by early European farmers the area was inhabited by local aborigines.

On our first site visit we discovered the remnants of a hollowed out burnt log. This informed a starting point for an architectural exploration for the interiors and exterior where the form of the hollowed log suggested possibilities for an architectural solution.

The site is located on a high inland dune amongst dense coastal ti-tree shrub with expansive western views. On approach, the visitor is fronted by an expansive wall which conceals the primary upper level form. The lower level extends from the steep ground plane as a rendered plinth and forms a base much like the surrounding dunes. A winding driveway climbs the steep dune accessing the upper level behind a screen fence which conceals the view beyond. From here the entry experience opens to expansive views over the living area, deck and pool.

Programmatically the house considers the needs of a retired couple and their extended family who regularly visit with grandchildren. The primary upper level form (conceived as a hollowed out log) contains the kitchen, dining, living, garage and laundry. A secondary upper level form (conceived as a branch extending from the log) contains the study, master bedroom and ensuite. These forms are both finished in spotted gum hardwood cladding which is stained black. Cedar windows and cladding left in a natural finish are sleeved into the black exterior accentuating the difference between the interior and exterior as if part of a natural weathering process. The lower level contains guest accommodation and conceals functional plant spaces for mechanical systems and pool equipment.

The house is orientated to the northwest embracing expansive views. To control passive heating in summer, the western windows are protected by extensive eaves and motorised external Vental louvre blinds automatically descend once the sun passes through the north axis. Extensive northern glass is also protected by sunshades which limit solar penetration in summer. Further sustainable design considerations include fully automated electrical systems to reduce unnecessary power drain, bore water for garden and pool use and rainwater collection to tanks for all domestic use - town water was available however the clients agreed that the connection was unnecessary.

This house engages with the landscape through manipulation of form, material and colour. The weathered black vertical cladding profile references the undercroft structure of the Ti-tree and upper level form extends from the hill at ground level rising to a ridge which then descends to the west. At distance, the cranked profile of the form responds to the undulating profile of the surrounding ti-tree scrub and immerses the building within its surrounds.

Architect: nArchitects
Location: New York, USA
Project Year: 2004-2007
Design Team: Eric Bunge, Mimi Hoang (Partners); Daniela Zimmer (Project Architect), Jorge Pereira, Takuya Shinoda
Client: 109 Norfolk, LLC
Constructed Area: 1,328 sqm
Program: Art gallery on Ground & Cellar Floors & 5 condo apartments
Photographs: Frank Oudeman & nArchitects

Switch Building is a 7 storey apartment and art gallery building at 109 Norfolk Street in the Lower East Side, New York City. The building consists of four floor-through apartments, a duplex penthouse, and a double height art gallery on the ground and cellar levels. nARCHITECTS provided full architectural services for the project, including all interior design.

The project’s design emerges from a creative interpretation of some of the narrow constraints imposed by zoning and the developer’s needs. The “switching” concept opportunistically maximizes difference while maintaining the efficiencies of repetition. In a reinterpretation of a traditional New York bay window, an angled front facade switches back and forth, allowing each floor-through apartment unique views up and down Norfolk Street and creating subtle variations in shadows and reflections. From the inside, the bay windows provide deep window seats surrounded by warm hardwood.

At the rear of each apartment, the living space extends out to large 7′x12′-6″ balconies - the largest allowed by zoning, which also shift side to side, creating double-height spaces between balconies to maximize afternoon light and neighborly interactions. While the apartment plans are identical, these variations allow each unit to be unique in its light qualities and views to the city.

While amenities and services such as bay windows, air conditioners and balconies often retain their identity as prefabricated products that are added onto normative facades, Switch Building incorporates them into the cladding. The building’s standard through-wall Packaged Thermal AC units (PTACS) are disguised with custom grilles situated between the Galvalume panels that alternate in direction from floor to floor. The grilles appear as modulations of the cladding, somewhat similar to fish gills: the panels narrow incrementally and pivot outward as they pass over the mechanical units. The underside of the balconies are clad in the same galvalume panels, and the cladding of the bay window continuous in plan to cover adjacent areas without projections. These normally separate entities are therefore redistributed as primary attributes of the building’s form.

The new nonprofit Switch Gallery expands its boundaries with the street via a black hot-rolled steel and glass storefront and canopy that open completely to the sidewalk. At the rear of the gallery, visitors descend into a double-height volume illuminated by a large skylight. The gallery’s plan maximizes wall space in a fluid spatial continuity, while working around the obstacles of the residential core and lobby with which it shares its footprint. The gallery introduces a larger scale into the Lower East Side’s burgeoning art scene, which has been primarily inserting cultural programs into former tenement buildings.