VISION 46 — A CHIP OFF THE BLOCK
The result appears uncommonly lightweight.
When you are dealing with houses next to each other,
you can more easily use floor to ceiling glass because
you have no vertical separation issues from a building
code point of view. It opens up plenty of design
opportunities. It’s part of the dualistic approach to
this building. Glass below, a veiled glass event upstairs,
and then upstairs again for attics.
Upstairs the bedrooms have floor to ceiling glass so you
don’t feel like you’re sleeping in a state school classroom.
As a designer you can often be playful and provide a
bit more theatre and sense of humour in architecture –
if there’s such a thing. We use screens on the outside
that fold back. This permits a really interesting control
and playful use of light. Very rarely do you get to do
that in stacked consideration or stacked typology of
architecture. So that’s been a lot of fun in this building.
Your glass balustrade staircase exemplifies material
consistency and minimal material palette throughout.
We followed through with the interior so that the
handrails for the staircase are a frameless glass event.
It looks like a folded glass sculpture on the lower level.
The complexities of the planes and how that works and
the simple finishes of formed concrete with the glass,
and chrome patch fittings all come together into
something we’re quite proud of.