VISION 52 – MITCHELL ST RESIDENCE NORTHCOTE
Vision’s Peter Hyatt met with Feras Raffoul to discuss
his design philosophy, practice and approach to three
recent residential projects:
VISION Do you discover your design solutions by
drawing and sketching, or via your computer?
FERAS RAFFOUL All the conceptual schematic design
and initial works that come through the office are from
pen to paper. Ideas work from there. I’ll sit with the staff
and work through that in a 3D format on computer to
conceptually understand it’s massing, siting and so forth.
Are clients surprised to view the relatively
old-fashioned hand drawn rather than dynamism
of the computer screen?
Clients are often initially surprised, so it’s a matter of
walking them through the sketch design. Not all clients
can understand scale but once they view it as a 3D model
then they’re like “oh, okay, now I understand what it is”.
We are definitely looking towards the pure design.
So the clarity of the idea is central?
That is important. Absolutely. It’s fairly difficult to achieve
because it’s a matter of restraint as an architect trying
not to include too many ideas when it only just needs
X amount.
We introduce glass to reveal
certain spaces and viewpoints
within the architecture.
FERAS RAFFOUL, ARCHITECT
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