Our entry 'The Paired Twin House' wins the Density and Diversity Done Well Competition!

Tess and I won the Density and Diversity Done Well Competition run by the Queensland Government, one of seven winning schemes! We're stoked to be part of the conversation about how we can make our city and state more liveable.

The Paired Twin House

Our proposal is shown located in a typical Brisbane suburb, where we aimed to celebrate the SEQ context and climate by retaining the desirable human scale and leafy green qualities of suburbia. A number of key strategic planning legislation manoeuvres allow affordable development to be delivered incrementally at the scale of a single site or with multiple owners over time. 

Our four key manoeuvres are coupled with critical infrastructure support and a more efficient use of public space to facilitate a denser and more diverse Brisbane:

• Green, diverse streets for people (think lots of trees, safe bike lanes, additional public transport, pocket parks and smart waste water management)
• Sensitive infill with a zero-lot setback (let's activate streets! and allow for a more diverse range of housing)
• Off-street car parking re-prioritised (frontages taken up by double car garages create dead-zones on our streets which are not very safe)
• Retaining backyards (we love green space and need to retain it to protect native habitat corridors, views, light, air and privacy)

You can check out our competition entry on the QLD Government's Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning site by scrolling down to our entry.

Belonging

At Gandhi Ashram ice cream is for sale when a particular bell rings, and when “subjiiiiiiiiii!” is bellowed in the distance, it means it is either 8.30am or 5.30pm and fresh vegetables are available for sale. These sounds were foreign when I first arrived, but have worked their way into my daily routine here. Place identity involves all the senses, but does knowing how to behave mean that you belong?

Snow Capped Peaks

After inaugurating the preschool and finishing up my work I ascended into the cool of the Uttarakhand mountains. We walked through lush forests and alpine meadows, had chai with shepards and visited the worlds highest Shiva temple. A few days experiencing village life in Sari allowed me to witness the construction of a new house in dry stone. The intricate dry stone construction keeps interiors warm in winter, cool in summer and sits imbedded in its landscape. It takes a long time to construct using this method, so many people are changing to faster structures built of concrete and prefabricated blocks and bricks. 

Abandoned stone structure

Tree clings to rock

Drawing by Princi, age 11

Borrowed Space

The capacity for informal and borrowed use of space in India is an unusual and exciting experience for an architect used to restrictive planning controls. In a small civic space in Connaught Place, New Delhi, trees, garden beds and columns provide the moment to pause, to gather, to talk on the phone or to sit or lean on suitable ledges or tree trunks. Circulation weaves through leftover zones between groupings of activity. Arcades and broad tree canopies provide much needed shade.  People are drawn to spaces that provide shelter and amenity - in this case, shade from the searing heat and a place to sit or lean.

The activities that make Connaught Place a vibrant, interesting and appealing place to be are temporal, ephemeral: the meeting of people, the temporary stalls selling fruit, sunglasses and snacks, the communal water jug, the swapping of stories, the ability to temporarily park your bike. Although the built form provides an anchor it is the spaces between that provide the setting for life to happen.

Bholu 15 Preschool Opens

The Bholu 15 Inauguration was a beautiful event with over 100 children in attendance! 

There are many thank yous to go around: to Manav Sadhna for their incredible work in the Tekra community and in particular Harshaben, Ajaybhai, Shirishbhai, Maheshbhai and Himanshubhai. To our fantastic volunteers from Manav Sadhna and CEPT University, in particular Harshil and Shaialja who worked tirelessly with us to finish the project. Our Bholu 15 teachers Varshaben and Maduben who supplied us with chai, saris and teach the beautiful children of Bholu 15. The Paryavaran Mitra community and Rashmeben for helping us with our plastic rainbow and being so accommodating to sharing their work space with a construction site. A huge thank you to our construction team from Baka Constructions who worked tirelessly 7 days a week to create this building: Bakabhai, Hashmokbhai, Nitin, Hemant and Vishal. And, of course, our fantastic TAP mentors Jane J and Jane R for their enthusiasm, encouragement and advice. 

Great Rann

Never-ending expanses of white salt turn orange and pink as the sun sets over the flat horizon. The Great Rann of Kutch is a seasonal salt marsh in western Gujarat, one of the largest salt deserts in the world. To the north is the beautiful village of Ludiya, in which we stayed for the night. We slept in a beautiful bhunga decorated with intricate mud motifs and small mirrors. The bhungas are typically round structures made of mud and timber with thatched roofs clustered around an open courtyard to make a home. They stay cool in the soaring heat of summer and most managed to survive the devastating earthquake of 2011.

Treasure Hunting

Before I left for my adventure in India I was given a treasure map of Ahmedabad’s architecture from a dear friend who lived here on exchange for a few months. It is a well-worn double-sided A3 sheet that was kept for over 5 years before being handed on. The map will guide my first few weeks of architectural gem finding in Ahmedabad.

CEPT Univeristy | B.V. Doshi (1972)

Mill Owners' Association | Le Corbusier (1951)

IIM Ahmedabad | Louis Kahn (1974)

Clear Skies and Kite Strings

My second day in Ahmedabad fell on the festival of Uttarayan – the International Kite Festival. The festival marks the day that winter turns to summer and the kites fly to greet the sun. It is an important harvest day in India and is celebrated by a two-day public holiday in the state of Gujurat. Retailers prepare string with die and glass fibres to be purchased by kite fliers for months in advance. The aim is to fly your kite high in the sky and cut down other kites, the winner being the last in the sky at the end of the day. Make sure your fingers are wrapped in bandages though, or your hands may get torn to shreds! Fireworks and lanterns mark the arrival of evening – magic is in the air.

Arriving in India

Arriving to chaotic and charming Ahmedabad was softened with the warm welcome of Manav Sadhna. I have come to India to work for The Anganwadi Project (TAP) to design and build an ‘anganwadi’ (preschool) in the slum areas of Ahmedabad in close collaboration with Manav Sadhna. This will be TAP’s fifteenth preschool: Bholu 15.  

Navigating week one is saying yes to every opportunity: learning the hula in a women’s community centre, taking a rickshaw to a girls class in a leprosy colony, flying kites on a rooftop, shopping for kurtis, learning to wear dupatas (scarves) and dancing with 200 children on a community centre rooftop to the latest Bollywood hits.

Apartment Interior

This was a wonderful project to refit the interior of a newly purchased apartment in New Farm, Brisbane.

A workshop style process allowed the client to control the development of conceptual ideas for the complete renovation of a newly purchased apartment. This process established a strong design direction to achieve the owner's goals of a flexible plan with open and clean living spaces and plenty of storage.

The renovation balances clean lines with refined warmth through timber feature joinery and feature dark colour contrast. The neutral base palette is punctuated with bold and personal details. North facing living spaces soak up natural light and quietly celebrate the city view.

The project was completed in November 2015.

Photography by Mathieu Cocho and Palina Zhalniarovich.

Risky Business

RIDe collective wins the 2015 RISK Conference Cinecity film competition for our architectural psychological thriller 'Horsing Around'. The film delves into the risks inherent in architectural practice as architecture, personified by a horse, struggles to be true to the idea and intent behind a project. Where will fate lead the design and designer?