Double House and Garden
Situated at 123 Victoria Street, Potts Point NSW, the site is enclosed by Sydney's eternal identity of terrace houses and has a close proximity to the CBD. The two inhabitants are both associated with art, however the primary one is the owner of the houses and the gallery, whereas the other one is employed by the first inhabitant.
Site Plan
What I found engaging in my site visit was how the site had such contrasting spatial experiences. From the foliage-covered street, the site opens up to this incredible view of the Sydney's CBD skyline. Yet there is a sense of privacy when witnessing this landscape as the view is contained by the many terraces on Victoria Street. Moreover there is this paradoxical element whereby the spaces near the street are more typically public even though there is a level closeness because of the surrounding trees.
When dealing with the composition of my houses, I sought to encapsulate this notion of privacy, maintaining the city view for the inhabitants' private spaces, while using the private spaces to create a barrier between the city view and the street. However I wanted to integrated these two experiences within the public gallery, creating this unified space that leads the individual from the street to the openness behind the building.
Vlla Savoye Abstraction of the Part and Whole
Drawing from my studies of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, one key component that I seek to incorporate into my double house was the way the ramp was such a centrally part to the overall programs of the house. This developed into this idea of placing a central void in the double house, that acts as a garden and as a mechanism that enables one to move through to the rest of the building. Whilst also allowing light to pass in to the building due to the site's north-east orientation/
This mechanism highlighted how I wanted the stairs to be this form of continuous movement, a threshold that leads the individual from the public gallery towards the more private spaces above. My understanding of Tadao Ando's Water Temple established how I wished to designed this threshold. In his temple, there is a clear distinction between the external world and the sacred internal spaces. The stairs acted as a void in this water garden that hides the true nature of the spaces beneath it. As you walk up from stairs, typical of Ando's work, the concrete wall focuses one to see purely the light and enunciate this perception of eternity that Ando often conveys.
Tadao Ando's Water Temple at Shingonshu Honpukjuji
Drawing Set
Floor Plans
As you can see above, the gallery consists of two display rooms,for small and large artworks, and two office spaces. Returning to the idea of voids, the large display room extends from the lower ground, out into the central water garden space, and into the open.
Both houses are similar, in terms of how the programs are shaped around the central water garden. The entrance and the public spaces of the house, are set next to the street, while the bedrooms are set towards that amazing city view. The bathroom on the first floor partially exposes itself to the outside, allowing the inhabitant to experience the nearby water garden. Hallways are implemented to move between the two areas of private an public spaces. A light duct is used to draw light into the hallway on the first floor, creating a spatial experience similar to the stairs as you walk towards the bedrooms.
Sections
Elevations
Exploded Axonometric
Perspective
Isometric
Model Photos
1:100 Model
1:500 Site Model
1:50 Section Model
