Extension

A single storey house in Petersham sits on a small lot in an intact row of period houses. The dwelling presents itself as a freestanding cottage forming a pair with an identical neighbour, bookended by a commercial building and a car park. The Federation-style period features are well preserved and provides historic value of Sydney’s Inner West past. Several beautiful trees stand in the rear garden of the adjoining site, providing a pleasant outlook and shelter from the summer sun.

Water is a precious element in residential architecture, almost an essential element of happiness. In Islamic architecture, water is used as a balm to restless minds and is often found in psychiatric hospitals. This justifies our manic search of waterfronts, beachfront, harbourfronts, lakefronts, and riverfronts to settle in.

Water is a precious element in residential architecture, almost an essential element of happiness. In Islamic architecture, water is used as a balm to restless minds and is often found in psychiatric hospitals. This justifies our manic search of waterfronts, beachfront, harbourfronts, lakefronts, and riverfronts to settle in.

The project configures a new entry point to the School of Santa Teresa de Jesús in Torrent. A single level pavilion stands parallel to the Avenida Constitución, while, on the other side, it embraces the existing magnificent pine forest. The concrete porch shelters the itineraries of students, parents and teachers and provides a shaded plinth for protection and leasure. The different volumes emerge out of this plinth, their shapes cut out in the sky like the pine tree tops.

Isoropia (greek meaning balance, equilibrium and stability) is a finely tuned balance of tension and compression. Here, bespoke knitted textiles with varying material properties embed active bent fiberglass rods and together they find their equilibrium and form. Isoropia investigates how computational design allows us to rethink material use in architecture. Here the profession comes from a tradition of adding materials to form building elements and buildings, we find, that this practice is highly wasteful. Current techniques and material will not only deplete the resources of our planet, but are as well not able to satisfy the need for housing of the globes growing population. What is needed – are smarter materials, processes and technologies for building. Isoropia advocates a lighter architecture in which material behaviors – the bending, and stretching of materials – are actively employed to build smarter with less.

The building has an interesting dual relationship, the first floor is used for music and dance, while the second floor accommodates plastic arts. The two levels (and therefore the programmatic areas) are linked by a generous open-air (covered) grand staircase-hall-gallery which articulates and simultaneously acts as a meeting, performance and exhibition space.