Invited National Competition
Think Brick Australia: About Face
2010

Think Brick:: About Face 2010

Project Title: STREET PARTI

Thematic agenda: ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’

Design Statement:

This project is our vision for an ‘essential house’, in response to the charge to ‘turn the ‘project home’ inside out, upside down, back to front and on its ear’, by occupying a fraction of the land, but providing greater amenity than the typical project home site in terms of inside + outside spaces, flexibility + liveability, spatial + environmental efficiency.

‘Street Parti’ celebrates living closer to each other, the revival of the pedestrian + cycle friendly streets, the opportunity for individual expression in a more sustainable + diverse community.

We are interested in designing for possibilities – not prescribing outcomes.

Current thinking on suburbia broadly regards the ‘business as usual’ model of residential project home development in W.A. as unsustainable. The critical limits of this model have been reached and viable future residential development needs to urgently address sprawl verses density, and quality verse quantity, in creative and desirable ways.

We have adopted the theme, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’, as a way to examine our expectations of the single house, and to explore alternative models to the generic product of the ‘project home’.

Our response to the brief is to focus on the effect of many ‘single houses’ rather than just one, as it is the collective result that can make an effective change to the status quo. Our design for an ‘essential house’ is not solely conceived as an object in isolation. Like a brick in a wall, it forms part of the larger structure of the street as a whole.
 

We have deliberately avoided the temptation of ‘heroic’ architectural statements in favour of straight forward construction detail, suited to mass-produced housing. The inherent materiality of brick, the choice of pattern and colour, becomes essential in creating identity and individual expression.

The streetscape outcome will reflect individual choices. We imagine the streetscape as being like getting dressed for a party – the street façades become the ‘party’ clothes, an extravert expression of personality, more or less ‘flamboyant’ while the interior may be more intimate, a place of sanctuary from the life in the street.