Description
of the House, its local & occupants
A dilapidated two bedroom,
timber clad, 1920’s heritage listed home in Sydney's Crows Nest was in desperate
need of saving. Its life for the past 10 years had been home to squatters and
the homeless. Situated close to the city, cafes and schools the new owners
believed it had great potential to be transformed/renovated into their magnificent
family home.
As this home was to be their
“forever” one; and with young girls leading into their pre teen years this
space had to cater to the family’s busy lifestyle & had to do justice to
the heritage of the old and the proposed modern architecture for the rear
extension.
Therefore with walls crumbling
and covered in graffiti this family of four took it on and looked forward to
the houses transformation with bated breath. In return they saw an ugly ducking
totally transform in to a swan.
The
Brief
A luxurious beautiful bathroom
that is connected with parents master space, room to function as a wet area,
dressing & make up zone. A space for two to share.
CLIENT REQUIREMENTS:
·
Door entry to slide/split open onto master bed space
‘quiet opening’
·
In makeup zone, consider built-in table with oversized
mirror & LED lighting for precise make up work
·
Storage accommodated in recessed format mirror cabinet
·
Concealed toilet
·
Vanity to offer double basin, preference not to see
plumbing below.
·
Double shower with hand held spout
·
Good light
CONSTRAINTS:
-
·
Slope
of roof line slopes from east to west
·
2x
manually operable skylights
·
Existing
north facing window
Design Statement - How the requirements of the client
brief were achieved & problems solved
The
challenges of this space where many, the space is narrow, the client wanted a
lot into a spall space, the sloping ceiling also reduced the usable floor space
to one long run of the room.
The
designer chose to create a centre blade wall, this wall divides the room and
fulfils many aspects of the clients brief; this centre wall creates two access
points on each end of the wall, one access to the now concealed toilet area and
the other walks into the double shower.
The
ingenious solution of the design was to rotate the showerhead to the (longer)
length of the wall rather than the short (narrow) side of the shower wall, as
this is what makes this space feel larger than it actually is. When we address
a shower we stand front or back on, so it makes a lot of sense to have the
water sources on the longest wall – hence making the shower feel bigger.
With
the bathing and toilet taken care of it came down to the vanity wall, the
designer chose to create three balanced spaces, two thirds to be given to the
custom made solid surface washbasin and one third to the dressing or make up
area.
The
lighting as usual plays a big role, especially when make up is involved. The
designer created a concealed LED light source with reflectors so when sitting
at the make up area the face is perfectly illuminated from both sides and by
selected LED lights with CRI (Colour Render Index) output of 90 it meant colour
is reproduced almost perfectly.
As it
is a small room, one 14.4 watt high out put LED light on top of the centre wall
offers all the room light this small space requires, low energy efficient LED
downlights over the basin provide a little extra facial illumination for
shaving and so on. A sensor light under the vanity & under the recess wall
cabinets provides a low out put of light for the midnight dash.
For a
small space there is a lot of storage, the two doors above the basins are
recessed to house all of the day-to-day personal effects. The designer created doors
that lifted up rather than open out, this means the doors are up and out of the
way when access is needed and it also eliminated have that dreaded vertical
split in the door directly over the basin. – this longer door also helps in
making the room feel longer (visually)
The
materials are always the last element selected; connection to the other spaces
the designer created for this client was important. Large format tiles 3000mm x
1000mm are applied to all walls and the floor of the shower and toilet. The
engineered timber floor from the bedroom runs thru and under the vanity
connecting the bedroom to the space thru the floor and a large oversized sliding
door.
This
space has created a private retreat for the owners of this stunning property, a
space where they can both function, rejuvenate or get ready for the busy day
ahead.
