Description
of the House, its local & occupants
A traditional,
four bedroom, freestanding Californian Bungalow house situated in the Sydney’s
beachside suburb of Coogee. With a traditional
restored frontage and architecturally designed minimal modern extension, this home
sure surprised.
Its occupants
also melded two worlds. The professional
couple combined has 5 children between them aged between 10 and 18 - a true Brady bunch.
The Brief!
With
both parents appreciating modern design, the brief was very focused on modern
living. Working in an award winning
design firm herself, our client had a very astute eye for quality design and
construction.
CLIENT REQUIREMENTS:
·
Sharp
edgy design,
·
Monotone
colour palette,
·
Natural
material as a feature,
·
Quality
fixtures,
·
Bathing
space for two,
·
Good
task and ambient lighting,
·
Niches
required for storage,
·
Large
open shower,
·
Sitting
area
·
Lots
of storage
·
Storage
for dirty clothes & towels
CONSTRAINTS: -
·
Existing room with no plumbing
·
Difficult access with narrow steep staircase leading
upto parents retreat
·
Clients existing tiles had to be incorporated
·
Clients varying body heights. He was TALL she was short… tough!
Design Statement - How the requirements of the client
brief were achieved & problems solved
Very rarely are we presented with a space that is free
from anything, a space that is square with good light, a clean slate. This
space was a dream to work with, but it still had its challenges.
The client worked for an award winning interior design
studio and had a real eye for detail and a desire for something remarkable, a
place to relax & rejuvenate - the challenge was set.
The approach to the room was to zone the functions,
the toilet is in a separate area tucked away from the bathing space so the room
was setout into three zones, bathing, vanity and hamper storage come seating
area.
The clients wish for a monochromatic space drove
selections, with a dark grey 600 x 600 tile selected early in the design
process the designer needed to introduce a natural element to help warm the
space up - Carrera Mable was selected to play to the monochromatic pallet. With
materials and spatial plan created, form & function began to take shape.
The designer chose to create a real sense of arrival
as the entry point to this new bathing space was thru the wardrobe. The
creation of a low long hamper area for the extra towels, dirty clothes and
winter blankets with a marble top is a real prelude to what is coming, this
hamper was also designed at seat height so it could be a place of conversation
as well as a practical storage solution.
With the clients desire for something striking the
designer chose to create a strong statement to the bathing section of this
Parents Retreat, a raised platform for the bathing zone was created, this
platform was raised & clad with Carrera marble.
The platform was created to deal with the change of
material, the designer chose to extenuate this change of material by mitring
the edges of the marble and creating a block like feel to the floor and back
wall. By building up the back wall it allowed the designer to create recessed
niches to place the day-to-day cleansing products and also house accent and
room lighting. The raised step also accommodated the night-light, which was
sensor activated.
There was a clear decision to separate the bathing to
one side and the vanity area to the other, the space to a certain degree
dictated this as did the clients desire to have a very oversized bench and
integrated wash basins. The washbasin is hand made for this site and is made
from a single piece of Solid Surface material with two eco friendly bowls
slumped out of the top surface. Above the washbasin is touch to open bifold lift
up doors that cater for more than ample personal effect storage whilst the
servo drives drawers below house cleaning products and more towels. The bifold
lift up doors create a very dynamic storage area, taking the doors away from
face and allowing perfect access to all personal effect. Adjustable mirrors are
installed inside for shaving and close facial activities.
The lighting of the space is very measured and
layered, the design has the ability to be up in the morning or when the need to
dress up and it has the ability to mood down so you can rejuvenate and relax in
the space when needed, accent lighting is run thru the niches and under the
step and vanity unit to add depth to the dark spots of the space; making the
space feel larger. The task lighting over the vanity is controlled thru wide
24degree LED downlights; there was no need for perfect facial illumination as
the designer had created a make up area inside one of the adjoining wardrobe
modules. The room light comes via the LED up lighting, at 14.4 watt per LM
running above the marble wall and also above the recessed mirror cabinets we
supply all the general room light required, we also have dim control to these
so the mood can be brought right down when needed.
To match all this rejuvenation and wellness lighting
the designer chose to specify the Gessi 3mm shower head, not only does this
look sharp but it has two other roles, yes it is a rain soaker and secondly it
has a built in waterfall to offer the user a large amount of water when ever
required. Also specified was an adjustable shower rail for complete
flexibility.
Two round sky tubes plaster set above the shower and
to the side of the bath where created to bathe the space with more natural
light, this also offers glimpses to the sky to increase the feeling of space. This
round element picks up the selected tapware and the classic Gubi leather clad
mirror centred over the freestanding bath. The round forms help to soften this
monochromatic & edgy space.
Over all the clean simple module styled design is a
modern triumph, the space is well balanced, has many features that come
together to make one stunning bathing space – the perfect space to unwind or
start up…..
