Rozelle House, a Contemporary Design Practice by Tom Ferguson

This type of residential project "Rozelle House" that was designed by Tom Ferguson who lived in Australia and gives their best services in Residential Architecture. This "Rozelle House" project contributes to contemporary design practice by exhibiting both an awareness of contemporary interior design trends and a willingness to reject those trends if an alternate material, form or object presented itself as more appropriate for the project.

The Rozelle House uses materials that reference a variety of eras of design while taking advantage of contemporary construction techniques to apply those materials to contemporary forms. The project eschews the current trend for 'surface indestructibility' and uses materials that have a surface characteristic that will allow them to mature in character over time.

Project philosophy and methodology

The philosophy behind the project of Rozelle House was to make a contemporary addition to a traditional terrace house using materials and forms that were inherently sympathetic to the original structure. The existing dwelling had layers of materials, forms and use patterns that had become evident over five years of occupation in its former 'rustic' state.

The extension was designed to be a series of three dimensional forms that slot into one another, and the materials had to be chosen both for their ability to adapt to these forms and their structure/surface characteristics. As the materials and forms evolved they were tested exhaustively using three dimensional modeling and rendering.

As the project commenced, final material choices were confirmed with the assistance of visits to various production warehouses to sample the materials in their final form.

Principle materials :

Courtyard/Living Room : Floor Full Brick, Bowral Bricks Hereford Bronze
Kitchen/Dining Room : Floor Concrete, Steel Trowel, Light Polish and Seal
Main Joinery (Wall Units) : European Ash, Veneer to cupboards, Solid Bench tops, Matt Polyurethane
Kitchen Ceiling : Secondary Joinery (Sink Return) Solid Tasmanian Oak. 90% Black 10% Walnut Stain, Matt Polyurethane.
Rendered Wall/Ceiling : Paint, Dulux Antique White USA
Timber Screen : Plantation Kwila 20mmx40mm battens
Carpet : Supertuft Groove Dark Brown
Tiles : Glass Mosaic, White 30x15, Green 30x30

Material and detailing strategies

In terms of material choice, the general determinant was that a material should be chosen for the fact that it's structure was it's surface - concrete, brick, glass and wood. This lends a certain honesty and solidity to the design both in colour and finish, and was strongly driven both by a general philosophy and by the strong presence of the exposed sandstone wall in the extension.

Detailing was driven by a desire to resolve the three dimensional forms of the extension to a finite degree. Forms were not to be masked by profiles, cornices or skirting boards but were to meet and intersect cleanly.

This meant incorporating details that allowed for minimal tolerance and incorporating design elements frameless glass and pivot doors that required no reveal. Construction was informed by 1:5 details of all significant junctions.

Credits

* Text by Tom Ferguson
* Photographs by Simon Kenny, Courtesy of the Architect
* Via : Architecture-page.com