Entitled Main Ridge Residence, the single-storey house features a central courtyard that is open to the north, as well as a protruding living room that projects eastwards to frame views towards the fields of a neighbouring strawberry farm.

"The site had no clear 'hero' views with which to orientate the building," explains Victoria-based McAllister Alcock Architects. "However there were a series of lovely, albeit modest aspects... The architecture retains the memory of these existing landscape vistas and uses them as an ordering device."

The house is divided into two main wings. The first stretches along the eastern edge of the site to accommodate a row of bedrooms and bathrooms, while the second wraps around the south-west corner and contains family rooms as well as a small guest suite.

These two sections are visually separated by materials, with the timber cladding lining the eastern side of the house and chunky Corten steel walls framing an entrance on the western facade.

Beyond the entranceway, an enclosed patio leads residents either into the house or through to the courtyard beyond, and is framed by walls of concrete.

Living and dining areas occupy a single space beneath a faceted plywood ceiling. A timber drum divides the space into two and contains a pantry and a spiral staircase, leading down to a wine cellar beneath the house.

Other recently completed houses in Australia include a Sydney bungalow into a two-storey residence and a Melbourne beach house built from recycled bricks and rough-sawn timber. See more Australian houses on Dezeen.

Exterior photography is by Derek Swalwell and interior photography is by Shannon McGrath.

Here's a project description from McAllister Alcock Architects:

Main Ridge Residence, Mornington Peninsula, Australia

The Main Ridge house sits within an established working vineyard located on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. The brief was for a comfortable 4 bedroom family home with a visual connection to the vines and which provided an area suitable for entertaining the international guests who visit our clients' winery.

We are 'urban architects', used to working with the constraints of existing built form and planning regulations and creating architecture in residual urban space. We consider our work to be contextual, an architectural response to the urban 'found' conditions. In this case the context for the house was abstract; the site had no clear 'hero' views with which to orientate the building. The best northern solar orientation faces away from the vines, while to the west an existing artificial cutting separated the house site from the vines and the view to the east was dominated by a large and visually 'messy' strawberry farm. However there were a series of lovely, albeit modest aspects: to the north a view beneath trees full of dappled light and a promise of what lies beyond; to the south a gentle rolling grassy slope terminating at the vines. The architecture retains the memory of these existing landscape vistas and uses them as an ordering device – externally with the form and placement of the new building and internally with the orientation of the inside spaces.

On approach the house is hidden by two 20 metre long angled weathered 'Corten' steel walls. On entering through a gap between the walls – reminiscent of the original cutting - the house and site reveal themselves. The residence is comprised of pavilions enclosing three sides of a sheltered, north facing courtyard. The courtyard design maximises northern light to the interior and creates zones within the home: one for more private family living and another that can also cater for entertaining guests. A sculptured limed plywood ceiling provides a horizontal ribbon linking the public and private areas of the main pavilion, and contributes visual 'drama' while still maintaining a comfortable residential scale. A pod-like timber 'drum' marks the pivot point between the public and private realms and hides a butler's pantry, the staircase to the wine cellar, and sliding doors to zone the spaces.

At the start of the project our clients were not overly impressed with the attributes of their site and were not fond of the view to the strawberry farm. The design of the residence has changed our clients' perception of their environs by carefully selecting and 'framing' vignettes so that the inhabitants are encouraged to pause, and appreciate the special characteristics of a landscape setting that has more 'depth' than just the strong graphic rows of grapevines.

Location: Main Ridge, Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Architects: McAllister Alcock Architects
Project Type: New House
Project Team: Karen Alcock, Clare McAllister, Maria Danos, Brett Seakins, Jack Tu

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The extension more than doubles the floor area of Cosgriff House, a family residence in the Sydney suburb of Annandale. At ground floor level the plan extends to accommodate a new bathroom, bedroom and study room, while the extra storey below adds a large open-plan living and dining room at the same level as the garden.

Christopher Polly designed the extension as an asymmetric volume that initially follows the hipped profile of the house's original roof but then angles up further to let in light through high-level windows.

The structure features an all-black exterior combining fibre-cement panels with black window and door surrounds, designed to complement the brown tones of the original brickwork facade.

A new staircase leads down from the ground floor to the large basement living room. The base of the stairs never meets the floor, creating the impression of a floating structure, while new storage closets are tucked into the space beneath.

Glazed panels open the living room out to the garden beyond. The architect has also integrated a system of louvred shutters that can be used to screen this elevation when residents want more privacy.

Other recently completed houses in Australia include a Melbourne residence with the silhouette of three little buildings and a Queensland house designed to withstand cyclones. See more houses in Australia.

Photography is by Brett Boardman.

Here's a project description from Christopher Polly:

Cosgriff House

The project retains its original envelope as part of its environmental, economic and planning values. A substantial lower ground living volume is sensitively inserted beneath the original fabric to harness the fall in the site towards the rear, extending deeply beneath the existing dwelling and outwards towards the garden to transform it - while a re-crafted rear ground floor above enfolds the existing rhythm of front rooms over the new lower ground below.

Both levels accept a modestly-sized lightweight addition which extrapolates existing wall alignments, gutter levels and enclosing wall heights - that at once, extends and subverts existing geometries to present an interpreted mirrored slice of the original vernacular form attached to the retained rear fabric. An eccentric roof form extrapolates the original southern roof plane to mitigate adjacent impacts - lifting to light and tree views to the east, while also folding upwards for access to northern light and sky through a sole fire-rated window along the boundary.

The majority of the project is carefully crafted within the retained masonry and hipped roof envelope. Vaulted ceilings and skylights carved within the original roof form expand volumes for access to light and sky within the middle of the ground floor - while consciously surrendered floor area permits a generous stair void that spatially expands to the lower level below, and upwards to views of the external environment to strengthen connections to its setting.

Utilities located deep within the semi-subterranean rear of the lower ground enable direct connection of the living space to the garden and jacaranda tree, while the re-worked ground floor above adds a bathroom, main bedroom and adaptable bedroom providing flexibility for future use as a study. Fenestration placement improves natural light access and promotes passive ventilation, assisted by ceiling fans and a roof venting system to exhaust trapped heat out of the original roof space.

Location: Annandale, Sydney Australia
Architect: Christopher Polly Architect
Structural Engineer: SDA Structures
Hydraulic Engineer: ACOR Consultants
Builder: R.G.Gregson Constructions

Land Size: 370 sqm
Floor Area: 167 sqm
Completion: December 2012

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by Christopher Polly appeared first on Dezeen.

Merricks Beach House functions as a holiday home and is available to rent on a short-term basis, so Kennedy Nolan Architects was asked to create a flexible building with a structure durable enough to accommodate regularly changing occupants.

The single-storey house is arranged over three staggered levels that respond to the natural slope of the site. Rooms are laid out on a U-shaped plan, creating a large courtyard on the western side of the building.

Half of the house is given over to social spaces, on the assumption that temporary residents spend more time entertaining and are likely to have children around. To the south, a kitchen leads out to a dedicated barbecue deck, while a sunken living room opens out to the courtyard and a "bunk room" can be used as a second lounge.

Two bedrooms are lined up along the eastern side of the building and sit beside a single bathroom. There's no need for much storage, so each room contains just the basic furnishings.

The recycled clay bricks were used to construct the lowest sections of the house's walls and are visible both inside and outside the building. In most places they are painted white, but the architects left two unfinished circles to reveal the original colour.

Timber wraps over the tops and corners of the walls, while windows are slotted into gaps between the two different materials.

Merricks Beach House is one of several new houses in Melbourne featured on Dezeen recently. Others include a residence clad in slabs of travertine and a house with the silhouette of three little buildings. See more houses in Australia.

Photography is by Derek Swalwell.

Read on for more information from Kennedy Nolan Architects:

Merricks Beach House

This small house at Merricks Beach has been designed as a weekender that is available for short term rental. It needed to be an economical build and tough enough for the knocks of a rental market. It is two blocks from the beach. It has no views and had no existing trees on the site.

There are the usual line-up of rooms required, and in this instance it is a modest list; but what becomes a more interesting conversation is how you live differently in the weekender.

» No one needs to 'own' a bedroom
» No one needs to shower and leave quickly in the morning
» What you need to store is completely different
» You arrive and unpack; you leave & pack
» You spend more time with others; having guests stay over is common
» There always seems to be more children than adults!
» It is a place to enjoy each other

A courtyard typology ensures maximum privacy and access to northern winter sun, yet in this straightforward floor plan a number of 'in-between' spaces have been considered.

The bunk room which is located on the north edge of the internal courtyard has no doors and the king single bunks sit within their own alcove. This spacefeels dark and private and becomes a second living room when the house swells with people. Within this space thereare different places to be. There is no need for walls or doors. Light forms the threshold.

The coastal weekender is not just a summer dream. In winter the hearth is central to this house. Located between the kitchen and living room, a slow combustion fireplace defines another 'in-between' space. There is time here in the colder months to pull up a chair, chat or read. In summer this space dissolves into the open corner of the central deck.

A slight fall across the site allows for the house to have 3 levels. The living pit sits below the central timber deck. It is a soft floor that allows you to be low and look out over the skillion roof to the trees in the surrounding area. The pit edge becomes another of these in-between places. It is a place to sit and wide enough for a futon for an afternoon nap in the winter sun. The edge curves to become the hearth for the fire, finishing in a ledge for the television.

The materials of the build are a big part of what this house is about. It is not a precise build. It feels raw and tough. A language of masonry, concrete and timber was developed. The white painted brickwork to both interior and exterior walls is never punctured by windows. They are always walls, solid and straightforward. There are two moments where a circle has been left, telling the story of the recycled red bricks that the house is made from. The structural concrete slab, rough-sawn timber cladding and concrete block screen wall have been expressed with similar simplicity.

Location: Merricks Beach, Melbourne, Australia
Architects: Kennedy Nolan Architects
Project type: New house
Completion Date: May 2012
Site area: 850sqm
Floor area: 155sqm
Project Team: Rachel Nolan, Patrick Kennedy, Michael Macleod

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Profile House is located within the industrial district of Brunswick East, so BLOXAS designed a new facade that would reference the surrounding brick and corrugated iron warehouses, as well as the timber-clad exterior of the original building.

The front entrance to the house remains in its previous location on the northern elevation, while the new rough-sawn ash facade grows out of a boundary fence on the western perimeter and stretches out along the length of the site.

The extension doubles the size of the single-storey house. The architects retained three front rooms and one small bathroom, then increased the size of the kitchen and dining room and added a new children's playroom, living room and en suite bedroom beyond.

The zigzagging profile of the building gives angled ceilings to each of the new spaces and brings daylight in through high-level windows and rooflights.

"The defining character of each internal space is the high undulating ceilings," says BLOXAS director Anthony Clarke. "These, assisted by a central wharf-decking courtyard and smaller lightwell to the west, allow natural light to penetrate throughout the entire plan."

The long narrow lightwell sits behind the western elevation, while the split-level courtyard is tucked into a recess on the east side of the building so that both the dining room and living room can open out to it.

Most of the new rooms feature bamboo flooring, apart from the living room that has a polished concrete ground surface.

Clarke established BLOXAS, short for Black Line One X Architecture Studio, in 2009 and the studio is based in Fitzroy North, Victoria. See more Australian architecture on Dezeen.

Photography is by Peter Bennetts.

Here's a project description from BLOXAS:

Profile House

The Profile House offers an evocative tribute to the defined industrial typology of Brunswick East, in Melbourne's inner north. Simple planning creates clean, elegant and sculptural internal living spaces.

Seeking an addition to their typically dark Californian Bungalow, the clients emphasised the sustainable performance of their future home. Accordingly, they described a space with a feeling of openness, lightness, and visual continuity, connecting their home and landscape.

These values were reinforced by their professions, one specialising in environmental site characterisation and remediation, and the other practicing alternative medicine.

Located in a semi-industrial zone, the site offers visual proximity to the area's brick and corrugated iron warehouses. Some warehouses and factories are still operational, whilst many lie dormant and in disrepair, ripe for either their imminent demise or redevelopment into multi-storey apartment blocks.

A strong internal vertical profile extrudes to form the western elevation. Clad with rough-sawn overlapping Victorian Ash timber, this distinct contour continues along the western boundary as the defining architectural expression of the Profile House, whilst delivering on the brief of a secure building.

The defining character of each internal space is the high undulating ceilings, these, assisted by a central wharf-decking courtyard and smaller light-well to the west, allow natural light to penetrate throughout the entire plan.

In addition to the retention of three front rooms and central bathroom, the plan now features a re-worked kitchen and dining area, an informal children's area, and new living space. A new main bedroom, ensuite and private garden are also incorporated. The overall design strengthens family engagement and visual communication, reinforcing the relationships between space and activity.

In addition to dependable design strategies such as careful plan orientation and cross ventilation, solar hot water and water harvesting systems were also included, as well as the use of north facing thermal mass in the main living space. Natural material choices and finishes of low embodied energy including: un-seasoned, un-milled Victorian ash timber, and bamboo flooring through-out the addition adhered to the client's environmental stipulations.

A refreshing change from housing that simply maximises developer returns, neighbours have responded appreciatively to the low scale design, whilst maintaining the area's built integrity. In a subtle move the project further softens the corner, with the use of the timber in the boundary wall, juxtaposing against the materials of the factories.

This compact, economical and highly livable outcome was a result of inclusive dialogue between all consultants, the builder, architect and in particular the client.

Architect: Black Line One X Architecture Studio.
Location: Brunswick East, Melbourne, Australia.
Builder: Genjusho
Project year: 2012
Areas: Site = 371sq.m, Existing house area = 87sq.m, Additional area = 83sq.m
Furniture: 'Earl Pinto' and Ross Gardam

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by BLOXAS appeared first on Dezeen.

"The house builds on some of the ideas of 57 Tivoli Road," architect Daniel Rees told Dezeen, comparing the project to a basalt-clad house the studio completed in 2010. "Here, the facade is clad in beautiful banded silver travertine marble."

b.e. Architecture sourced stone from opposite sides of the same quarry to create the two-tone effect, then cut the material into ten different slab sizes to give a varied pattern.

The striped travertine clads the top floor of the two-storey Cassell Street House, while the lower floor features a mixture of concrete and glass walls. The glazed areas surround a living room on one side and a study on the other, allowing both rooms to open out to separate gardens.

The architects were keen to make the building look aged, so they added weathered timber window shutters and entrance gates to help it fit in with its Edwardian neighbours.

"The house was designed to be sympathetic with the period but not mimetic of any particular style, whilst remaining unapologetically contemporary," they explain.

Four bedrooms are located on the upper floor, alongside a series of en suite bathrooms. There are also three balconies on this floor, which sit within deep recesses in the stone facade.

A car park occupies the basement and can be accessed by a ramp tucked around the side of the building.

Melbourne-based b.e. Architecture was founded in 1997 by Jonathon Boucher and Broderick Ely. As well as 57 Tivoli Road, the studio also designed Meakins Road, a house surrounded by a steel and timber grid. See more by b.e. Architecture.

Other residences completed in Australia recently include a house with a facade inspired by tree branches. See more houses in Australia.

Photography is by Peter Clarke.

Here's some more information from b.e. Architecture:

Cassell Street house is a boutique new home built on a corner block in South Yarra, built in place of an attached Edwardian row house and set amongst homes of a similar vintage. The house was designed to be sympathetic with the period but not mimetic of any particular style, whilst remaining unapologetically contemporary.

The limited material palate of natural and aged materials such as travertine, rusticated timber, concrete and steel cast over a strong rectilinear form work to give the building the quality of looking older than it is – to look as though in an another world it could well have been standing in its place unchanged since the 1930s.

Being sited on a corner block, the first floor form in particular is highly visible from the street with all sides visible to the passer by. A bespoke material treatment was thus considered an appropriate urban gesture. The complex travertine facade is made up of 10 different sized slabs of stone laid in bands sourced from opposite sides of the same quarry producing two distinct colours. The banding quality of the stone facade is referential of Byzantine buildings in a reference to the owner's heritage.

The deep apertures formed in the travertine walls of the first floor facade make the building read as a singular and massive stone edifice and in doing so shade and shelter the western windows as well as protecting the occupant from the nearby major road.

By contrast, downstairs is characterised by expansive glazing, opening the living areas to the secluded garden space which surrounds the building.

A visitor enters from the street into the heart of the building adjacent a curving staircase rising three floors from basement garage to the upstairs bedrooms. The curving staircase contrasts with the rectilinear form of the exterior and is used as a separation device to define the ground floor living areas into two distinct zones: The day/summer areas facing north and overlooking a pool and outdoor eating area; the night/winter areas facing south and east into the more sheltered back yard.

Architects: b.e architecture
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Construction Team: Bayside Construct
Design Team: Andrew Piva, Broderick Ely, Jon Boucher, Kris Keen

Area: 500 sqm
Year: 2012

Above: ground floor plan

Above: first floor plan

Above: basement floor plan

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by b.e. Architecture appeared first on Dezeen.