Elemental elegance: How Australian designers are influenced by nature

Urban Residence

IDEA award-winning Brick House is a two-storey residence in North Bondi, Sydney, by Andrew Burges Architects.
The brief was for a family home of five bedrooms, a study and living rooms on a wide block in a tight streetscape. “The design continues our investigation of how to create privacy from neighbouring dwellings while maintaining connections to landscape and the sky,” says Andrew Burges.
Sleek in design, and evoking the colour and texture of the sandstone cliffs, sandy beach and silver waves of Bondi; Brick House features double-height skylight voids, and the huge windows above the brick walls feature invisible window framing, so the interiors appear open to the external elements beyond.

Mountain Residence

Teeland Architects’ Tinbeerwah House, set in the lush Noosa hinterland, is more than just a sustainable family home.
The house is a glass pavilion wrapped in sliding hardwood screens, which slide open to let in winter sun and close for summer shade, while providing views and breezes through timber battens.
David Teeland explains the trademark long, thin rectangular plan: “With steep hinterland sites, it is easy for the house to end up high above the natural ground and lose your connection to the earth.”
Working with the existing levels, Teeland’s floor plan sees the kitchen, living, and dining rooms opening directly onto the north-east garden and pool; and the children’s bedrooms open onto sheltered gardens so they can run out and play.

Chair

Says Jon Goulder of the inspiration behind his IDEA-winning Settler’s Chair, “I was thinking about the ingenuity of the Australian settlers and their resourceful use of the materials that were available … I researched some of the earliest furniture in Australia, in particular the Hamilton Inn sofa [Hobart, 1825].”
“The asymmetric form is a reference to a chaise longue and also a more modern time – the age we live in” Goulder says.
The chair frame is Tasmanian blackwood, with a hand-stitched leather and felt shell. “I wanted to make a pure structure,”  Goulder says. So rather than using fibreglass he first water-formed and then vacuum-pressed the shell.
“I am an ambassador for Tasmanian blackwood, so you will see me using this material a lot,” Goulder explains.

Multiple Residence

The Wave development’s striking white curves reflect the surrounding coastline and provide a welcoming gateway into the Rockdale town centre, Sydney.
Briefed to create 35 boutique apartments over eight floors, Ziad Chanine, head architect at CD Architects, wanted to think outside the box: “Rockdale is a suburb which many don’t realise is quite special,” he says. “The surrounding environment of the Sydney CBD, Brighton Le Sands, Botany Bay and the southern coastline provided inspiration.”
CDArchitects designed an undulating exterior embellished with glimmering mosaic tiles, responding to place with eye-catching form.
This particular site had tight constraints, explains Chanine, such as its small size and being surrounded by three street frontages, which he says led to design opportunities.
“The glass-wrapped apartments are rectilinear, to allow occupants an interior volume for effortless living, and the curvaceous balconies jut out beyond the building facade, rather than being boxed in,” says Chanine. These offer breathtaking views to the north over the city, and to the east towards the water. Residents can also gather on the private rooftop and take in the 360-degree vistas.

Vanity

 
Alice Springs designer Elliat Rich’s Place is a vanity, crafted of Tasmanian oak, glass and velvet, which evokes the essence of central Australia.
“The landscape here is really ever present and uninterrupted,” says Rich,” on long drives there’s not many built elements so you really pay attention to the natural forms as you travel through.”
The expressive work, winner of an Australian Furniture Design Award, encapsulates both the well-known reds and the lesser-known pastels of the desert: “Particularly as the sun goes down, the brightness comes out and you get this fluorescent pastel landscape,” Rich explains. “The mirror explores that distant haze of dust mixing with the gas off the eucalyptus trees, and the subtle textures in the jewellery drawer are a reference to the mid-distant play of shadow and light and landforms,” she says.

Lights

 
Brightgreen says its wall light collection is engineered to replicate warm Australian sunshine, casting a flattering light over natural surfaces such as wood, stone, food … and skin tones.
Winning a Core77 Design Award, the ingenious LED aluminium lights come in four hand-finished shapes that appear to pop out of the wall, and rotate to cast artful shadows and light.
Environmentally focused, Brightgreen’s recyclable luminaires last up to 70,000 hours and the surface-mounted designs mean no wall cut-outs, increasing thermal efficiency in the home.