15. Revisiting Alice Street

Part One…

I’ve recently returned to an old project from university, for the purpose of building on my personal “architectural toolkit” including conceptual and critical thinking and software skills. The project is alterations and additions for a terrace house in the inner-west suburb of Newtown, in Sydney.

My primary goal for this project is to explore ways of communicating and outputting different aspects of the architectural process in a different manner to the ways that were commonly used at university. This means that I have been researching and experimenting with different methods of site analysis, rendering, sketching, thinking and documenting- to expand upon the skillset developed throughout my Bachelor’s degree.

Revisiting this project has been interesting conceptually- considering “home” in Sydney, a city that is incredibly busy, congested and unaffordable. Considering this “home” from the perspective of an architect designing for a young family and their needs. Approaching the project in relation to the user and their experience has led me to researching “UX design” as well as the development of a user-goals in relation to the project.

I am particularly focused on creating spaces within spaces- transformative as the family grows, without being so adaptable that no sense of permanence remains. I am interested in creating different senses in spaces- social, warm, loud, quiet, contemplative, cosy. I want the spaces to reference their Australian context and be entirely workable in all of the seasons.

 I aim to create the most sustainable home possible- recycling materials, sourcing locally as much as possible, and using solar panels and rainwater harvesting to offset (and, if possible, neutralize) household energy consumption. (this could go into another blog that links the different materials and detailed drawings/specs). While considering sustainability as a primary goal, I have created a materiality palette envisioning the colours, textures and landscape that has inspired the approach to the house.

Separate from my goals for software development, I am also very excited to go through the project considering the experience of each space, anticipating the needs of the user, and working with a sense of detail. The process that I have undertaken has involved program mapping and sketching to begin with, site analysis, development of concepts, and moving onto the documentation of the scheme, and renders of the final project. Throughout the process, I have worked to change the usual way that I would approach something, and try a different way of approaching each stage, for example, in sketching, I considered and drew the layout of every house I have lived in to recall the strengths and weaknesses in deciding on the layout of mine.  

It’s been really satisfying to get back to this project, and back to working through an architectural project. I have enjoyed researching precedents once again, looking at different configurations of stairs and kitchens, and getting back into the nitty gritty of putting together spaces. It’s always an adventure transforming the images inside my head into something that I can tangibly show someone, and incredibly satisfying to be able to put together something interesting. I am looking forward to continuing work on the project, and transforming this foundation through drawings and renderings into a more tangible process in the upcoming weeks.

Until next time!

AP