on PanovScott
Richard Stampton . PanovScott . photos: © Brett Boardman
PanovScott's Centripetal project is an excellent example of their carefully transformational work. lt flourishes within the fine grain aesthetic, cultural and functional parameters specific to its inner-city Sydney location and existing terrace house typology. Of great interest to me, is the elegance and frugal beauty of the rear facade.
There are three particular aspects of he facade design that illustrate why this project is so solid and rich. They, like all good architecture, balance the competing constraints of specific local history and culture, the site's environment, symbolic meaning and tradition. 1. Composition and weight. Thin timber door / window frames slide over the facade on aluminium tracks. Their jambless connection makes them seem almost temporary and playful. Yet the varied proportions and symmetrical composition of the three frames grounds them in classical - mannerist technique which attaches them to the house in a strong sculptural way. The material restraint of the facade and glazed door system gives strength to the terrace house 'behind'. 2. Operation and technology. The absence of a jamb resulting from the windows' placement on the facade and their operation from the centre to each side creates a very subtle attachment to the building. The interior separated from the exterior environment only by proprietary cushion or brush seals - a beautiful detail only possible in a temperate climate like Sydney's. 3. Precedent and interior. PanovScott, as most relevant architects, have one eye on what is in front of them and the other eye on what surrounds them regionally and globally. Their use of a vernacular house in Anhui Province, China as a precedent for this project is evidence of this lucrative cultural engagement. Like the timber shutters of the Chinese vernacular house, the sliding doors - operative building elements 'beyond'the house open from the centre defining and redefining the public-private threshold depending on the weather and the mood of the occupants. Lastly, placement of the window system to the public foreground and farthest from the interior provides a meaningful increase in overall interior volume, and important interior spatial texture by exposing of the entire depth of the opening reveals - the building's thickness. This is articulate, frugal, and ambitiously appropriate architecture.
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