Edition Office . photos: © Rory Gardner . © Ben Hosking
Located in Kew, the project is perched upon an escarpment overlooking the banks and bends of the Birrarung. This site holds together the deep age and weathered timelessness of the river and the exposed rock faces that frame it, with pockets of distinct architectural heritage tucked into the hills and hollows of the area. Fenwick was conceived as a broken mass of three distinct forms straddling this zone between residential street and bluff, with each volume shaped and scaled to appear as a small cohesive series of buildings within the streetscape of equal scale to the surrounding homes.
A language of gentle swoops and curves emanate from the meeting place between the three, creating pockets of entry and invitation, and allowing daylight and shadow to drift and sculpt the built forms as the sun moves across the site. Vegetated corridors open up between the three forms allowing plants and vines to grow up and smother the outer walls while tree canopies filter the light and views through to the river and landscape beyond. Materially, the project echoes its clifftop site and the restraint and purpose of the modernist homes in the area. Textured, board formed concrete, raw copper and galvanised steel allow the project to elegantly age over time, gaining in character and grace as the project weathers and slowly comes to reflect the country that it sits in.
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Scale: 2,200m2
Year: 2019
Type: Living
Client: ANGLE
Location: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Team: Flack Studio
Photographer: Rory Gardner / Ben Hosking
