christopher polly architect

Exterior visuals of the new rear addition to a terrace house highlight the manner in which it sensitively interprets, springs from, and is sub-ordinate to the original front form in its heritage conservation area.

Height is carefully controlled under the existing rear eave, new wall faces align with existing walls, and angled wall, roof and external hood elements reflect the original roof pitch – with a distinctly contemporary material and colour palette serving to strengthen the legibility of both the original front half and the new addition.

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The ground floor spaces within the new rear addition are arranged within a 4m tall ‘grand room’, connecting to a new landscaped courtyard and sky views beyond - with a powder room, reading alcove, and a laundry room doubling as a second side entry carefully organised to one side along its length. Of importance to the client brief, new arched openings through an existing internal wall enable the original front half to markedly link to the new ground floor rear spaces while echoing the arched openings of the front façade.

With the first floor, a series of crafted and controlled spaces offer varying spatial experiences in counterpoint to their otherwise modest dimensions. A pop-up rear roof plane over the bedroom echoes the original roof pitch and enables northern light access and sky views, an office and main bathroom each borrow from an adjacent void to expand outlooks, and an ensuite projects outward from the footprint to connect to the street and canopy views - with a linear array of roof lights over a compact hall responding to a challenged northern orientation along the side boundary.

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It was super nice to receive notification from Architizer that the practice had made it onto their list of the “30 Best Architecture Firms in Australia”. It’s very humbling to be amongst a group of highly esteemed Australian architecture firms.

Greenwich House image by Matthew Fonda / Method Visualisation

Further graphical 3d modelling representations of Leura House bring to life the exterior compositions of its connected pavilions and the multiple external terrace areas that are arranged between and around them – serving at once to accentuate its outward materials expression.

Seamlessly integrating with its interior materials palette, it amalgamates low carbon smooth and bush-hammered concrete, face brickwork in variously articulated stretcher and stacked-bond arrangements, expressed galvanised steel elements, and naturally finished timber linings, doors & windows – while referencing the variety of natural grey, brown, and silver tones of its immediate landscape to allow a contiguous relationship with its surrounding setting.

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Graphical 3d modelling representations enable the articulation of the various design elements within the interior spaces for Leura House, serving to augment the compositions of materials, finishes, fixtures and furnishings – while also revealing the numerous ways it expands to its immediate landscape and mountain views beyond.

It embodies durable, low maintenance materials comprising of low carbon burnished concrete, face brickwork, expressed galvanised and stainless steel elements, and naturally finished timber ceilings, doors, windows & joinery – to definitively amplify the tones of its proximate landscape setting and facilitate connections to its place.

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Studies have been prepared to explore colour contrasts in two elevational representations of the new rear addition to the original house in a heritage conservation area.

The options explored have been carefully contemplated to enable a dialogue with the existing front half of the house and to further contribute to the clear distinction between the old and new fabric beyond external material selections – while ultimately serving to visually strengthen and enrich the extant front fabric.

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Sensitive alterations and a new rear addition to a freestanding house in a heritage conservation area are carefully composed to provide significant additional room for a growing family. Remaining intact, the front primary form will be sympathetically restored and refurbished to enhance its historic character, while the form of the new addition purposely defers to established conditions of the original house in the manner in which it is sub-ordinate to and springs from it – at a macro level and in contemporaneous interpretation of particular elements and details.

The addition incorporates numerous sustainability measures inclusive of high levels of wall, slab, ceiling and roof insulation and thermally-efficient double glazing to achieve a 7-star rating – as well as, low carbon concrete, hydronic in-slab heating, an electric instantaneous hot water system, a PV solar system for renewal energy generation with battery storage, and underground water storage for re-use in the house and landscape. The original front half will also incorporate new roof, ceiling, and floor insulation to greatly improve its energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

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A materials colour study for Leura House highlights the composition of durable and low maintenance materials employed for the exterior and interior of the project.

It amalgamates low carbon burnished concrete, face brickwork, expressed galvanised steel elements, and naturally finished timber ceilings, doors, windows & joinery – while referencing the variety of natural grey, brown, and silver tones of its immediate landscape to allow a contiguous relationship with its surrounding setting.

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A second design concept for Leura House entails split slabs for the middle pavilions to enable closer connections to the divergent east & west long edge site levels – thereby expressing this negotiation of the complex slope in a series of tetris-like flat-roofed volumes.

As with the 1^st design option, this 2^nd design option integrates a range of sustainability measures inclusive of high levels of cavity wall, slab, ceiling and roof insulation with thermally-efficient double glazing to achieve a 7.4 star rating, a 6.64 kWh PV solar system for renewal energy generation with battery storage, 30,000 litres of underground water storage for re-use in the house and landscape, hydronic in-slab heating, energy-efficient radiator heating for private zones, a wood fireplace for the public zone, and allowance for a supplementary heat recovery system.

Design concepts have been prepared for a new house on a greenfield site comprising of a series of brick pavilions which cascade down a highly complex two-way slope from the highest elevation in Leura. It is carefully sited and anchored to its land in the manner in which it negotiates and relates to existing surrounding levels to provide proximate connections to its encompassing landscape, while simultaneously emerging from its topography to amply capture daylight, air circulation, and commanding views of the Blue Mountains National Park to the north.

It integrates several sustainability measures inclusive of thermally-efficient double glazing, high levels of cavity wall, slab, ceiling and roof insulation to achieve a 7.6 star rating, a 14.5 kWh PV solar system for renewal energy generation with battery storage, 35,000 litres of underground water storage for re-use in the house and landscape, hydronic in-slab heating, energy-efficient radiator heating for private zones, a wood fireplace for the public zone, and future allowance for a supplementary heat recovery system.

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Sketch design concepts have commenced for an exciting new house on a sublime greenfield site in Leura.

The site slopes dramatically down to the street and is spectacular to say the least. The first image shows the commanding view to the Blue Mountains National Park most adjacent to the street, with the second image showing the fairly level ‘flat’ section further up towards the rear of the site.

Watch this space.

New visualisations of Blue Mountains House showcase its further design development and have now been uploaded in ‘Projects’.

A composition of pre-finished steel, low carbon fibrecement, and fireproof concrete meet the design performance required of a BAL FZ bushfire attack level, in unison with horizontally-sliding metal mesh screens, fire-rated thermally efficient double glazing, and vertically-retractable motorised screens to enable its envelope to be fully ‘shut down’ when unoccupied. A carefully controlled interior palette of burnished concrete, blackbutt timber boards, brushed stainless steel and galvanised steel reference the hues and tones of its setting while complementing the exterior materials.

It incorporates several off-grid measures including a solar system for power generation, 20,000 litres of underground water storage, under-floor heating, a small wood fire, and a heat recovery system to duct warm fresh air heated by exhaust air as needed.

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Graphical 3d modelling representations have been prepared to enable the process of developing and expressing the material overlays of the interior spaces for an off-grid house in the Blue Mountains.

Durable low maintenance materials serve to complement the exterior material palette while further referencing the diversity of natural grey, brown, and silver tones embodied in the eucalyptus and angophora trees within its surrounding setting.

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Flexion House has been lovingly showcased in a great online feature article published by The Local Project entitled “Design To Be Revered - Flexion House by Christopher Polly Architects”.

This speaks to The Local Project’s confidence in supporting and celebrating exceptional architectural design in the form of visualisations - as well as to the value of renders in bringing to life the ideas and material language of the project in all its detail.

With much gratitude to Matthew Fonda for the stellar visualisations, and to writer Thida Sachathep and the editor at TLP for their representation of the project.

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