http://theage.domain.com.au/design-and-living/victorian-gets-its-comeuppance-20100730-10z8u.html

After graduating, Andrew jumped straight into designing a new home for his Aunty and Uncle in Martinborough, NZ.

Andrew wrote a few words about the project:

Martinborough is a bit of an odd place. It floods fairly easily and the ground is an old river bed, hence the fertile grape growing soil and presence of many vineyards. This is the predominant reason behind the elevation of the house. Although, it is also proposed that vines be planted around the house with vistas along similar axes. Once this landscaping grows up around the house it should sit more comfortably in the beautiful valley that it inhabits.

Martinborough House was built on a very tight budget, around $1800 per square metre, by a Speculative housing company called A1 homes. A1 are generally known for their shed houses with butterfly roofs, probably of a similar budget to this property. The project was finished in May 2009 and I was not involved in the building process apart from answering some small detail queries. The builder apparently loved the home once it was finished and wanted to add it to their catalogue, not sure what I think about this idea.

It was an interesting process, but surprisingly, the general idea has been attempted to be kept. The placement of services, like gas etc. has been almost integrated in the design. Coming straight out from university, this is a folly of inexperience. I did not design around the placement of these services so the builder did his best.

The internal spaces were finalised by my Uncle and Auntie, and apart from some crazily vibrant colours that only a child could love to two of the bedrooms, the internal colours were kept very clean and simple.  The overall effect is very well done.

The point here is, once you ‘let go’ of a project it is very interesting to see where it goes. Generally, this job was completed well. But I must say that with a few finishing touches this project could have been much more pleasing architecturally.

UPSIDE DOWN HOUSE Award Entry

It’s a house refurb and 2nd storey extension that we have recently done in Richmond, Victoria. It has been shortlisted for the Yarra City Sustainability Awards – see blog below…

Coming back to the question above, as most readers here would be aware of, one of the main focus points in our work is Sustainability, and the question of how we can help create a world that is still worth living for generations to come. All our projects feature sustainable elements as much as possible, and these include various ecological sustainable design systems (ESD), both passive and active. We incorporate these sytems into our designs and base architectural ideas on them.

Having moved from Northcote to North Fitzroy a couple of months ago, Paul Gardiner Architects now call the City of Yarra their home. So having been nominated and shortlisted for this year’s Yarra Sustainability Awards, makes us particularly happy, and we are proud to be part of a lively and forward thinking community. The project that will feature in the Awards exhibition is our “Upside-Down Living”, a sustainable and contemporary refurbishment/extension project that we have completed for a fantastic forward-thinking client in Richmond last year. Tonight, the exhibition will be opened with the “Yarra Community Celebration and Awards Night”, an event that is a local celebration of the World Environment Day and Australia’s participation in same. Wanna be part of it? Give us a call and we’ll RSVP for you. It’s on tonight, Tuesday 8 June in the Fitzroy Town Hall. The evening will include a presentation of the Yarra Sustainability Awards 2010 winners and showcase the Yarra community’s outstanding environmental projects, as well as the latest in environmentally sustainable design.

So let’s celebrate World Environment Day, together with the City of Yarra and the country of Rwanda, and if each of us contributes a special idea or donation or action towards the environment this week, then I think that would be the best celebration we can have.