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THE REFINED AND VISUALLY POLISHED WORK of Adelaide architect Con Bastiras is achieving local and national recognition for its confident integration of contemporary and traditional residential architecture. And yet, paradoxically, the strength of his approach seems to be in his ability to keep his architecture invisible from the street. A previous feature on the architect's work (Houses, Issue 32) reviewed an extension he designed in the heritage area of Gilberton, and discussed the need to convince the local council that the design wouldn't be conspicuous. In a recently completed extension to a stately Victorian villa in College Park, history has repeated itself, and Con has managed to incorporate unashamedly contemporary architecture into a fastidiously monitored conservation zone, despite initial qualms from the local council and heritage consultants.
This project, for a family of five, provides an expansive living, dining and kitchen space, upstairs bedrooms for twin 12-year-old boys, as well as bathrooms, laundry, cellar and outdoor entertaining closely related to the new wing. More than 350 square metres, the extension effectively mirrors the scale and accommodation of the substantial 1890s bluestone villa, located in one of the leafiest avenues of this salubrious inner Adelaide suburb. Tantalisingly difficult to see from the street, its elusive nature illustrates the recurrent dilemma of building modem architecture in heritage zones. The architectural profession frequently chafes at the stringent guidelines which dictate the nature of new insertions into traditional streetscapes, arguing that they are conservative and retrospective, and have spawned a plethora of pseudo-Victorian and hybrid Tuscan styles at the expense of architecture which is genuinely "of its time". Yet historic areas inevitably contain buildings and patterns that architects respect (as much as the general public), whether or not they want to build in a manner which mimics them. Bastiras' work sits in the midst of this debate, demonstrating a personal ethic of sensitivity to context and careful compliance with heritage controls, while nevertheless striving to produce architecture which is manifestly modem.
The clients, a property developer and family, were relocating from Perth and, while attracted by the grandeur of the existing house, were nevertheless interested in new spaces that would contrast with its characteristic compartmentalised planning, and allow plenty of natural light and connection to outdoors. Informed by professional contact with contemporary commercial and residential architecture, the clients chose Con Bastiras because of his established vocabulary of clean lined modern design. "We wanted something a bit different, something with a 'wow factor'," enthuses the client.
Wow factor there may be, but it is played out with suspense. From the street, almost the only clue to the architectural intervention is in the refreshingly unorthodox handling of the front garden, where sculptural plant forms and paving patterns challenge the ubiquitous local formula of standardised roses and dwarf box hedges. Entering the house, the customary vista down the central passage terminates in a mirrored alcove, signifying a shift of circulation to either side. Moving around this "pause" between old and new, which unobtrusively includes a side entry, storage and utility areas, the space expands dramatically into a grand volume, housing tripartite spaces of kitchen, living and dining organised around the dominant feature of stairs to the upper level and open cellar below. The demarcation of functions in this very large room is defined by familiar means such as built-in joinery, wing walls, and changes in ceding height, allowing the area to operate as an impressive and singular space, as well as a fluid multi-purpose arena for family life.
Impressive, too, is the richness of materials and texture, read against a neutral background of pale walls and dusk-hued sandstone flagging. The architect always selects his palette to accentuate inherent physical differences between materials, creating contrasts of colour, reflectivity, and grain. Gleaming stainless steel and glazed splashbacks in the kitchen highlight the matt porosity of adjacent sandstone floor, stairs and bench tops. Elements such as the chocolate opacity of wenge veneered joinery and the roughness of bluestone walls sit all the more heavily against floating panes of balustrade glazing.
The focal point is the book-leaf bluestone open fireplace. Placed symmetrically in the extended height of the dining and living areas, the chunky form gives dynamic weight when read in the context of the whole space, its organic quality emphasised by asymmetrical alcoves for fire and wood, and by the clever incorporation of a high-level window interrupting the junction of chimney breast and ceiling. The client recalls she and her husband had very like minds about the whole design, except for whether the fire should be gas or wood-fuelled. "We agreed on everything but this!â€Â쳌 she recalls, "But he was right insisting on a 'proper' fire." The half-used stack of split logs attests to the everyday importance of this hearth.
Focus, if not intimacy, is achieved through other place-making moves: three deep-coffered skylights to wash the kitchen wall with patterns of light and shade; the unexpected heat of luscious red sofas, one in strident floral upholstery; the iconic Le Corbusier and Charlotte Remand chaise hovering on the periphery of the main conversation space, and the ingenuity of a miniature home office tucked discreetly behind the cupboard doors in the joinery unit which lines two sides of the lounge. A striking artwork, D for Debbie from the Alphabet Girls series by the client's father, Adelaide artist John Toovey, adds piquancy to the stair landing.
The spaces are abundantly lit from a variety of sources but principally from the four-metre-high floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors to the garden. The interior melts seamlessly into the outside environment, meticulous detailing of structure, windows and thresholds dissolving boundaries between inside and out. To the left, the view is framed by an exquisite stand of 80-year-old Japanese maples, incorporated into the verandah and disrupting the otherwise continuous plane of paving with timber grates which allow air to circulate round the roots of the trees, The twisted trunks and the grain of the battens is an artful and potent contrast to the weighty rectilinear surrounds. To the right, the vista extends to the pool, unimpeded visually by an enclosure of frameless glazing, and culminating in a bas-relief bluestone and water installation by local artist, Marijana made.
From the garden looking back, the three major forms of the design become clear: the ground floor clad in Kanmantoo bluestone, an upper storey lightweight zinc-clad element and the horizontal blade form of the verandah. The cubic bluestone section reinforces the materials and heights of the villa, while the zinc structure takes on an attic form, blending in with the existing roof. Con took dimensional cues and alignments from the original house, so that both the overall form of the budding and the detail were compatible. He also made certain that the potentially contentious upper storey avoided problems of overlooking by setting it back from the sides and rear, so that from their bedrooms the boys have a delightful view of tree canopies but not neighbouring gardens themselves.
An alternative side entry into the extension leads from the driveway under a cantilevered canopy. The adjoining space between the house and garage has a tempting alley-like quality, between sun-washed walls and narrow reflecting pond. Internally, Bastiras handles this deftly, by providing a continuous low-level window to the pond, compensating for the lack of long view and making the wall above appear to float.
This is design unequivocally in a nep-modernist mode, where the apparent simplicity of effect belies the rigour required to achieve it. The architect rejects the label of minimalism. "It's too vague, and it's overused to describe anything modern," he says, admitting, however, to instinctively working hard to reduce details to their essential parts. "It's just what 1 do," he acknowledges. And while the purist aesthetic of Modernism may have had an unfortunate effect on our cities when coupled with corporate pragmatism, this project demonstrates that in residential design this need not be so. Enriched by place-specific moves and an expressive use of materials, Con's take on Modernism has produced a sensual and serene backdrop for daily life.
The thoughtfully resolved spaces the architect has created for his clients establishes a new residential heritage which is paradoxically a continuum of the gracious models of nineteenth- and early twentieth century Australian domesticity. Contextualism here doesn't just come from the shape of the building. It comes from affinities of proportion and scale, and generosity of materials - materials which will weather and develop a patina similar to their older neighbours.
In quality of building Con Bastiras' projects owe much to their local predecessors and show an equal - if not greater respect for issues of privacy. And yet he appears resigned to the recurrent need to justify the visual and aesthetic nature of his work where it sits alongside buildings of equal merit but older pedigree, almost to the point of hiding behind them. Perhaps the irony is that, in some settings, modern architecture is still struggling to be visible.
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