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OR VIEW ALL PROJECTSOR GO BACK TO SEARCH RESULTSOR VIEW ALLPROJECTS BY ARCHITECT VIVIAN FRASERAPARTMENT PROJECTS1999 PROJECTSPROJECTS IN SYDNEYPROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY WILLEM RETHMEIER |
An award winning architect's bag of tricks puts him on the inside looking out.
With a Manhattan feel and a classic Sydney outlook, it brings together bird calls and city chic.
From the front door, the eye is drawn directly to a dramatic vista of Moreton Bay figs, church spires and skyscrapers.
The outward focus is no accident. Fraser
has used all the tricks in his significant architectural swag to bring the big city view into his apartment.
For he is the architect of one of the buildings most loved by Sydneysiders, the Wharf Theatre, at Walsh Bay, for which he won both the Royal Australian Institute of Architects' Sulman and National President awards.
He is a master at making the most of a building's attributes, in that case the wharf's exquisite old timbers, proportions and gorgeous harbour view.
In this apartment, it is outlook, a north-west aspect. and al:l unusually flexible layout.
"It was a matter of making the most of the building, the apartment, the site," agrees Joy Fraser, who worked with her husband
on the project. "We don't do recognisable work. We've always just let the site dictate the result.
"This is not an introverted design; it is led by St Mary's and the park and Woolloomooloo Bay.
It's a case where the designer should work ,quietly and not distract from the theatrical views."
From the start, the Frasers had a distinct vision.
They saw it as a Manhattan apartment with terrific views over the Cook and Phillip]park.
In a 20 year old building at the bottom of Cook and Phillip, the apartment offered a clean slate.
Almost all the internal walls could be moved, enabling Fraser to gut the interior.
They really only left the structure and brick walls around the two bathrooms.
On the original, boxy, floorplan there had been a kitchen and a small bedroom to the left and right of the entrance. A large master bedroom, accessed from the living area, took up almost a third of the unit's floor space.
Fraser opened up the kitchen and demolished the second bedroom to create one large, open-plan living area with views via floor-to ceiling
glass doors to the park.
He created a second bedroom within the old big master bedroom, thus maintaining the apartment as a two-bedroom home. He also added a corridor in front of the kitchen.This hali,.which ends in a wall mirror, serves several purposes: to expand the feel and complexity of space, making it feel more like house, and to establish a private entry to the master bedroom (and its bathroom and dressing room).
What's more, one of its walls is recessed to store the couple's book collection.In the master bedroom, the beds are raised on a platform so, when they are lying in bed at night, they can see out the wmdow to St Mary's.
Both the master bedroom and the neighbouring second bedroom, which has a balcony, have mirrors to create the effect of all-round views.
But it is the living area that has been changed most dramatically. With the relocation of the second bedroom and opening up of the kitchen , the living area looks and feels much larger. In addition, a lowered ceiling that steps up over the sitting area draws the eye out to the view. "It strengthens the impact of the external openings and helps frame the views"
The colours -a warm aubergine and off-white - were chosen to make the space feel intimate. "The idea of the colours was that all of this was to recede," says Joy, gesturing to the apartment around her. "We wanted all of it to focus on the view." Indeed, the wall of glass doors that frames the ever changing park and city confirms the outlook as the unchallenged focus.
On the adjacent wall, facing back to the harbour, Fraser treated the views differently. He has "fattened" the wall because he wanted the two pre- existing windows -one with a view up to the Art Gallery of NSW, the other back to Woolloomooloo Bay -to be cut into thick walls.
Throughout the apartment, Fraser's design ensures both an unimpeded connection with the outside world and interior spaces that feel solid and contained. The unusual combination of expansive views seen from intimate spaces is a direcrresult of Fraser's canny sense of how to make the apartment work aesthetically and Culturally.
It is tailor-made for elegant inner-city living: "It's not minimalist. It's not leading edge. It:s quiet architecture. We were hard-edge minimalists 20 years ago, but we've realised you can't live like that; most clients can't [eitherj," Fraser says. "We did this apartment to live here. It's not gymnastic. It's not saying 'look at me, look at me'.
It's a subdued makeover"
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