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Tanner Street Apartment
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The Tanner Street Apartments in Richmond is a two-storey, glass-clad extension on the roof of a nineteenth-century warehouse. Inside, the floors and ceilings appear to float because neither corre-sponds to the building's horizontal grid. The ceilings are off-white planes, one wall is a dark timber plane of modular panels with expressed joints, the upper floor is a polished timber plane: all planes stop short of the glass facade, making critical the junctions between dissimilar materials and colours.
The building's original conversion allowed individual owners to buy and adapt their own spaces. Later, a developer purchased the entire building and reworked it as upmarket apartments, but added rooftop penthouses -set back from the line of the parapet to be less visible from the street. To meet the demands of a heritage overlay, the same glass type and pattern of the old warehouse windows were used. In one of these penthouses, an informal association between interior designers Robert Backhouse (Hassell) and Di Ritter (Carr Design), and architect Robert Graham, has produced an architectural palindrome -
a symmetrical, smooth and minimal design that leaves the drama outside its glass facade. Initially, they considered a double-height void, weaving the space in and out, up and down. But in the end, they decided on two discrete floors, each with its panoramic slice of the horizon. Splitting the apartment into two levels was, in fact, a masterstroke. It doubles the opportunities to deal with the notion of exposure and voyeurism -both from the context of public space (the upstairs living areas), and from the private zone (the downstairs bedrooms).
Design decisions suggested themselves through practicality and necessity. Thus the first floor level is higher than the existing spandrel Panel because of the depth of structure required to support the new
floor. The first floor is held away from the glass facade slightly, which actually inspired the design concept that none of the walls, ceilings or floors would engage directly with the facade. The two aspects -the prior glass box and the subsequent insertions -are kept discrete. At the outset, the basic construction was rudimentary, and required a major new structure for the floor. "In these sorts of jobs, all you get is a floor waste over there, an electricity inlet here," says Robert.
The ensuing structural and services gymnastics have been artfully concealed. The ensuite's sewage is electrically pumped overhead through the ceiling space, to avoid lifting a floor already raised one step for other services. The bathroom vanity is a continuous Corian bar, an extrusion with inset basins of the same material. The kitchen benchtop
and sink is also a single element in stainless steel. Apart from the tap and a discreet cooktop, there is no evidence of "kitchen" -it is all hidden away behind the anonymous American white oak timber veneer
panelling. This is not form-follows-function, this is function detached from form -yet it is perfectly, practically workable (the kitchen is a
conventional L-shape in disguise).
There is a beauty in everything here, even in what Robert describes as "mistakes". The building shell wasn't quite square, so two non-
structural columns became engaged with the ceiling plane instead of standing free -contradicting the strategy of keeping any two design elements discrete. But painted to match the ceiling, the resulting fusion of the columns and ceiling as a single element then exaggerates the isolation of the facade as a separate element -a lattice of slender steel
framing, painted black. Critically, the role of this unobtrusive lattice is to disappear, and so allow all focus to remain on the view. This
approach is perfectly suited to a viewing platform, in a dwelling that is also a vantage point. You are a voyeur of the City of Richmond (or are you being watched?). Out on the deck, the view of the city and the
iconic MCG is unhampered by a nearly invisible pool fence. You lift up a panel in the decking to grab a drink from the concealed esky.
The client is a thirty-something bachelor, and this is his first home. Domesticity is not present here. To introduce elements like tooth-
brushes, newspapers, mail, clothes, seems incongruous in this space.
Above the steel strip of the kitchen, downlights threaten to interrupt the calm expanse of the ceiling. Where you might expect to see kitchen
shelving, there is a blank wall. Only the owner can tell you which one is the fridge, and which the stereo. There is a clear set of rules: no architraves or skirting boards to be seen. The client made it clear that he didn't want to have to choose doorhandles: no problem, the designers selected one style and minimised its use. Floor-to-ceiling pivot doors open in either direction and remove the need for door frames. The shower base is a subtle slope in the floor, the shower head consists of holes in the ceiling where water comes out. There are no pendants, just downlights near the edges of the space, and uplights in the false floor. It's all about minimal intrusion. Even the ducting for the air-conditioning is a mere gap between the ceiling and the wall. It's unnoticeable, but betrays the project's only drawback the single layer clear glass facade creates a greenhouse -rapidly gaining heat during the day, and losing it at the same rate. Mechanical air conditioning had to be installed to maintain comfort.
This is a world where pure form rules -no decorative additions, no visible details. But the simplicity is an illusion: hidden behind the
refined minimalism are the essential working parts that render this beautiful glass box a highly livable abode.
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