Chenchow Little Architects ‘Stewart House’ in one of the case studies featured in Materiality 2021, located in Palm Beach on a ridge overlooking the McKay Reserve, a gully which is significant for its EEC of the Pittwater Spotted Gym Forest.

The places the site within a bushfire ‘Flame Zone’, and its designs and materials were oriented towards meeting stringent requirements of the bushfire code. In addition, there was much consideration for the environment in its construction.

The house plan is arranged simply around a central corridor, with bedrooms to each side and an open living space at the rear overlooking the reserve. It is shaped as a series of textured rectilinear volumes, stepping down the sloping site in split levels. Inside, the feeling is of seclusion within its bush setting, despite its close proximity to neighbouring dwellings. The bedrooms have fans, and cross-ventilation comes from the central courtyards adjoining each of them.

Materials were chosen based on their fire-resistance properties and thermal mass. The walls are made entirely of insulated face bricks, floors are stone tiles (travertine) on concrete slabs, and the roof is fire rated and well insulated. The external bushfire shutters also provide shade during the summer.

The brick walls incorporate horizontal bands of 50mm bricks, and a ‘hit- and-miss’ screen to the external courtyards and terraces. This provides privacy while still allowing the breeze to pass through. The walls for the swimming pool and its coping are made in the same way.

These walls are overlaid with high steel I-beams and closely spaced Z-purlins which support the roof. These beams also span the entire building and playfully extend beyond the façade. The brickwork patterns and repetition of the beams give a sense of lightness to the strong textures and rectangular forms of the building as a whole.

The off-white dwelling spaces and swimming pool contrast with the surrounding greenery, like abstract objects emerging from the landscape. Veneer joinery used throughout is made from locally-sourced spotted gum, in reference to the local Reserve.

The scale and planning of this single- storey dwelling is deliberately smaller than the large houses typical of this area. This, combined with its split- level design, has minimised the amount of excavation required. The material palette used is simple, mainly chosen for their longevity and are locally sourced. The external brick walls require no paint coating, and will develop a weathered patina as they age.

Sunlight streams into the house through discreet highlight windows on the northern and southern elevations, and through the screened central courtyards. Besides the ample natural lighting during the day, LED and fluorescent lights are used throughout the house to minimise energy usage at night.

Rainwater is harvested in a 9250L storage tank for use in the toilets, laundry and garden, which has been planted with endemic species. The native flora relates the dwelling place to its environment, and also because they are adapted to minimal water requirements.

This story was first published in Materiality 2021, a third in a series of books by Brickworks.

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Bowral Bricks – Austral Bricks

Bowral 76

• With their unique granular patina and tactile aesthetic, Bowral bricks are highly prized by customers, architects and designers alike, and set the standard for design and integrity. Their sharp edges and inherent character combine with the distinctive Bowral clay colours to create what can only be a Bowral Brick.

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The architects behind Queensland Country Bank Stadium used customised masonry blocks to craft a building that’s both strong and stylish.

In cyclone-prone northern Queensland, architects can’t simply design buildings that look good – they must also pay attention to tough structural engineering criteria.

“The wind force in Townsville is twice as much as in Sydney,” notes Richard Coulson from the Brisbane office of Cox Architecture. “That means any structure with a large roof is going to require some pretty significant engineering.”

This structural challenge was front-of-mind for Coulson and his team when they prepared their submission to build Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville. But it wasn’t the only factor that complicated the design process.

Custom-made diamond concrete blocks clad the exterior of the stadium, with Terracade baguettes featured in the VIP bar area.

Queensland Country Bank Stadium

By COX Architecture

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“The budget was relatively modest,” says Coulson. “Stadia tend to cost about $15,000-$16,000 per seat, but we only had $9,000-$12,000 per seat. We had to make the building strong and durable but also as lean as possible.”

With no money in the budget for decorative elements or other architectural extravagances, the architects pushed themselves to make the most of the building’s structural components. “We worked as hard as we could to get an architecture out of those functional materials: the blockwork, the steel and the roofing,” says Coulson.

They knew that masonry blocks, which are both robust and cost-effective, would help deliver the structural strength necessary to support the stadium’s roof. But the team also wanted the façade to generate visual excitement – something that standard blocks could not easily achieve.

“We knew that the diamond blockwork would create a really strong pattern on the building for a relatively minor cost”

“We knew that the diamond blockwork would create a really strong pattern on the building for a relatively minor cost”

“We thought if we could tweak the blocks a little bit, it could be a way of capturing the strong tropical light really well,” says Coulson. So, in consultation with Austral Masonry, Cox Architects developed a block with a diamond-shaped face. “We knew that the diamond blockwork would create a really strong pattern on the building for a relatively minor cost.”

Even better, the blocks could be manufactured in north Queensland. “We were looking for materials that delivered employment to locals,” says Coulson. “It couldn’t be some insane European façade that had to be imported. That was a strong driver for all of the material selections and we think that resonated in our submission.”

When it was time to design the venue’s interiors, the team was similarly focused on cost, durability and Australian-made materials. In the stadium’s refreshment areas, they made extensive use of another product from the Brickworks family: the Terraçade baguette.

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“The baguette is a pre-finished, coloured solution, which is always attractive to us,” says Coulson. “When you scratch terracotta, all you get is terracotta – that’s valuable in a high-traffic area.”

Then, finally, came the roof. “The landscape in Townsville is so powerful, with Magnetic Island and Castle Hill and Mount Stuart,” says Coulson. “It’s a bold setting, and we thought we needed a roof with a sculptural quality to be seen against it.”

The architects drew inspiration from the form of the pandanus tree, a plant that’s endemic to Queensland and can be found throughout the state. The resulting metal roof, with its fanned triangular membranes, conveys a distinctive sense of place. “The stadium is really for all of north Queensland, not just for Townsville,” says Coulson, “and I think the roof reflects that.”

Product Snapshot

Blocks

Diamond Blocks

• Concrete Masonry
• Custom made

Terracotta facades

Terracade Baguettes

• Gibson

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Planning of the Maroochydore City Centre commenced in April 2014, and Stage 1A of the build was completed in 2019. During early discussions, the MC3 architects decided on a greater scope of products that would bring interest and diversity into the build.

On deciding on the best material for the landscaping of this project, M3C worked closely with the team at UrbanStone to consider all their options. Nick Parry, UrbanStone QLD State Commercial Sales Manager, says ‘the council requirement for this project was for a high-end pavement treatment that had to be Australian produced, or sourced products with a 20-year lifespan and supply history, which UrbanStone certainly does.’

After providing information on historical projects using UrbanStone that have withstood the test of time, it was decided that UrbanStone pavers would be the perfect material for this application. The team decided on a selection of hardscape materials for the project, which was inspired by the urban setting.

“We wanted to establish a palette of materials that would suit this environment, as well as being ‘urban’ in appearance.”

“We wanted to establish a palette of materials that would suit this environment, as well as being ‘urban’ in appearance.”

They selected UrbanStone engineered concrete pavers in a bespoke colour aptly named ‘Maroochydore’, which form the backbone of key nodes throughout streetscapes of the City Centre. Trish Menzies, Director of Vee Design Sunshine Coast, says ‘We wanted to establish a palette of materials that would suit this environment, as well as being ‘urban’ in appearance. We did a lot of research looking at other Australian (and International) cities to see what colours and materials had been adopted in the urban cityscapes, and we selected UrbanStone pavers for the urban feel it projects, and for the peace of mind that it wouldn’t blemish and show marks as much as a lighter colour.’

Subtle accents of exfoliated Austral Brick granite were included as feature inserts in the streetscape and in the urban square, and were also used throughout the urban realm to knit the pavements together. ‘The layering of urban formal spaces with concrete pavements creates an excellence in materiality that complements the furniture palette, sculptural steel shelter structures and off-form concrete seat and planter structures throughout the urban realm,’ says UrbanStone QLD State Commercial Sales Manager, Nick Parry.

‘This language of materiality establishes a distinctive landscape character that derives from an intimate response to the Sunshine Coast, while accommodating the functional urban setting and the range of spatial uses that arise from the future role of this significant project, as Maroochydore’s new city centre,’ he says.

The project design briefly went on hold in 2016 when Trish began to explore the idea of a hand carved feature wall. A 46 m curved seat wall was designed for the Federation Square Park, which separated the event lawn space from the path that winds through the park. ‘Late in the documentation phase we decided to ‘up the ante’ on this and make a really interesting design feature out of it, something out of the ordinary, a bespoke feature and not just a long curved wall,’ says Trish. ‘The idea of a shaped seat capping that can be used from either side was inspired by one in Leicester Square in London, as well as referencing the coastal environment of beach colours and wave shaping’.

Trish and her team worked with UrbanStone to bring this idea to reality, deciding on grey pavements with Juparana stone as a relief. ‘Using Juparana stone as a subtle, contemporary design element was the obvious choice for this wall cap to ‘punch’ out a contrast colour that caught the eye,’ Trish said. The final product was a unique design feature, which is just as striking as it is functional.

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