Daniel Robertson Traditional in Buff

MRTN Architects

Good Life House

00/00

“We wanted to incorporate the rambling feel of a country house, with room upon room seemingly added over time. And Kate [the co-owner] really had that view that the kitchen is the heart of the house and should be connected to all other parts, too”

“We wanted to incorporate the rambling feel of a country house, with room upon room seemingly added over time. And Kate [the co-owner] really had that view that the kitchen is the heart of the house and should be connected to all other parts, too”

Featured Product

Bricks

Daniel Robertson Traditional in Buff

• With their highly textured face and complex multi layered colouring, the unique attributes of the Traditional premium bricks offer real individuality and distinction.

Learn More

The post Good Life House appeared first on Brickworks.

01/02

Alexander Mayes Photography

02/02

Alexander Mayes Photography

“We wanted to incorporate the rambling feel of a country house, with room upon room seemingly added over time. And Kate [the co-owner] really had that view that the kitchen is the heart of the house and should be connected to all other parts, too”

“We wanted to incorporate the rambling feel of a country house, with room upon room seemingly added over time. And Kate [the co-owner] really had that view that the kitchen is the heart of the house and should be connected to all other parts, too”

Featured Product

Bricks

Daniel Robertson Traditional in Buff

• With their highly textured face and complex multi layered colouring, the unique attributes of the Traditional premium bricks offer real individuality and distinction.

Learn More

The post Barrack Place appeared first on Brickworks.

01/04

02/04

03/04

04/04

“We wanted to incorporate the rambling feel of a country house, with room upon room seemingly added over time. And Kate [the co-owner] really had that view that the kitchen is the heart of the house and should be connected to all other parts, too”

“We wanted to incorporate the rambling feel of a country house, with room upon room seemingly added over time. And Kate [the co-owner] really had that view that the kitchen is the heart of the house and should be connected to all other parts, too”

Featured Product

Bricks

Daniel Robertson Traditional in Buff

• With their highly textured face and complex multi layered colouring, the unique attributes of the Traditional premium bricks offer real individuality and distinction.

Learn More

The post Calile Hotel appeared first on Brickworks.

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

00/00

“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.

01/01

“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

The post Queensland Country Bank Stadium appeared first on Brickworks.

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.

The post Maroochydore City Centre, QLD appeared first on Brickworks.

On a late winter’s day with full sun and a brisk breeze, the sliding side panels of a vast Ampelite shed were open. A large almond tree – the first fruit tree to blossom – was vivid white and buzzing with bees. Shadows of birds moved across the roof with a clatter of claws. A pair of masked lapwings voiced their distinctive call. They typically inhabit large grassy areas near open water but have taken to nesting on flat roofs. The Longhouse roof isn’t flat, but perhaps it seemed like an expanse of reflective water from above. Within, all is glowing, leafy-green and very comfortable.

Austral Bricks’ range of Burlesque glazed bricks were an ideal choice for exposed brickwork

Daylesford Longhouse

By Partners Hill

00/00

The Longhouse is a 110-metre-long big shed sheltering a sequence of smaller buildings and gardens. Trace Streeter and Ronnen Goren, the couple who built the Longhouse, have lived in it for a couple of years. For three years prior to that, while they were building the house and its garden, they lived in nearby Daylesford. What they have built serves as a cooking school, productive garden and living space for themselves, friends and WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms).

“In the Australian lexicon there’s a lot of romancing of sheds and cottages”

“In the Australian lexicon there’s a lot of romancing of sheds and cottages”

Goren is a graphic designer who still works in Melbourne as a founding partner of 25 years with Studio Ongarato. Streeter has relocated from Queensland. ‘Part of Trace moving from Queensland to Melbourne depended on finding a farm; finding a farm; finding the right site,’ explains Goren. ‘Coming from Brisbane he wanted a different experience of climate and landscape.’ As Goren points out, the week before my arrival it had snowed but outside the longhouse is a sunny green landscape.

Architect Timothy Hill of Partners Hill was involved from the outset. ‘We were interested in siting the building, especially as we were very interested in the sequencing, the experience of approaching the building,’ explains Hill.

01/02

Glazed interior brickwork with Austral Bricks Burlesque in Indulgent White

02/02

An innovative and eye-catching design

The relationships of the nested buildings to the surrounding land and wider landscape beyond is key to the project. Lying just off the crest of a hill with expansive views, the Longhouse is approached from the rise behind.

A switchback road spreads and shifts the surrounding landscape before you as you approach, until finally swinging perpendicular to a long shed, nestled behind grassed mounds and tanks. From outside Mount Franklin is framed in the far distance by the open sliding doors on either side of the shed.

Featured Product

Burlesque

Austral Bricks Burlesque in Indulgent White

• Making a statement – and the provocative, eye-catching Burlesque range go together when it comes to design. Burlesque’s fully glazed finish speaks volumes about this sensuous collection. Available in 13 standard and also neutral colours, the Burlesque range will appeal to the adventurous spirit.

View product here

The post Daylesford Longhouse appeared first on Brickworks.

Arkadia is a 152 multi-residential building in the growing inner-city suburb of Alexandria, NSW, which is built from half a million recycled bricks.The complex, which was designed by award-winning architects DKO and BREATHE Architecture, is revolutionary in its challenge of typical city living, creating a community that combines lush green spaces and a number of sustainable initiatives.

The stunning apartments show that inner city living doesn’t need to be synonymous with a disconnect from nature, and that through thoughtful design, residents can enjoy urban living that embraces their natural environment.

“We had a mantra of a small community is a good community. There are statistics that you can relate to up to 40 people in your community, if it gets larger than that, it starts to become anonymous.’ ”

“We had a mantra of a small community is a good community. There are statistics that you can relate to up to 40 people in your community, if it gets larger than that, it starts to become anonymous.’ ”

Arkadia represents a reimagination of apartment living, setting a new benchmark for multi-residential projects that can foster community, social interaction and neighbourhood integration. Encapsulating a kind of ‘urban wilderness’, residents inhabiting the 128 apartments and 24 terraces can enjoy the great outdoors through multiple break-out spaces and gardens surrounding the building.

Developed for Defence Housing Australia, the complex is occupied by 50 per cent defence force personnel and their families, whilst the general public occupies the remaining 50 per cent. It was a considered approach from both DKO and BREATHE Architecture to encapsulate all the benefits of living in a typical suburban home into this multi-res development, so residents can enjoy an urban lifestyle without missing out on the luxuries synonymous with stand-alone homes, such as space, privacy and proximity to nature.

Arkadia apartments were designed to bring people together. As DKO Principle Koos de Keijzer told Architecture Australia, ‘We had a mantra of a small community is a good community. There are statistics that you can relate to up to 40 people in your community, if it gets larger than that, it starts to become anonymous.’

To combat any atmosphere of isolation within the large development, the complex is broken up into four separate ‘lift cores’ so that each subset of residents have their own rooftop garden on an intermediary floor, complete with communal veggie patches and BBQ areas.

These subsets were created to encourage regular chance encounters between groups, so that residents can form connections with their neighbours as they frequent these communal areas. The top level features a communal space that can be accessed by all residents, where they can access an ‘architecturally designed’ chook run, seating pods, and sheltered areas where they enjoy uninterrupted views of Sydney Park and Sydney’s Skyline.

On the importance of creating a space that fosters social interaction, Koos de Keijzer says, ‘DHA were particularly interested in aspects of community and safety. A lot of defence force personnel might be sent on postings for five or six months so there’ll be one single parent left with the kids. The whole aspect of sociability became important.’

The sustainable characteristics of Arkadia apartments are unmistakable, as the building’s incredible recycled brick façade symbolises the building’s ecological ethos that is represented from the inside out. The building’s structure is partly comprised of Bowral Bricks Bowral Blue for their sharp edges and inherent character, as well as half a million multi-coloured bricks that were salvaged from multiple demolished buildings in NSW. Many of these recycled bricks were returned to their place of origin for this project, as the 5590 square metre site was originally a City Brick Co, in which Brickworks acquired in 1937.

The use of brick as the predominant building material was integral to lowering the environmental footprint of the apartment complex. Made from shale and clay which is naturally abundant, bricks area healthy and environmentally sensitive building material.

They can be reused with their original properties and features intact, and because bricks do not contain harsh chemicals, plastics or artificial compounds, brick buildings are healthy environments to live in. The ability to reuse brick also lengthens their lifecycle and ensures the energy used in their manufacture is spread over a longer period of time, thereby taking advantage of its longer lifecycle to achieve greater efficiency in energy use.

The use of brick is also a significant part of the building’s passive solar design, which optimises the suns exposure to heat and cool the building’s interior. Being high-density materials, the thermal mass of brick has the ability to absorb and store heat, moderating temperature extremes to create a comfortable internal air temperature.

To complement the thermally efficient envelope of recycled bricks, the façade is articulated with deep reveals and solar shading to the north and west, with window openings incorporated to allow cross ventilation, summer shading and winter sun penetration.

DKO and BREATHE won a City of Sydney design excellence award for Arkadia Apartments in 2015, the first time the two practices have collaborated. With its smart design, connection to nature and community-minded atmosphere, Arkadia signals a new era for sustainable multi-residential developments.

The post Arkadia Apartments appeared first on Brickworks.

Koichi Takada architect’s ‘Arc’ residential tower is an architectural masterpiece, it’s brick façade redefining the way Sydney’s skyline is perceived.

The building, which spans the width of an entire block in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, is characterised by its unique materiality and the recurring motif of arches sculpted by brick.

The building, which was created for Crown Group, strikes a perfect balance between the old and new, as the brick materiality references historic Sydney buildings, whilst the duality of the design gives a nod to the future of inner-city living.

Inspired by the brickwork in the neighbouring buildings and the masonry character of significant heritage buildings, Arc by Crown achieves its brief of creating a mixed-use building that relates to the past, with a tower that relates to the future. The varied aesthetics of the podium and the tower introduces a complex duality to the building, further reinforcing that this is far from an ordinary building.

The 26-storey tower is comprised of 135 apartments, 86 boutique hotel rooms and 8 retail and food outlets. The indulgent apartments feature amenities such as a spa, gym, and reflection pool, as well as a rooftop courtyard on the penthouse level.

The decision to use the roof for public amenity instead of private apartments came from a desire to foster a sense of community for residents, as the world-renowned architect Koichi Takada says, ‘imagine a city where people can escape to the rooftop, where the architecture facilitates social interaction and the reimagining of the urban environment.’

Arc By Crown ft. Bowral Bricks in Hereford Bronze and Bowral Blue

By Koichi Takada Architects

Arc by Crown

00/00

The decision to use the roof for public amenity instead of private apartments came from a desire to foster a sense of community for residents, as the world-renowned architect Koichi Takada says, ‘imagine a city where people can escape to the rooftop, where the architecture facilitates social interaction and the reimagining of the urban environment.’

On designing Arc by Crown, Koichi Takada says, ‘it was all about creating a wow factor’. This approach informed Takada’s decision to use brick as the predominant building material for this development, saying, ‘we thought, why not bring traditional materiality into the heart of the city?’

Despite the use of a heavy material such as brick for this intricate project, the building gives a lighter, softer impression in its façade. Takada accounts the elegancy of the building to the stepped brick framework, where each brick was slightly overhung, enhancing the perfectly symmetrical windows and balconies. ‘The idea was to bring more light into the internal space, and also create a wonderful deep shadow.’

Over 300,000 bricks were used to create the intricate detailing in Arc by Crown. Comprised of a combination of Bowral Bricks in Hereford Bronze and Bowral Blue, the bricks give the project a sense of warmth, bringing relief to a modern city centre overwhelmed with metal and glass.

01/02

02/02

The material selection was inspired by the natural landscape of Australia; the red brick a nod to the red earth at the heart of the Australian outback. ‘When you walk past the building, (the brick) is something that instantly reconnects us with this mother earth colour,’ Takada says. ‘It’s something that we should not forget; about the roots of our past, and the wonderful materiality that we can reinvest by building like this in the middle of the city.’

This deeply emotional connection to brick is one that Koichi Takada experienced first-hand during the process of designing Arc. Sculpting elaborate, perfectly mirrored arches required many conversation workshops with builders Hutchinson Builders and brick masons Favetti Bricklaying, where the team worked together to develop a plan of execution.

The bricks were sliced by the millimetre to achieve the perfect arch, which required immense skill, patience, and craftsmanship. ‘The whole point of using brick is about the process,’ Takada says. ‘The façade really shows the process.’

It is evident that the process of designing and executing the brickwork in Arc fostered a real sense of community for Koichi Takada and his team, which is a shared experience for those who interact with the building today.

As Takada says, ‘every time I look at this building it makes me happy, and I hope that this building does that to people. It’s very important that it’s not really about the design- it’s about how this piece of architecture belongs in the community, and in peoples hearts’.

FEATURED PRODUCT

Bowral Bricks in Hereford Bronze & Bowral Blue

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.

Learn more about Arc by Crown in our Built with Brickworks video below.

The post Arc by Crown appeared first on Brickworks.

Place Laboratory and Coniglio Ainsworth selected UrbanStone pavers for the interchange and surrounding footpaths. “The general technical criteria for the paving selection was to provide an aesthetically pleasing, durable and slip-resistant finish,” says Ainsworth.

As Chauvel explains, another benefit of using UrbanStone pavers rather than tarmac or other poured materials is their ability to be uprooted as needed. “There’s quite a lot of infrastructure that goes in underneath campus roads, even more than what you’d find in a city context because of all the university’s data requirements,” she says. “That’s why we went with the unit paver: we needed to make sure that the university had flexibility to easily perform maintenance below the surface.”

Curtin University Bus Interchange

UrbanStone Engineered Stone Pavers

Place Laboratory & Coniglio Ainsworth

00/00

Place Laboratory collaborated with UrbanStone to develop two colours specifically for the campus pavers. “Curtin has a traditional brick palette, so we decided to juxtapose that with something that was a little bit lighter,” says Chauvel.

Instead of using traditional rectangular-shaped pavers, the team generated a pattern based on the work of architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, who is famous for his geodesic domes. “He devised a geometric solution to creating a circle,” says Chauvel. “There’s a dome building on the campus which was designed using his construction methodology, so we used that as a starting point.”

The resulting geometric pavers fit together neatly. “The consistent diagonal banding allows the pattern to seamlessly flow throughout the campus,” Ainsworth says. Chauvel and Ainsworth agree that the custom UrbanStone paving has significantly enhanced the bus interchange. “The unique pattern assists with legibility and wayfinding,” Ainsworth notes. “The unique pavement treatment extends from the bus interchange to the campus corso, guiding people to the academic heart.” Thanks to the productive collaboration between the architects and UrbanStone, these custom pavers will help define the Curtin campus aesthetic for generations to come.

“Curtin has a traditional brick palette, so we decided to juxtapose that with something that was a little bit lighter”

“Curtin has a traditional brick palette, so we decided to juxtapose that with something that was a little bit lighter”

The post Curtin University Bus Interchange appeared first on Brickworks.

01/03

02/03

03/03

Featured Product

Bricks

Venetian Glass

• For centuries, Venetians have been producing magnificent glass pieces of every description. Our new range has all the features you’d expect in coloured designer glass – brilliance, transparency, sophistication.

The post 44 Market Street, Sydney appeared first on Brickworks.