Sanctuary Magazine Issue 9 - Small Talk With Andrew Maynard, Architect - Green Home Feature Article
This document was uploaded by user and they confirmed that they have the permission to share it. If you are author or own the copyright of this book, please report to us by using this DMCA report form. Report DMCA
Overview
Download & View Sanctuary Magazine Issue 9 - Small Talk With Andrew Maynard, Architect - Green Home Feature Article as PDF for free.
More details
- Words: 1,312
- Pages: 4
Small talk
At the moment we tend to rely on increased consumption to solve our problems, which is illogical
Peter Bennetts © 2009
with Andrew Maynard, architect
I
time deeply grounded in site-specific solutions.
n this issue, which explores and celebrates
Andrew Maynard’s Melbourne-based practice has
the small house, we wanted to challenge a
built its reputation on a suite of buildings informed
His
few notions about what constitutes sustainable
by social, political and environmental concerns. His
unpretentiously progressive. At their core is his
architecture.
conceptual work is paradigm-busting, and ranges
rejection of stolid, unchanging spaces in favour of
One little talked about approach to sustainable
from a suburb-eating robot; a novel take on the
nimble, multi-purpose ones.
design is “kinetic architecture”, a school of
mobile home that challenges our notion of the
While Andrew’s designs may follow climate-
multifunction design. To illustrate how it works, we
“fixed address”; and a Styx Valley protest shelter,
responsive design principles, such as good
chose to profile one of its leading practitioners – an
informed by Andrew’s upbringing in “the forests of
orientation and the inclusion of concrete floors for
architect whose design ethic is challenging some
Tasmania”.
thermal mass, Andrew sees these principles as
of the received notions of sustainable architecture
are
compact,
well-crafted
and
Maynard’s built works are invariably meditations
a given of good design, rather than the exclusive
on these same concerns, while at the same
preserve of sustainable architecture. Nor is the
Peter Bennetts © 2009
in Australia.
designs
34
35
Peter Bennetts © 2009
inclusion of, quote, “green gadgets”, such as
Andrew likes a recent quote he heard about
solar panels or solar hot water, a necessary
sustainability: “Sustainability is like teenage sex.
corollary of virtuous design. Sometimes, he says,
Everybody says they’re doing it, very few people
they can obscure bad design and act as a type of
actually are doing it. Those that are doing it are
green washing.
doing it badly.”
Andrew Maynard © 2009
demolish a perfectly good house to put up a four-
36
For Andrew, one of the main battles is “trying to talk clients out of adding extra rooms.
bedroom six-star house, add a solar array and a
“Most clients say that their current spaces
few other ‘green gadgets’ and call it sustainable.
aren’t working for them. The status quo solution
Or that you can add a ‘green’ extension to an
in Australia is to add more rooms or to knock it
existing dwelling that is perfectly big enough, and
down and start again. Australians are addicted to
call it sustainable.”
renovations and extensions.”
Peter Bennetts © 2009
“I don’t subscribe to the idea that you can
The bunk room is an insulated stud frame with recycled spotted gum external cladding, a concrete slab floor and radiata pine ply internal cladding. It sleeps three in 4.5 square metres
37
proposed groun
Most clients say that their current spaces aren’t working for them. The status quo solution in Australia is to add more rooms or to knock it down and start again. Australians are addicted to renovations and extensions plan
courtyard
courtyard
These plans show Andrew’s work before and after the renovation. He has managed to reconfigure the house within its existing floor plan without eating into the courtyard
play/living/ guest room
laundry
kitchen
bath
living
The multifunction play/living/guest room opens to the courtyard and includes a fold-out futon bed
kitchen
study dining
entry
Ground floor after renovation
What Andrew would like to see is architects producing architecture that responds to the changing needs of clients by creating adaptable spaces. He wants extensions and rebuilding considered only as a last resort, instead of the first. A recent example of Andrew’s work is a home in
every square metre, which means that gardens
Firstly, he resolved to work within the existing
space – a new living room by the back yard –
are becoming a thing of the past, while courtyards
size and fabric of the house – no extension – and
was designed to convert to a guest room, vastly
and balconies are the new norm. Andrew’s recent
realign the living space to foster family life. Then he
improving the liveability of the home with a simple,
work on an inner-Melbourne terrace allowed him
set about designing creative furnishing and space
modestly sized gesture.
to challenge this trend.
single-bed bunk room. Another dual-function
solutions to maximise the existing space. If there was one design feature that sums up
Kids being kids, the bunk room has had the
Victorian terraces are notoriously light-starved
additional benefit of being a very popular cubby-hole.
and cramped, with a series of rooms running off
Thinking small when you have a roomy rural
a dark hallway and the toilet and laundry facilities
extra bedrooms. Eventually these were rejected as
block runs against the grain for many people,
at the back of the house, fronting the yard. The
neither sustainable nor cost-effective solutions.
but on most inner-suburban blocks it’s a simple
common solution is to add a living-kitchen-dining
and elegant, engendering sustainability through
necessity. In the inner-suburbs, the pursuit of
extension that opens onto the yard, but eats into it.
compact design, and fostering social cohesion by
maximal house size is leading people to build on
Andrew’s approach was different and novel.
bringing the family together.
beachside Anglesea, Victoria. During the briefing process everything was on the table, from rebuilding from the ground up to adding a large extension with
Subsequently, plans for an additional bedroom for grandchildren were scaled back to a slimline
Andrew’s work best it would probably be the kitchen island he designed for this home. It beautifully illustrates what Andrew sets out to achieve in each project: a unique solution that is both functional
Emily Stubbs © 2009
Andrew’s custom-made island bench combines a preparation table, a children’s workspace and storage cupboards in one piece
38
entry
Emily Stubbs © 2009
Peter Bennetts © 2009
Ground floor before renovation
living
39
Here Andrew’s design turns the hallway into a study, making it a communal space and ensuring that it is used productively and sociably, rather than as a “junk room” or isolated, underutilised bolthole
In its element Inspired by nature and shaped by its environment
By Rachael Bernstone
Peter Bennetts © 2009
When clients lay out plans for a kitchen-living area, many decide they need a separate work
table, where the family can catch up on the day’s
to rely on increased consumption to solve our
activities.
problems, which is illogical. We really need to ask
bench, space for dining table and chairs, storage
This home also beautifully illustrates Andrew’s
ourselves whether we need to change ourselves
cupboards and so on, then go about designing
work with kinetic architecture. The garden-facing
and our habits before blaming the spaces we
a huge kitchen and living area to fit in all these
laundry and bathroom were converted into a
currently occupy.
elements. In this design solution, Andrew
multifunctional space that is easily adapted to suit
“If a renovation, extension or new build is
combines all these elements into a custom-
the needs of the clients. Primarily a living space
necessary, then think small and think strategic.
designed kitchen island bench. Combining
and play room, when guests stay it can be turned
Never confuse small with cheap. It’s better to get a
prep area and cupboard, it also has a lower-
into a bedroom with an inexpensive, built-in fold-
budget and spend it on something small that is
level workspace where the children can draw
out bed.
designed extremely well than use the same budget
or do their homework in the company of their
Andrew’s views about the future of building are
parents. And at meal times it becomes the dining
characteristically honest. “At the moment we tend
40
spread thinly over a large area that performs badly.” www.andrewmaynard.com.au
41
At the moment we tend to rely on increased consumption to solve our problems, which is illogical
Peter Bennetts © 2009
with Andrew Maynard, architect
I
time deeply grounded in site-specific solutions.
n this issue, which explores and celebrates
Andrew Maynard’s Melbourne-based practice has
the small house, we wanted to challenge a
built its reputation on a suite of buildings informed
His
few notions about what constitutes sustainable
by social, political and environmental concerns. His
unpretentiously progressive. At their core is his
architecture.
conceptual work is paradigm-busting, and ranges
rejection of stolid, unchanging spaces in favour of
One little talked about approach to sustainable
from a suburb-eating robot; a novel take on the
nimble, multi-purpose ones.
design is “kinetic architecture”, a school of
mobile home that challenges our notion of the
While Andrew’s designs may follow climate-
multifunction design. To illustrate how it works, we
“fixed address”; and a Styx Valley protest shelter,
responsive design principles, such as good
chose to profile one of its leading practitioners – an
informed by Andrew’s upbringing in “the forests of
orientation and the inclusion of concrete floors for
architect whose design ethic is challenging some
Tasmania”.
thermal mass, Andrew sees these principles as
of the received notions of sustainable architecture
are
compact,
well-crafted
and
Maynard’s built works are invariably meditations
a given of good design, rather than the exclusive
on these same concerns, while at the same
preserve of sustainable architecture. Nor is the
Peter Bennetts © 2009
in Australia.
designs
34
35
Peter Bennetts © 2009
inclusion of, quote, “green gadgets”, such as
Andrew likes a recent quote he heard about
solar panels or solar hot water, a necessary
sustainability: “Sustainability is like teenage sex.
corollary of virtuous design. Sometimes, he says,
Everybody says they’re doing it, very few people
they can obscure bad design and act as a type of
actually are doing it. Those that are doing it are
green washing.
doing it badly.”
Andrew Maynard © 2009
demolish a perfectly good house to put up a four-
36
For Andrew, one of the main battles is “trying to talk clients out of adding extra rooms.
bedroom six-star house, add a solar array and a
“Most clients say that their current spaces
few other ‘green gadgets’ and call it sustainable.
aren’t working for them. The status quo solution
Or that you can add a ‘green’ extension to an
in Australia is to add more rooms or to knock it
existing dwelling that is perfectly big enough, and
down and start again. Australians are addicted to
call it sustainable.”
renovations and extensions.”
Peter Bennetts © 2009
“I don’t subscribe to the idea that you can
The bunk room is an insulated stud frame with recycled spotted gum external cladding, a concrete slab floor and radiata pine ply internal cladding. It sleeps three in 4.5 square metres
37
proposed groun
Most clients say that their current spaces aren’t working for them. The status quo solution in Australia is to add more rooms or to knock it down and start again. Australians are addicted to renovations and extensions plan
courtyard
courtyard
These plans show Andrew’s work before and after the renovation. He has managed to reconfigure the house within its existing floor plan without eating into the courtyard
play/living/ guest room
laundry
kitchen
bath
living
The multifunction play/living/guest room opens to the courtyard and includes a fold-out futon bed
kitchen
study dining
entry
Ground floor after renovation
What Andrew would like to see is architects producing architecture that responds to the changing needs of clients by creating adaptable spaces. He wants extensions and rebuilding considered only as a last resort, instead of the first. A recent example of Andrew’s work is a home in
every square metre, which means that gardens
Firstly, he resolved to work within the existing
space – a new living room by the back yard –
are becoming a thing of the past, while courtyards
size and fabric of the house – no extension – and
was designed to convert to a guest room, vastly
and balconies are the new norm. Andrew’s recent
realign the living space to foster family life. Then he
improving the liveability of the home with a simple,
work on an inner-Melbourne terrace allowed him
set about designing creative furnishing and space
modestly sized gesture.
to challenge this trend.
single-bed bunk room. Another dual-function
solutions to maximise the existing space. If there was one design feature that sums up
Kids being kids, the bunk room has had the
Victorian terraces are notoriously light-starved
additional benefit of being a very popular cubby-hole.
and cramped, with a series of rooms running off
Thinking small when you have a roomy rural
a dark hallway and the toilet and laundry facilities
extra bedrooms. Eventually these were rejected as
block runs against the grain for many people,
at the back of the house, fronting the yard. The
neither sustainable nor cost-effective solutions.
but on most inner-suburban blocks it’s a simple
common solution is to add a living-kitchen-dining
and elegant, engendering sustainability through
necessity. In the inner-suburbs, the pursuit of
extension that opens onto the yard, but eats into it.
compact design, and fostering social cohesion by
maximal house size is leading people to build on
Andrew’s approach was different and novel.
bringing the family together.
beachside Anglesea, Victoria. During the briefing process everything was on the table, from rebuilding from the ground up to adding a large extension with
Subsequently, plans for an additional bedroom for grandchildren were scaled back to a slimline
Andrew’s work best it would probably be the kitchen island he designed for this home. It beautifully illustrates what Andrew sets out to achieve in each project: a unique solution that is both functional
Emily Stubbs © 2009
Andrew’s custom-made island bench combines a preparation table, a children’s workspace and storage cupboards in one piece
38
entry
Emily Stubbs © 2009
Peter Bennetts © 2009
Ground floor before renovation
living
39
Here Andrew’s design turns the hallway into a study, making it a communal space and ensuring that it is used productively and sociably, rather than as a “junk room” or isolated, underutilised bolthole
In its element Inspired by nature and shaped by its environment
By Rachael Bernstone
Peter Bennetts © 2009
When clients lay out plans for a kitchen-living area, many decide they need a separate work
table, where the family can catch up on the day’s
to rely on increased consumption to solve our
activities.
problems, which is illogical. We really need to ask
bench, space for dining table and chairs, storage
This home also beautifully illustrates Andrew’s
ourselves whether we need to change ourselves
cupboards and so on, then go about designing
work with kinetic architecture. The garden-facing
and our habits before blaming the spaces we
a huge kitchen and living area to fit in all these
laundry and bathroom were converted into a
currently occupy.
elements. In this design solution, Andrew
multifunctional space that is easily adapted to suit
“If a renovation, extension or new build is
combines all these elements into a custom-
the needs of the clients. Primarily a living space
necessary, then think small and think strategic.
designed kitchen island bench. Combining
and play room, when guests stay it can be turned
Never confuse small with cheap. It’s better to get a
prep area and cupboard, it also has a lower-
into a bedroom with an inexpensive, built-in fold-
budget and spend it on something small that is
level workspace where the children can draw
out bed.
designed extremely well than use the same budget
or do their homework in the company of their
Andrew’s views about the future of building are
parents. And at meal times it becomes the dining
characteristically honest. “At the moment we tend
40
spread thinly over a large area that performs badly.” www.andrewmaynard.com.au
41
