134Design
notebook
Q&A with Sally Ogle and Ben Mitchell-
Anyon of Patchwork ArchitectureThis is the third project you’ve done
with Adam and Dorset Construction.
How important is that relationship?
Sally Ogle— It’s pretty awesome. It makes
it a lot easier when you know that person
really well and understand how they work,
and they understand how you work. We
understand Adam’s strengths.The first decision made for this site
was not to dig in too much. Why?
Ben Mitchell-Anyon— We’ve floated it
as much as possible. Retaining is really
expensive, and once you’re on a steep
site, you often need to get into rock
anchors and that sort of thing. The
civil engineering side of things gets
horrendous and when you walk into a
house, you don’t see $100,000 worth of
anchors holding it to the hill. So this really
only has the concrete core, which is half
dug into the ground, and the box itself is on
poles. SO— In some ways it’s similar to a
commercial construction where the core is
doing all the work.The exterior is silver anodised aluminium
sheets, the same product as the windows
and doors. Why have you used it?
BMA— It’s coastal so we had to think
about corrosion, and it’s about reading
the exterior of the building as a cohesive
whole. SO— Also, the house is obviously
quite complex because of the site, so
we tried to simplify the rest of the design,
at least visually. Otherwise it becomes
overly complicated. BMA— And Adam
is really into things being sharp and
accurate and correct with lots of clean
lines – no fiddly bits.When building on a hill, the hypothetical
envelope becomes quite difficult to
comply with. How did you do it?
BMA— We learned that if you don’t ask, you
don’t get. If we had been more compliant
and just got the tick, we wouldn’t have been
able to do this at all.The bridge to the
roof terrace is yellow
powdercoated steel.GroundfloorFirstfloor Roof- Entry
- Laundry
- Workshop
- Deck
- Living
- Bedroom
- Bathroom
- Ensuite
- Kitchen
10.Dining
11.BusStop
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