KIN was invited to speak at the UQ Art of Living Conference, discussing the way our practice/architecture shapes the way our clients live.
This one-day conference featured presentations from 11 Australian firms on outstanding residential projects by distinguished and emerging architecture alumni from The University of Queensland.
We presented two projects both for young professional clients and examined how our architecture was a response to our client’s lifestyles. Our first unbuilt project was the Rivertree Farm Stay. Here we spoke about our process of masterplanning a variety of commercial facilities (cabins, camping, wedding venue, commercial kitchen, bed ‘n’ breakfast) for the site without the client’s loosing their sense of a home, their privacy and the core reasons the made the tree change.
The Art of Living
Below: Party structure at Rivertree Farm Stay for post-weddings-under-the-fig-tree. See how it narrows towards the front (left of image)? That’s to let the 1880s School building behind have pride of place when guests arrive at the house.
Our second project was the Torbreck Apartment Renovation. Here we went through our process of determining how our client’s wanted to live – a focus on having spaces for entertaining, spaces to veg-out and watch game of thrones, a place to listen to records and room for their two giant Maine Coon cats. By understanding how they lived day-to-day versus entertaining was crucial in planning a space that could switch between different modes in an instance.
Below: Tom lounging on the bar taking in the view at Torbrek Apartment Reno. Notice how the island bench transitions from normal kitchen bench height on the timber plinth to standing bar height at the end? This small change creates designated ‘zones’ in an open plan apartment. The bar end is detailed with a circular marble piece that Tom is lying on (recycled from the old kitchen) this minor details create a special feeling that defines the kitchen from the bar. It also creates a nice relationship to the dining/cocktail making area, allowing standing height guests to be at eye height to those sitting down.
