100 days of 五穀 Wu-Gu

We have obtained Occupational Certificate for Wu-Gu on the 100th day from the start of construction.

It was opened to family and friends on FEB 15, one fine Sunday afternoon.

Soft opening to public was on FEB 17 evening.

Despite the obstacles, the space was filled with a crisp joy.

It was one of those moments - the "never been happier for not giving up" moment.

Here are some photos from Sunday FEB 15 (photo: Eugene Wu)

Followed by slideshows of the construction.

 the facade.  It is completely openable to create a seamless inside-outside connection during the day, however with the current footpath condition (which is to be paved in a couple of months time) the client is shying off the idea for the time being.

 interesting how tables chairs and tableware can make such a big change in impression...
it was suddenly a restaurant whilst less than 24 hours ago it was a construction site.

  looking back at the entry

 the solid looking facade catches glimpses of street activity.
It was designed to screen out headlights from all directions at night and maintain a level of inside-outside visual connection, to ensure comfort of the patrons.

such lovely festivity, just in time for Chinese New Year celebrations!

on the mezzanine

Love the sense of space and volume

ground level

mezzanine level

Long road

Seatondale has been through a lot ..

After a very long wrestle with Council (like, 4 years) albeit strong support from Council Heritage Advisor, we have finally received Development Application approval for the entire site of Seatondale.
We received the agreed and registered DA conditions on 2014 DEC 22, I was too overjoyed I didn't know how to respond.  It is only starting to feel real for me now.

Through this long and draining process we have developed a very strong bond with the client and his family, with a deep understanding of the design philosophy and unsurpassable persistence.  Without their support it would have been a very lonely road.

For some design background you can refer to the first post HERE.
In the mean time we have also worked on interior of the Seatondale heritage house HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

The 2 new dwellings to the rear will NOT BE VISIBLE from within the heritage house (grey in model).  It is important for us to respect the view the Seatondale heritage house once enjoyed.
Extensive studies have been devoted to the overlooking, overshadowing, landscaping and visual connections in order to achieve a blurred balance of architecture and landscape, ensuring a harmonised coexistence of openness and privacy amongst the 3 dwellings.

Doshisha SUBMISSION!!!

There is "submission', and there is "SUBMISSION!!!" ..

Here is one of the latter (scary) ones, it happened on February 21st for Doshisha's Council submission.  It is equivalent to Development Application and Construction Certificate combined here in Sydney, but even having 2 submissions combined here I do not recall seeing mountain-fuls of documentation....
and every page needed to be hand stamped.......

What is even more impressive is the processing time.
These documents once submitted, will be processed within 10 working days - comparing to the 40 working days given to local Councils here (by State Government) it is far more efficient, and in a way encourages development.

Herewith extract from Yoshi's email straight after submission:

We have lodged DA&CC today.
That was a big package….
<photo> is showing one set of Architecture, Service & Structure. We need to submit 4 sets here… (One for us)
Original
Copy (this goes to client in the end)
Fire station (This is interesting)
our set
We need to stamp our registration number and (印鑑) every single pages… I don't want to do this again….

This is one single copy

 At the Council counter

head spin...

serious stuff here....

speaks volumn

stamping (twice!) on every single page of every copy

Anomaly on Australian Design Review

Anomaly was published on Australian Design Review website!

Hehehe.. and of course our Coexistence stool is published as it is part of the inaugural collection to launch Anomaly amongst other designs.

As press material were submitted prior to the final prototype was completed, the image is still of an earlier prototype.
To see the final prototype together with the rest of the range, enter HERE.

 

Doshisha University Official Announcement

Now the Doshisha University website is updated with the competition winning announcement and top 5 design schemes, check it out HERE!

Unfortunately only the Japanese site is updated, but it is obvious that the 5 images there are the schemes..
Despite the spelling mistake in my name (Yoshi's name was spelt wrong when finalists were announced... I guess this is only fair...), I am over the moon!

Here is our scheme.. the winning scheme.... woohoo~

click to enlarge

There were 856 registrations, and 379 submissions from around the world made for the competition.
5 schemes were selected as finalists, and were presented to jury panel on February 3rd at Doshisha University Imadegawa Campus, Kyoto.

Winner announced for Doshisha Chapel competition!

Facet Studio has won the Doshisha University's Chapel Complex Design Competition!

This was freshly announced yesterday (Feb 3rd) after the verbal presentation and Q&A session with jury panel at Kyoto, we even beat it to the official website to announce the result!

Looks like we are off to a brilliant start for 2013.
Together with quite a few projects across a wide spectrum of variety, we are surely going for a busy busy year - all for a good reason of course.

I will try to elaborate on the winning scheme soon!

Find out more on the Doshisha competition scheme HERE

First Round, Top Five!

Facet Studio has been selected as 5 of the proposals to proceed beyond the First Round Jury Session of Kyoto's Doshisha University Competition!!

ok there is a spelling mistake with Yoshi's name.... but we have received the contact phone call in our Osaka office, and double checked the Registration Number.... it IS us!

There has been 379 entries to the Doshisha University's Chapel Complex Design Competition.
The Second Round Jury Session will take place on February 3rd, and requires a verbal presentation in front of the jury members - public speaking in Japanese, anyone?

Find out more about the competition HERE

IDEA 2012 Winner Photos

So it took me a while to realise that we do have access to some professional photos taken of us as winners of IDEA 2012 - Emerging Designer and International Project Category.

(More about the Award in the previous blog entry HERE)

I believe it is ok to still feel excited about our hard-earned awards - in fact I will keep on being excited for a while!

 photo (c) Cynthia Sciberras

 Yoshi - photo (c) Cynthia Sciberras

Olivia (me) - photo (c) Cynthia Sciberras

Emerging Facet Studio!

Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) 2012 has revealed the winners - Facet Studio has been crowned twice under International Project category and Emerging Designer!

 Me and Yoshi on stage receiving the Emerging Designer Award

Over a range of high profile projects of all different types in the inaugural International Project category, M House has won high praises from the jury for the simple beauty and persistence in bringing the idea to life.

Here is what the Jury had to say about the International category:

On top of gaining recognition for our projects, we have also brought home with us the Emerging Designer award:

Leading up to the event we have been so immersed in the actual event design itself (which will be covered in a separate entry) that we were totally unprepared for a speech...but I think we did much better than last year, shows that practice (last year at IDEA 2011, Melbourne and earlier this year at Frame Moooi Award, Milan) does make things better - please note the improvement in our facial expressions!

The Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) is Australia’s largest and most successful independent design awards program. Launched by (Inside) magazine in 2003, the program celebrates the best of Australian interior and product design across 11 categories and five special awards.

To find out more about IDEA Awards:

Official Website click HERE
Official announcement click HERE
More about IDEA Awards from our blog click HERE
More about shortlist announcement click HERE

The other projects also shortlisted are:

Uchi Lounge 01 - Hospitality

Uchi Lounge 02 - Hospitality

Connect Sydney - Workplace under 1000sqm

We will try to upload more photos soon!

Facet Studio on Australian Infront

Facet Studio's profile is featured on Australian Infront website!

I always really appreciate people and press who take interest in what we do, how we view design, and give us the opportunity to talk about what really matters to us.
Not only an opportunity to express our thoughts, it is also an opportunity for us to reflect on our philosophy.

Thanks to Justin from Australian Infront, and please check out our profile HERE!

Dezeen x Uchi Lounge

Our project, Uchi Lounge 01 has been published on Dezeen!

Click HERE to view the article

Click HERE to see other entries on Uchi Lounge

Click HERE to see Uchi Lounge 01 in our official website

Click HERE to see other entries relating to Dezeen

Dezeen is UK based online design magazine with 2 million monthly visitors, and included in Time magazine’s Design 100 list of the most influential forces in global design, and in Design Week magazine’s Hot 50 list of key figures in design.

Connect Sydney on ArchDaily

Our project, Connect Sydney, has been published on ArchDaily!

Click HERE to view the article
Click HERE to see other entries on Connect Sydney
Click HERE to see Connect Sydney in our official website
Click HERE to see other entries relating to ArchDaily


ArchDaily was founded in March 2008 with the one mission of delivering the most complete information to architects around the world; every week, every day, every hour, every moment: as soon as it happens . It is the online source of continuous information for a growing community of thousands of architects searching for the latest architectural news: projects, products, events, interviews and competitions among others.

Uchi Lounge 02 on Dezeen

Our project, Uchi Lounge 02, has been featured in Dezeen!

 

Click HERE to view the article
Click HERE to see other entries on Uchi Lounge
Click HERE to see Uchi Lounge 02 in our official website
Click HERE to see other entries relating to Dezeen

Dezeen is UK based online design magazine with 2 million monthly visitors, and included in Time magazine’s Design 100 list of the most influential forces in global design, and in Design Week magazine’s Hot 50 list of key figures in design.

Multiple shortlisting!

Whilst we were working away on construction site, IDEA Awards (Interior Design Excellence Awards) has announced the shortlisted projects for 2012 - and we are shortlisted in 4 categories!

They are:
Emerging Designer [Facet Studio]
Hospitality [Uchi Lounge 01 & 02]
Workplace Under 1000sqm [Connect Sydney]
International Project [M House]

We are always challenging ourselves with different building and space types, rather than confining to particular types of spaces.

  

To read about last year our project Sneakerology/ Streetology winner of IDEA 2011 Retail category, click HERE
To find out more about the IDEA Awards, visit: http://www.idea-awards.com.au/
To find out more about the 2012 shortlists, visit: http://www.idea-awards.com.au/category/2012/2012-shortlist/

Facet Studio Office Warming Party

2 weeks ago we had a party to celebrate the completion of our new office.. it was fantastic to see so many friends at the same place mingling together, and definitely has warmed up the space for us!

 

We started preparation around 2 hours before the party was starting... other than Phin who had a clear idea of what she was going to make, due to an extremely busy week the conversation at that point in time was more like: "lets make some canapes" "sound good! but what is canape?" "let me google it.."

But hey! it was all part of the fun!

Ready for the party?!

Phin making dumpling from scratch, JJ is there to help

Mariona and Spanish omelettes

friends started to arrive for the night

students from UNSW also joined us

amazing how many people we managed to fit in the space!

mingling..

Yoshi starting to look drunk...

 

it was incidentally last day of Phin's internship with us.. we are going to miss her, especially Mariona!

Oops.....I was caught stealing a bite....

Lets not forget about JJ's famous cheesecake!

And here comes the secrete entertainment of the night!!

an excited crowd!

mission accomplished! Facet's Jamsession

Special thanks to Shunsuke for training Yoshi to dance and organised the T-shirts in a flash!! Well and of course for the fantastic breakdance!

(There was in fact an extended encore after this video was taken..)

happily drunk...

after party anyone?

Thank you everyone for coming, it was great to see you all and we should do this again!!