M House - DONE!!!!!

We are proud to announce...... M HOUSE IS COMPLETED!! (*scream with excitement*)

M House has successfully obtained 確認済証 ("kakuninsumi shou" = Occupational Certificate in Australia) on May 27th, and construction team has cleared out of the house completely.
Construction was officially launched October 23rd 2010, the entire construction period was 7 months despite the heavy snow and earthquake.
It feels a little sentimental, especially with a project which has been around for such a long time (it is as old as our practice!) to see it finally becomes an individual identity; I guess this feeling will be even stronger when the M family moves into their new home!

Here we have some photos taken by our multi-talented builder, Otsuki san.... they are so good that we can probably save on professional photography?!

our familiar shot.  Question: "where was Otsuki san standing when he took this photo?"

view from inside the entry box ("genkan") to the outside through main entry door

the deck viewed from outside entry door

view from the street (compare this with the last photo)

view of the deck at night

view from street

good bye! old M House!

Wardrobes!

Admittedly I have been too carried away with site(s) in Sydney lately and have slacked off updating on M House....these photos are from Yoshi's last visit (beginning of  May)....oops!

M House is raised off the natural ground level by 1m, and with an entry door of a rather modest dimension.
In order to move in the wardrobes which are prefabricated in factory, this is what has happened.....

delivery truck has arrived outside M House

...careful.....

wow...this is a big one.....

.....more careful......

man... this is HUGE!

Come everyone!
(later on the joiners put a large piece of timber to span between the truck and the house over the fence......and "walked the plank" with furniture pieces)

all sitting silently in the bedroom

just installed.  looking very pretty (my nerdy love for plywood is showing..)

...open this way.....

...or open this way....!

Can 100% sure be sure enough?

After we have built the part mock-up of Uchi Lounge and tested in office, in order to be more sure and lighting effect, we built a full scale lightbox with cardboard to test the effect on site after majority of the wall painting was completed.

Our mock-up was one section of the actual lightbox, approximately 1.1m (L) x 1.4m (W) x 0.3m (D)....it was transported by cab from office in parts and assembled on site... does that sound like some DIY off-site prefabrication?!

Ben working away on the mock-up in the meeting room..... where is the meeting table?

on site we emerged from the dark....

Who designed this cool shop?

Sneakerology (photo: Katherine Lu)

ok...WE did...!

This is Sneakerology in the new Westfield Shopping Centre, Sydney.
We completed the design and documentation of it, and its sister store Streetology adjacent to it, end of 2009.   The two stores completed construction and opened end of 2010.

Yesterday we went in for a photoshoot.... I was feeling so proud....
I will talk about them in more details in a later post!

photoshoot in Streetology; our photographer Katherine looking through the finder

photoshoot in Streetology; there I was looking rather nervous.

Studio SPEC published in Malaysia!

Our project, Studio SPEC, is published in Space Magazine, Malaysia!

I am not sure if Space Magazine is selling here in Sydney (we have received our copy from the publisher in mail today), but if you happen to spot Issue 2011 #2, check out p114 - 117!

Embodiment of Light

Today we did a small experiment on the lighting effects for Uchi Lounge.

We made a 1:1 sectional model of the lightbox we are designing, organised large scale sample from fabric supplier, borrowed light source from electrician (don't we love our team!), and tested the effect of light if the light source is at different distance and direction from the fabric.

The difference is subtle at this scale but will be magnified once built.... can you tell the difference?

light source at the furtherest point in the lightbox from the fabric

light source at half the distance in the lightbox from the fabric

We did similar experiments for the Water Moon lightbox; but it was to test out the clarity of shadow projection from within the lightbox.
We had to go for the compact fluorescent rather than the linear fluorescent as the result (the linear fluorescent produces very diffused light and was not projecting much of any recognisable shadows...).
There was also a rather sensitive relationship with the interrelated distance between light source, bottle, and fabric......well, we had a lot of fun and are happy with the result!

Initial concept stage, when testing with paper lampshade material

During construction, testing with actual fabric sample on site

Freshly installed...the day before Water Moon opened for business

Professionally photographed (c) Katherine Lu

Water Moon has been widely recognised:
> Restaurant & Bar Design Awards UK - International Lighting Design Category - Shortlisted (refer HERE)
> Intergrain Timber Vision Awards 2010 - Commercial Interior Category - Winner (refer HERE)
> IDEA Awards 2010 - Best Hospitality Design - Shortlisted (refer HERE)

Nostalgia nostalgia

It is always a challenge, to work on something that is already very nice in a non-descriptive way... Here we have one.

We were approached by Uchi Lounge in Sydney to work on the interior renovation, so we went for dinner to observe how things are.
It is tucked away in the lane way for people who are looking for somewhere to temporarily hide out from the noise of the world.  The inside space is architecturally unadorned, but the atmosphere is organic and relaxing, somewhere really comfortable and safe, with a sense of nostalgia...I guess that is why it is where local celebrities chose to hang out.
The owner of Uchi Lounge is an artist who produced most of the artworks in the space.  Oh and have I mentioned the food? ...man... so good....

Now we are faced with the challenge to create something sensitive and just as "comfortable".....Well, guess we will know soon enough as we are going into construction next week!

Here are some photos of the existing condition..

the street facade

entry stairwell

the unusually large, long bar

looking back out to the street

Let there be light

Today the triangular glass infill is installed ...finally.....
M house is suddenly filled with such gentle glow, and the roof structure sits silently in its fine repetition.

2011 April 28 - approaching completion

2010 November 11 - study model

2011 March 22 - sealed triangular infill with plywood during construction

2 More Weeks to go...

We have had a crazy April so far.... M House is approaching the completion in 2 weeks time, Yoshi is actually flying off in 2 days to Japan for project completion.

So here is the round up of site progress for the past 2 weeks....

external rendering started from the Northern facade

Look at the beautiful texture and subtle colour variation of the Shirazu rendering.. the colour pigment is already in the render mix, so this will be final finish

Relocating the electricity pole outside the house to somewhere closer to the boundary with neighbour (it was closer to the house).  We were concerned if neighbours were going to complain, but luckily they agreed in the end

Internal wall lining in plasterboard

......and internal wall undercoat painted (in the bedrooms)

View from main entry door.  We designed a small enclosure for "genkan" (the entry) where people can take their shoes off.  This space also provides thermal buffer between inside and outside, as it tends to become quite cold and windy in winter.  The genkan space is relatively small with a lower ceiling height, this is intentional to give a contrasting experience to the volume of the house.

Genkan box is to the right of this photo (the side wall will be installed later for ease of access during construction), it also becomes the back of kitchen joinery. Bookshelf to the left is now complete.  To the floor on the right, holes along the wall can be seen; these are for underfloor heating and will be eventually covered up in fine timber slats.

Staircase between the genkan box and bookshelf, to go up from the main floor to the study space half a storey higher.

Scaffolding off!!!!!
The entry is 1.2m off the ground so they rely on the little temporary stair to access the inside.  This makes the scale of the building difficult to perceive at the moment, the full height glass doors look like windows, and the timber garage door towards the foreground looks like a trap door......

The underground chamber

A while ago I put out this quiz on the concrete block enclosure under the finished floor level (see HERE....and the answer HERE)..well, here it is, finishing up.

tipping sand into the enclosure under bathroom floor

the plywood floor structure "lid"

concrete over

the same is being done at the entry "genkan"...packing the sand in

....adding reinforcement steel...and concrete...