Ode to Utzon
2020
Prahran, Melbourne Australia
Inner suburbian properties too often have limited natural light. Consisting of the small punched windows of Victorian and Edwardian terraces or sometimes a small courtyard with a singular aspect.
Packington Street finds a light source resolution through an ode to Danish architect Jorn Utzon, the author of the Sydney Opera House.
Designed and built to be sold at auction, in this case we interpret an imaginary client.
We asked ourselves, what kind of person or family would like to live here? What would they want and need? We designed with demographic analysis through an aspiration of architectural excellence.
Clasisical principals are carried further into influencing the interior where the detailing draws from artist Donald Judd, also a master of proportion.
The kitchen island and stone detailing through-out continue the repitious nature of the existing architectural language.
Like Judd, merging contemporary material applications, the interiors transition the existing house into a modern arena.
Jorn Utzon’s Bagsveard Church, Bagsveard, Denmark.
Designed in 1968. Completed in 1976.
Ode to Utzon.
Located in Prahran, Melbourne, the long and skinny Edwardian style cottage sits fronting the West boundary to the street directly across from the beautiful local secret of Lumley Park. With its east to west orientation, notorious for dark hallways and living areas, accessing good quality light became a priority.
An attention was brought to the sinuous light of the Bagsværd Church designed by Jorn Utzon – a ceiling design that enabled the living room to achieve soft filtered sunlight all day long. Like Utzon’s work, the light promotes the atmosphere of the room and inspires the residents.
We didn’t want to open the roof and have the sun crash straight through. The ceiling form was designed with a delicacy to ensure that light penetrated the interior however the harsh direct sun didn’t.