Arquitectura
Arquitectura, established in 1993 by Pedro Geleris, is an award winning Canberra based architectural practice specialising primarily in contemporary residential architecure but also offering services in the small commercial and community + recreational sectors. We are a design based firm with a strong emphasis on high quality detailing, documentation and construction supervision. Our approach is to work closely with clients to develop the initial architectural brief. Each project is approached as a unique design problem and we believe in investing effort in the early stages of a project to develop an innovative, fresh design that fulfills the clients brief.
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Projects:
Braddon House
Braddon act, 2006
This project in Braddon involved alterations and additions to a charming 1930’s Californian Bungalow which sits in the midst of a beautiful garden setting. Design issues to resolve were: The existing family room was small and had poor natural light. No links between this room and the living areas to the front of the house. Poor links between the family room and the garden. The existing kitchen was poorly laid out and stifled circulation to the family room. Need for a parents retreat. The design response was to replace the 1992 extension to the back of the house with a new family living and dining area, remodel the kitchen and convert the attached flat into the parents retreat. The concept for the exterior of the addition was to create a pavilion that sits within a garden setting. It was also important to be sympathetic to the existing house through matching materials and roof and by re-interpreting the detail of the existing bay windows for the new corner window of the living area. Internally, we aimed to create a contemporary addition that had a feeling of spaciousness and light. This was achieved through the use of vertical space with raked ceilings and skylights, linked spaces between the new and original parts of the house and by the bay windows and glass doors that link the interior with the courtyard and garden beyond.
O’Connor House
O’Connor, NSW, 2008
This is an alteration and addition to an original red brick cottage in O’Connor. The work involved changes to the existing laundry, kitchen, dining area and an addition at the back for a family room at garden level and a study and master bedroom above, overlooking a reserve. Central to the house is a new two storey void that links the existing house floor level with the two new levels. It also allows abundant light into the middle of the house, improves cross ventilation during summer, and provides a vantage point from the new kitchen, at the hub of the house, with great views to the garden and reserve. The external materials for this space and the connecting family area are brick with timber windows and doors to integrate with the original house. The upstairs study and master bedroom is a seemingly floating structure, expressed as a contrasting volume from the rest of the house with a strong roof plane and blade walls with metal wall cladding and aluminium windows.
Deakin House
Deakin, act, 2008
The brief was to design a contemporary house for a young family where all the main living areas are on the same level with the garage and storage facilities on the level below and the guest facilities on the level above. The design concept was to create a building that clearly articulated, both in plan and elevation, the distinct functions that make the house. In plan, the house is neatly split into three sections by two passageways orientated north-south. The central section contains the formal spaces with the other flanking sections being the family/living wing and the bedroom wing. The central formal spaces comprise the entry lobby, the formal living and dining room and the raised terrace overlooking the garden and beyond to Parliament House and Mt. Ainslie. The formal living and dining area, at the heart of the house, is a generous light-filled space that performs two functions: when the sliding doors are closed it is a private and sound-proof space; when the doors are fully retracted, it opens up the whole house making it more spacious and flowing. Externally, the building forms and roofs also help to express the spaces and functions of the house. The central formal areas are defined by the two stone towers flanking the front entry and by the terrace and large timber doors to the rear. The family/ living wing is expressed by a two storey volume with large timber blades and a dramatic folded roof that cantilevers over the water feature on the street side and by a fully glazed overhanging volume overlooking the back garden. The bedroom wing is expressed by a simple volume and lower roof plane from the street and by a similar fully glazed cantilevered volume overlooking the pool at the back. Overall, the building addresses the street with confidence and comfortably engages with the garden at the back, utilizing strong, clean lines and a contemporary palette of materials.
