Day: November 13, 2020

When the clients of this North Perth project engaged architect Nic Brunsdon, they requested a house that would maximise the compact site, much like a Japanese urban-infill house, and ideally be made from concrete. 

Budget restrictions meant using in situ concrete wasn’t possible, so Nic Brunsdon’s team devised an alternative: concrete precast panels. These panels would not only be utilised as the actual building structure, but as the finishing material throughout the interiors. 

‘By using this commercial construction system as the main conceptual organising principle, the project was able to gain significant budget and time savings, while maintaining legible design integrity and innovation in housing type,’ says practice director Nic Brunsdon.

Two panel types were selected for the project – one for the ground floor running east-west (parallel to the street), and another for the upper-storey running north-south and pointing to the city. 

Each panel is punctuated with one

Lately I have noticed a revival of patterned floors in interiors, and I am here for it! Over the past ten years in Australia, we’ve been drawn to quite plain blonde timber, or dark timber floors that lean towards a Scandinavian aesthetic. But more recently, we seem to be moving away from minimalist spaces and into more expressive and individual designs. And that includes the floor!

Don’t get me wrong, perfectly smooth wood or concrete floors will never go out of style… but it’s also well worth exploring different flooring materials, to bring more variety into the home, and inject real personality into any space. 

We’re now open to something more textured and characterful on the floor. Using a patterned floor can instantly conjure an atmosphere; the rustic handmade terracotta tiles of a charming country homestead, to the romance of an Italian loggia with a well-worn checkerboard marble tile. A