#SuperHouse #Architecture #Concrete
Evoking grandiosity through carefully considered sharp points and rounded edges, the concrete super house by Joe Adsett Architects offers unrivalled views of Toowoomba’s sweeping landscape. Creating a piece of architecture that was befitting of the location and striking natural landscape, Vitrocsa collaborated with Joe Adsett Architects to produce the concrete super house that fully embraced its location. Balancing at the very top of the site, the concrete super house offers views from East of Brisbane toward Picnic Point and Table Top Mountain.
Whilst the home’s location is situated over a ridge, Joe Adsett Architects endeavoured to create more space by cantilevering away from the slope. By projecting part of the concrete super house out from the built space, the ability to create a more functional living space with privacy from surrounding neighbours arose.
Arriving at the concrete super house, the gaze is immediately ensnared by the curving concrete wall that cantilevers away from the base of the home. With the garage underneath the house offering one way of entrance, it is the curved pathway leading to the deliberately oversized glass pivot door that is the striking entrance of the home. Working with Vitrocsa to create the glazing for the home, the frame of the windows was done with a slender aluminium product comprised of reinforced stainless steel. Made in Australia and designed to Swiss specifications, the framing offers unbroken views of the surrounding landscape whilst also bringing a seamless indoor-outdoor flow into the home.
With restrained materials used across the exterior architecture, the interior design choices also reflect the primary theme of the concrete super house. Softened with veneered timber products and large porcelain tiles, curves and sharp points are repeated through the joinery elements. Furthermore, the furnishings also introduce soft textures and colours that bring a humanising element to the concrete super house.
The main requests from the client for the house really tailored around producing a piece of
architecture that was a fitting of the location itself and stunning natural beauty that was on
offer. My name's Joe Adsett and I'm the architect for Cliffhanger. Cliffhanger is located in Toowoomba
and to give it context it's at the very top of the site and it looks back out all the way east
toward Brisbane. There is a landslide zone over the entire hill and at the top of the ridge
it stops and so there's a point in which you can build on the site. That was generally constrained
and we couldn't quite work a functional home in that one spot where you could build. We thought
well look you know I think the main thing here is to create more space and to cantilever away
from this landslide part of the land and project out into the ether and that would create that
extra opportunity to get the functional accommodation to work. But also by cantilevering
out we really stopped the neighbours from looking back into the house and really framed that view
all the way around from picnic point all the way around to tabletop mountain. So that was a key
consideration in terms of how we approach the design of the site. As you arrive at the site
you come down the driveway you see the large curved arc of the concrete cantilever away from
the base of the home and from there you either keep driving down you go underneath or you enter
off a separate pathway and that leads you through and around to this enormous glass front pivot door
and that pivot door is you know deliberately oversized. We work with Patroxa on this project
to create the glazing suite. There's this precision in terms of its engineering it is the finest
glazing system out there. Frames are slender by virtue of their design they are a highly
engineered aluminium product reinforced with stainless steel and it's designed in Switzerland
but it's made in Australia to Swiss specifications. If you're looking to you know in this instance
frame this view that's on offer this was the only way to achieve that where the frames don't become
the dominant language it's all about just the glass being subservient to the view. Between the
kitchen and the outdoor living spaces we wanted that to be a seamless flow to really support the
lifestyle that we can afford through the climate here in Queensland and large expanses of glass
stack away at this space to really enable that indoor lifestyle to extend to the outdoors and
vice versa. From the main living areas the pool stretches along the entire length and
really frames that view and reflects in the water that outlook out to the valley below and the
views on offer. Materials in the building are really restrained we've got primarily concrete
and glass and as that is the superstructure for the home and the main idea of the house we need
to soften that with an interlayer of veneered timber product and also large porcelain tiles
in a travertine aesthetic. The cabinetry is designed to really soften the architecture and
a lot of the curves in the concrete which are quite dominant are repeated in the joinery elements so
we get these subtle soft curves and sharp edges are rounded deliberately. The interiors commission
allowed us to emulate the shapes of the architecture in the furniture itself but also
introduce soft textures and colours to really humanise the minimal architecture. The lighting
itself is concealed in tracks wherever possible alongside curtains and blinds and all the other
conventional items we've tried to conceal at all opportunities. You need to design houses so that
they can be flexible to the prevailing weather and particularly in this site here where we're
on the edge of a cliff and there's this really strong breeze that comes thundering up the mountain.
The structure itself is designed to float particularly the roof is popped up to allow
ventilation to happen in all sorts of different ways and according to the prevailing winds and
breezes. The most challenging part of the design is definitely the cantilever of the house it in
itself is a feat of engineering and I'm just utterly amazed at the achievement that has been
created here and everyone was committed to this project and in this instance the client was
unrelenting in their approach determined to see this through and you know we're just absolutely
amazed that it all came together and it's just a beautiful piece of architecture we were thankful
to be involved with.
