Austin Maynard Architects completes Terracotta House in Melbourne

Terracotta tiles and reclaimed bricks clad the walls and roofs of this house in an inner suburb of Melbourne, which Austin Maynard Architects designed for a keen gardener.

The owner of Terracotta House approached Austin Maynard Architects to help her create independent homes on a shared lot for herself and her son's family.

Top: the home is comprised of three volumes. Above: it is accessed via an alleyway

Located in the Fitzroy area of Melbourne, the site consisted of a cottage and a garden large enough to accommodate a second property along with a shared library pavilion.

The project involved renovating the existing street-facing cottage where the son's family now live, as well as building a new house for the client with independent access to a laneway at the rear of the site.

Terracotta tiles and recycled brick were used for the facade

In between the two buildings is a shared, productive garden that was a key element of the brief. This space also houses a library building that can be used for guest accommodation.

"Terracotta House is, essentially, a communal-living family 'compound' – akin to a village square, with the owner and her son's family living individually in homes on a shared block," said Austin Maynard Architects.

"As an architecture practice we always aim to maximise space, relate internal spaces to the garden, embrace the street and make the most of laneways," the studio added. "The site that [the client] Belinda purchased offered potential to achieve all of these ideas and more."

Two volumes are joined by a glass corridor

The existing timber-clad Victorian worker's cottage was renovated to retain its original character whilst making it better suited to modern living.

The interior was rearranged to bring the kitchen, lounge and dining areas to the front of the house so they look onto the north-facing garden and the street.

Recycled brick was used for the interiors

Internal walls were removed to improve circulation, with the new layout enhancing the connection with the front garden and verandah. A new kitchen and bathroom were installed, with private areas – including the bedrooms – moved to the rear of the house.

The library pavilion is positioned on the western boundary of the site and looks onto the shared garden. It incorporates a laundry space and toilet, along with a versatile room that is used as a library, guest room, writer's studio, music room and social area.

Terracotta tiling clads an interior wall

The new-build Terracotta House is positioned at the rear of the site and spans the entire width of the plot. It contains a kitchen, dining area, living room, bathroom and a study on the ground floor, with the main bedroom and ensuite upstairs.

The house is comprised of compact and connected volumes, planned to optimise the available outdoor space. The building's orientation and roof form maximise exposure to light and views.

The house's materiality was informed by the owner's love of gardening and the terracotta pots she used to grow plants in at her previous home.

Terracotta tiles applied to the walls and roofs appear to take on different tones throughout the day. Their colour and texture complement the reclaimed brick used for other sections of the external walls and garden planters.

Double doors lead from the library to the garden

Due to a limited budget, utilitarian features such as waterproofing details that would typically be concealed are instead left exposed and are celebrated through an unusual material treatment.

"Rather than hiding the flashings and capping, we accentuated them," the architects explained. "Like the thick outlines of a comic book, each form is captured within lines of black steel of various thicknesses, framing and accentuating the tiles and the recycled brick."

The home has a large garden at the centre

The entrance from the laneway connects to a paved corridor that leads straight through to the garden. This hallways provides a sightline through the building that links it to the street and the community.

The kitchen and dining area are positioned to one side of the corridor, with the living room on the other. Both spaces feature doors that can be opened to connect the interior with the garden.

A passsageway between the volumes leads to the gardens

Terracotta tiles and reclaimed bricks are also used inside the house, where they form part of a pared-back material palette that also includes wooden surfaces and concrete flooring.

Wallpapers designed by indigenous artists for local firm Willie Weston are used in the kitchen and lounge to provide a sophisticated and delicate contrast to the raw, exposed brickwork.

The existing home is located at the rear of the site

Melbourne-based studio Austin Maynard Architects works across residential, retail and commercial projects – adopting a conceptual approach that responds to issues such as liveability, culture, heritage and community connection.

The studio is based out of founder Andrew Maynard's home, which was renovated to create an exceptionally bright space that helps the mental well-being of its occupants.

The practice's previous projects include an extension to a residential terrace in Melbourne featuring a zig-zagging roof and a cylindrical wooden beach house in Victoria, Australia.

Photography is by Derek Swalwell.

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Urban developments that "strive for zero carbon" to start on site in Milan, Paris, Reykjavik and Oslo

A series of low-carbon urban quarters are set to be built as part of Reinventing Cities, a global competition that aims to help cities eliminate carbon emissions.

Construction will start on competition-winning projects in cities including Milan, Paris, Reykjavik, Oslo, San Francisco and Montreal.

Top: the Kadans Science Partner building by Rubio Arquitectura is one of the competition-winning projects. Above: Barreca & La Varra has designed a scheme in Milan as part of the competition

"They're starting their implementation," said Hélène Chartier, head of zero-carbon development at C40 Cities, "a network of the world's megacities committed to addressing climate change".

The Paris-based organisation, which now has 97 member cities that together represent a quarter of the global economy, is managing the competition.

"We have got the building permits and they are starting," said Chartier.

Iceland's largest timber building is set to be built

C40 Cities launched the competition four years ago "to drive carbon-neutral and resilient urban regeneration".

In total, 49 projects in 19 different cities will be realised as part of the competition, which called for proposals to develop underutilised spaces into "beacons of sustainability and resiliency".

Winners were chosen on the basis of the ambition of their strategies for reducing whole-lifecycle emissions including both embodied carbon – emissions generated during construction – and operational carbon, which covers emissions caused by the building's use.

Studio Gang has designed a block in Chicago that responds to the challenge

Sixty-five per cent of winners aim for net-zero emissions and the remainder are targeting reductions of over 50 per cent.

"The competition said you have to strive for zero carbon," said Chartier. 'They had to make a carbon assessment including a lifecycle analysis of their projects. Some are better than others."

Piazzale Loreto in Milan is one of the competition-winning projects

Projects about to go on site include an urban quarter at Porte de Montreuil in Paris, which is billed as "the first zero-carbon neighbourhood in Paris".

Designed by architects Atelier Georges, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Serie Architects and Bond Society, the 35-hectare site in the east of Paris aims to reduce lifecycle emissions by 85 per cent through the use of local biomaterials and on-site renewable power generation.

Reykjavik project Lifandi Landslag will be Iceland's largest timber building while Oslo development Recipe for Future Living aims to reduce construction emissions by 90 per cent by recycling materials.

The Reinventing Cities competition aims to help cities align themselves with the aims of the 2005 Paris Agreement, which commits signatories to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

This involves halving carbon emissions by 2030 and becoming net-zero by 2050. "All our cities align their strategy to be carbon neutral by 2050," said Chartier.

Chartier added that reaching zero operational emissions is achievable but eliminating embodied emissions generated by the construction supply chain is "totally impossible".

The Recipe for Future Living development in Oslo aims to reduce construction emissions by 90 per cent

"Reaching net-zero on embodied, you cannot do it without offsets," Chartier said. "It's totally impossible. So the question is really to push them to set reduction on embodied carbon at the maximum and then to offset the last part."

"Each team is really free to develop their own offsetting strategy but the most important thing is to reach net-zero operational emissions, minimise embodied emissions and offset the rest with a good offsetting system."

Gensler and ACDF architecture's Demain Montreal tower will be built in Canada

Entrants were encouraged to "go for local offsets and not just buy them." In Milan, the L'INNESTO project designed by Barreca & LA Varra "aims to achieve carbon neutrality in 30 years thanks to a low-carbon district heat network". It will also make use of pre-assembled construction technology and bio-sourced materials.

The Porte de Montreuil project in Paris will be powered by on-site geothermal and solar plants, which will also provide power to neighbouring areas. Unavoidable emissions will be offset via a carbon fund that will allow it to "go beyond the carbon neutrality goal".

The project will additionally feature a superstructure that is 80 per cent cross-laminated timber. Facades will be entirely made of local bio-sourced materials including terracotta bricks and hemp.

Four-fifths of the materials used will come from the Paris region while all spaces will be flexible, allowing them to be used for different purposes in future to avoid the need for demolition.

C40 Cities plans to launch a second Reinventing Cities competition later this year.

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Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen's carbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is by Taylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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Reframd creates "Afropolitan" sunglasses designed to fit black faces

Berlin-based eyewear brand Reframd has designed a range of 3D-printed sunglasses specifically for people with low and wide noses.

Reframd, which describes itself as an "Afropolitan" eyewear brand, set out to "challenge the status quo" by designing sunglasses specifically for black people's nose profiles.

The range of sunglasses have a lower bridge which fits broader nose shapes

"The basic concept behind Reframd is that good design is empowering and reflects the rich diversity of society," said Shariff Vreugd, co-founder of Reframd.

"Our idea started with the aim to design eyewear products for people with low and wide nose profiles — nose profiles found on many Black people — concerning our sunglasses," he told Dezeen.

Reframd designed four pairs of sunglasses to suit wider noses including Liptitika

Three main factors make the unisex sunglasses more comfortable for wearers. Firstly, the bridge has been lowered and widened so that it fits more snugly around broader noses.

Secondly, the nose pads are a different shape than ones used in other sunglasses so that they fit "shallow" or wide-angled noses – noses that slope less steeply.

Like all the glasses, the Moni pair has nose pads that have been adjusted to suit shallow noses

And finally, the pantoscopic tilt — a measurement taken from the bottom of the glasses to the top of the frame — has also been adjusted in Reframd's sunglasses.

"Regular frames tend to rest on cheekbones on lower nose profiles. To avoid this, we reduce the frames' pantoscopic tilt," Shariff explained.

The brand aims for the glasses, including the Umoyo pair, to be inclusive

Wearers can scan their face on Reframd's website using their self camera before virtually trying on the glasses.

An algorithm analyses the face so that the frames can be customised accordingly. As a result, Reframd creates sunglasses that "genuinely fit everyone".

"We felt that if we could get fitting correct with our initial Black customers, we would extend our designs to people with different nose profiles. So we set out to optimise our frame-generating algorithm to accept variable data for any nose profiles," said Shariff.

Although originally designed by black people for black people, the founders wanted to create more inclusive products. The glasses, which are being launched via Kickstarter and will be available in October, come in four designs called Liptitika, Moni, Planga, Umoyo.

They will each be available in and four colours.

"Quite quickly, it became clear that other overlooked groups would benefit from our products as well, such as people from east Asia and people with Down Syndrome. And so, we set out to create eyewear products designed to fit people and not the other way around," Shariff recalls.

Each pair of sunglasses, including the Planga pair, is 3D-printed

"More and more overlooked communities want to see themselves represented and are economically willing and able to support brands that represent them. People want to know what brands stand for and who is behind those brands. Most importantly, the communities are driving the changes they want to see in the world," he added.

Reframd isn't the only brand using 3D printing to create sunglasses. Architect Kengo Kuma recently launched a capsule collection of 3D-printed sunglasses.

In 2019, Austrian eyewear manufacturer Rolf released 3D-printed sunglasses from castor beans.

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Watch our live talk on European design with Philips TV & Sound

In this live talk that launches a new collaboration between Dezeen and Philips TV & Sound, the brand's chief design officer Rod White, Scottish architect Mary Arnold Forster and Mormedi founder and CEO Jaime Moreno will discuss European design. Watch the talk here from 2pm London time.

The talk is titled What is European Design, and is the first in a series of four talks by Dezeen and Philips TV & Sound inviting designers from different disciplines to explore the cutting edge of product design.

The panellists will interrogate the meaning of the term "European design," investigate the principles that define it, and discuss how those principles feature in their work.

They will also explore how Brexit has affected European designers, as well as the implications that the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis have for the future of European design.

Rod White, chief design officer at Philips TV & Sound

In his role at Philips TV & Sound, an arm of the electronics brand Philips which designs and produces television and audio products, White is responsible for the company's design strategy and direction and leads its design studios in Amsterdam, Taipei and Shenzhen.

Last year, White spoke to Dezeen about the brand's collection of portable audio accessories with Georg Jensen in a talk as part of Virtual Design Festival.

Mary Arnold-Forster, founder of Mary Arnold-Forster Architects

Arnold-Forster is an architect specialising in creating sustainable homes in remote locations across Scotland.

She set up her own practice in 2016 after 16 years at Dualchas Architects, where she worked on remote homes throughout the highlands and islands of the west coast of Scotland.

Her practice has created a home on the Isle of Sky clad in black tin to emulate a traditional Scottish blackhouse and recently used planks of burnt larch to clad a cross-laminated timber house in the Scottish Highlands.

Jaime Moreno, founder and CEO of Mormedi

Moreno founded Madrid-based design and innovation consultancy Mormedi in 1997, following a period of working as a design consultant for Philips in the Netherlands.

The firm counts brands including Philips, Airbus, Iberia, Virgin Atlanctic and Toyota amongst its clients, and in 2015 created an e-cigarette intended to function as a "personal accessory similar to a pen" for its users.

Moreno has delivered lectures at Harvard University's campuses in London, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Stuttgart, and has acted as a juror in several international design awards.

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Dezeen x Philips TV & Sound

This article was written by Dezeen for Philips TV & Sound as part of our Dezeen x Philips TV & Sound partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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MAD designs Cloud Center in China to resemble a floating cloud

Architecture studio MAD has revealed its design for a multi-purpose cultural centre in China that was informed by clouds and space.

The Cloud Center will be located in Qinhuangdao, near the Beidaihe coastline in northeastern China, where it was created for arts and culture community Aranya. The centre was designed to resemble a "floating cloud by the sea," the studio said.

Top: glazed walls surround the interior. Above: the building adjoins a body of water

The 3,853 square-metre site was designed to house a number of functions and includes two structures housing a theatre, conference room, exhibition spaces and a cafe, surrounded by a sculpted landscape that echoes the undulating form of the centre.

The site will be surrounded by a collection of tapering walls that gradually increase in height and envelop the Cloud Center, the sculptural gardens and the ancillary cafe space.

A winding path leads to the centre

The multi-purpose space will have a low-lying form with angled glazed walls that look out to the surrounding gardens.

It will be topped with an amorphous over-hanging roof, clad in white-stained glass which aims to create an ethereal, floating-like appearance.

"When viewed from a distance, the building appears as a 'cloud floating in the forest' with a polished, reflective form activated by the changing light, sky, and landscape," MAD explained.

The building will have a column-free interior that was achieved through balancing and suspending the roof from a central core.

A swirling, grooved ceiling, reminiscent of a galaxy, will stretch across the interior of the multi-purpose space and extend skyward with lighting and skylights fitted within its grooves.

Open-plan arrangements and moveable walls will provide the interior with flexibility that can cater to the building's function as an exhibition space, theatre and conference space.

It was designed to look like a cloud

The studio strategically placed rocks in the undulating terrains of the gardens, which it explained aims to further the cosmic theme by reflecting the shapes and forms of planets.

"This cosmic theme continues within the garden, where a series of white rocks and undulating greenery evoke the imagery of floating planets dotted across the universe," the studio said.

The ceiling has a galaxy-like design

MAD Architects is an architecture studio based in Beijing that was established by Ma Yansong in 2004. Recently, the studio unveiled its design for an undulating "tarp blown" Civic Center in Jiaxing.

It also revealed designs for a train station that is built within a small forest in Jiaxing, China.

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Project credits:

Principal partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
Lead associate: Kin Li
Design team: Yin Jianfeng, Liu Hailun, Chen Hungpin, Edgar Navarrete, Pittayapa Suriyapee, Luis Torres, Chen Yi-en, Zhang Chao, Li Gang
Executive architect and structural design: Zhongke (Beijing) Architectural Planning & Design Institute Co., Ltd.
Facade consultant: RFR Shanghai, King Glass Engineering Co., Ltd.
Landscape design consultant: Beijing Sunshine Landscape Co., Ltd
Interior design consultant: Montaigne Design Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd.
Lighting consultant: Lighting Stories (Beijing) Cultural & Creative Co., Ltd.
Signage design: Beijing Junyi Rongchuang Cultural Communication Limited Company
Stage consultant: Beijing Yaxun Yingda Technology Development Limited Company
Acoustic consultant: Beijing Huaxin Sifang Architectural Technique Limited Company

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