Articles by Cristobal Rojas

The client wished to develop two homes on an acre each of land. The homes needed to be country homes for Bombay families to get away from the urban rigmarole.The project needed to balance the money put up against profitability and a sense of capturing the essence of place.

Hunters Hill is an attractive, historic peninsula that lies between the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers on the north shore of Sydney Harbour.  The suburb, a precursor to the Garden City movement, was subdivided in the 19th century with sandstone mansions and Victorian timber cottages sitting side by side, with large gardens and private parks containing centuries old trees.

Hunters Hill is an attractive, historic peninsula that lies between the Parramatta and Lane Cove rivers on the north shore of Sydney Harbour.  The suburb, a precursor to the Garden City movement, was subdivided in the 19th century with sandstone mansions and Victorian timber cottages sitting side by side, with large gardens and private parks containing centuries old trees.

Love at first sight

The Layered Gallery, located in central London, houses a private collection of photographs, prints, pastels and lithographs. The five-storey Grade II listed building it is extended from dates from 1770. The aim of client and architect has been to create an enclosed courtyard structure that provides a retreat and place to contemplate art. This has been achieved by adding a new elevation to the building both substantial and sufficiently light to bring life into what is now a garden-like inner court.

The stunning single-family residence located in North Bondi was designed both for easy entertaining and private family time. A narrow site with overlooking issues paired with a commitment to passive solar design and natural daylighting drove much of the resulting form. Due to the nature of the site, planning and time management was crucial in ensuring the project ran smoothly.

184 Shepherd’s Bush Road was originally designed and built in 1915-16 as a motor garage and service depot with a showroom for the Ford Motor Company (England) Ltd. In 1926 it was taken over by Citroen as its main UK distribution and sales centre and later on acquired by Osram and incorporated as part of the large factory complex manufacturing electric light bulb filaments. The journal The Motor in 1920 described the building as ‘a massive structure of three storeys, designed solely from a utility point of view’. The concrete frame illustrated pioneering approaches to construction and materials technology for this period. The building was originally intended to be five storeys high, however due to the outbreak of the First World War the building and its use was identified by the War Office as being vital to the war effort. This meant that the two upper floors were never constructed which made the building appear unproportional and squat. Most of the interior of the former servicing depot comprised spaces where machinery associated with servicing cars and assembling parts were kept. By 2010 only a few features other than the structural elements themselves remained: elements of the former ground floor showroom area; the stairs up to the sales room and small office area at first floor. These were retained as original decorative features and finishes in ColladoCollins’ design.

When presented at the street elevation, Datum House borrows from the neighboring properties in roof form and material references. The project takes inspiration from its surroundings and context and reinterprets its findings through a contemporary take on a traditional Victorian elevation, resulting in a considered outcome and street integration. We started off with our client’s extensive brief for a home that had to house a growing family of 5. Our domestic container envelope was derived from a simple extrusion of the Victorian cottage silhouette, placed onto the narrow sloping site to set up a defined datum. The outcome is a result of the envelope being manipulated by the surrounding context, the required amenity and its negotiation with the existing site constraints.

Anadara’s unique design represents earth, water and sky, expressed by the earthy terracotta coloured façade to the south which is contrasted by a striking, white curvilinear feature to the north, coined ‘The Cloud.’ The expressive, organic form of the northern apartments celebrates and defines the adjacent public square and is reminiscent of the free-forms of clouds and waves that complement our sandstone harbour headlands.

A couple with two young children wishes to renovate a row house dating back to the 1970s. Being part of a set of rowhouses designed uniformly, no changes were brought to the exterior appearance of the house. Contained within a space of 16′-0 ” wide by 47′-0 ” in length, the residence is organized on 4 levels including the basement. The entire layout of the rooms has been completely reconfigured according to the new needs of the clients. An existing triple-height void topped by a skylight illuminates the heart of the house.