DX Architects recent residential project in carlton has been awarded the Master Builders Association award for the "Best Renovation/ Addition $300,000 - $500,000 in Victoria 2011.

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Click here for more information on this award

DX Architects has added new photos of our recent residential project in Balwyn.

The double, side-by-side townhouse layout was developed to efficiently use the available site area. The garages protrude forward on the ground level to frame the entrances. The upper level cantilevers forward to provide weather protection over the front doors.

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DX Architects Richmond Residence 3 has been published in the House & Garden magazine (October 2011) titled 'Perfectly formed: inner-city Melbourne renovation' by Judy Ostergaard

The footprint of this inner-city Melbourne home is the same, but a thoughtful redesign means the Xuereb family now has twice the living space. The heritage frontage of the cottage belies its modern interior, and it's the perfect combination for homeowner Rebecca Xuereb, pictured with daughter Milla.

The room divider, designed by Daniel, is the focal point in the open-plan living space. Cushions from Adairs. Joinery by Central Cabinets. Pendant light (over island) from Beacon Lighting.

In the ensuite, the walls, floor and bath facing are tiled in the same large-format tiles from Perini Tiles. Bath from Argent Australia. Tapware from Rogerseller.

Storage under the stairs means toys can be stowed in a snap.

A bank of bifold doors separates the dining room from the deck, creating a longed-for indoor-outdoor connection. Antique dining setting.

A walk-through wardrobe is concealed behind the bedhead in the main bedroom. Bedlinen from Aura by Tracie Ellis. Lamp from Bunnings.

A Marc Pascal Xploff light fitting and wall art bought on eBay are cute touches in Milla and Isobel's bedroom. Bed and dresser from Baby Bunting. Chair from Bunnings.

Paint-backed glass is a colourful and hardwearing alternative to tiles in the bathroom. Basin from Argent Australia. Tapware from Rogerseller. Chair from Bunnings. Floor tiles from Perini Tiles.

Daniel built the cubby for Isobel (left) and Milla out of spotted gum, adding a ladder and slide from A-Play.

Photography Derek Swalwell
© 1997-2011 ninemsn Pty Ltd - All rights reserved

DX Architects Carlton Residence has recently been featured on the Selector Blog

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DX Architects has added new images of our current townhouse development in Richmond.

On a corner site in Richmond, a side-by-side townhouse layout was developed to efficiently use the available site area to accomodate four multi-level townhouses. The elevations are articulated with timber clad garage doors, and upper level balconies to capture views and create high quality living spaces.

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DX Architects Richmond Residence 3 has been published in the The Age newspaper (Domain 15/05/2011) titled 'Attuned to today via a '70s classic' by Jenny Brown.

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JENNY BROWN  

An architect raises the roof on spatial manipulation with this cathedral ceiling in Richmond.

FROM an architect who wasn’t born until the late 1970s comes an extension to a small Richmond house that is reminiscent of a decade when exposed wood and apexed living spaces were all the go.

Daniel Xuereb says that while ’70s architecture could also be ‘‘ brown and daggy’’ , it did introduce into domestic buildings ‘‘ some pretty dynamic shapes’’ .

The cathedral ceiling in the back living area, which he designed for a house belonging to photographer Andrew Henshaw and health manager Suzy Malhotra, came about as the result of a series of compromises that had to be made to comply with building codes and neighbourhood overshadowing concerns.

‘‘ We had a lengthy planning process that took almost 18 months,’’ the architect says. The couple had originally wanted a full upper-level addition with, Henshaw says, ‘‘ a proper staircase and Juliet balcony’ ’ to an upstairs bedroom suite that would overlook a small back courtyard . But the block, a constrained 4.6 metres by 20 metres, ‘‘ was so narrow’’ , Xuereb says, ‘‘ that we had to delete the first plan and really push the build to achieve something that was better for the site’’ . As the plans evolved, the roof sloped inwards more and more.

‘‘ We came back to the question of ‘what do you really need?’ And that was a bit of volume, a bit of light and a flexible living space. And through that, we ended up with a better result.’’

That turned out to be a new bathroom, an all-in kitchen, dining, living space that has the overhead volume advantage of the 5.5-metre ceiling and, as an extension of the new apex, the house also gained a neatly appointed study loft from which the photographer runs his business.

Through a small window in the study that looks back over the roof of the original house, he can see the upper floors of the distant Eureka Tower. Through the open front of his snug attic space, Henshaw looks over the living room and out through the wood-strutted triangular window with 10 distinct panes that fill the back ceiling apex. The loft is accessed by a staircase ladder that slopes at 70 degrees to add another angle of timber interest to the new room, which also has exposed wooden ceiling beams. The revealed timber is another incidental ’70s reference and ‘‘ a structural expression of the roof framing’ ’ that the architect says ‘‘ creates a bit of rhythm. It’s also an honest use of material’’ .

Although he remembers being influenced by a ’70s architecture book during his university studies, Xuereb says he hasn’t done a cathedral ceiling before and that the room he created wasn’t a deliberate homage but rather ‘‘ the delightful distinction of volume that we could get away with’’ .

Working mainly on Richmond renovations, the architect has become something of a specialist in spatial manipulation of small houses. He’ll tweak millimetres to deliver functional elements and, in this house, designed a triangular kitchen cupboard to fit under the ladder-stairway and inserted a 600 millimetre by 600 millimetre window to deliver light and ventilation to the kitchen bench from a side courtyard.

But even on tight sites and tight budgets, Xuereb always likes to emphasise ‘‘ a good-quality architectural feature’’ .

‘‘ In small houses, good design, good light and good windows can make them very satisfying.’’

In this case, it’s the cathedral ceiling that Malhotra says ‘‘ we just loved because it was such a defined style and it created such a comfortable living space. We’ve had a party for 35 people in this room and it felt very comfortable.’’

As an inadvertent reprise of an earlier architectural roof form, Xuereb is happy to admit that ‘‘ it’s not exactly architectural magazine’’ . ‘‘ It was simply the delightful solution to an inner-city architectural project.’’

Copyright © 2011 Fairfax Media

DX Architects has added new photos of our recent residential project in Carlton.

The restoration of a heritage listed house in Carlton to add a contemporary architectural interior. The conversion of the roof space by adding skylight windows and exposed ceiling rafters, created a flexible living/ work space.

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DX Architects has added new photos of our recent residential project in Richmond.

An open plan kitchen/ living room addition at the rear of a single fronted inner city dwelling. Working within tight planning requirements, building volume in the living area is created with a cathedral ceiling with high-light windows.

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DX Architects has added new photos of our recent residential project in Richmond.

The gritty inner-suburban laneway sets the immediate context for the alterations & additions to this four bedroom family home. The Victorian frontage was retained to blend in with the heritage controlled street, whilst the rear addition optimises the building design for solar gain and ventilation, and creates a flexible approach to living on a typical small inner-suburban block

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DX Architects director Daniel Xuereb has provided comments in an article in Australian Home Beautiful magazine (October 2010) titled ‘The Wash Room – An essential part of every home doesn’t have to be big, but it does need to be cleaver’ by Kerryn Ramsey.

DX Architects Richmond Residence has recently been listed on the Archinspire.com website.

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DX Architects director Daniel Xuereb has provided comments in an article in The Age newspaper (Domain 05/06/2010) titled ‘Space Saviors’ by Jenny Brown. In this article Jenny Brown asks three architects how to get the most out of their expertise.

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Space saviours
Jenny Brown
June 5, 2010

Jenny Brown asks three architects how to get the most from their expertise.

Only a small percentage of home renovators employ an architect but, even though doing so can amount to 8 per cent to 10 per cent of the final construction costs, an architect's input can ensure the altered or added spaces work properly.

Collingwood architect Andrew Maynard says engaging an architect is also about streamlining the navigation of "the not-fun, time-consuming and often-frustrating part of the job", which includes securing permits and finding the right engineers, builders, suppliers and sub-contractors.

It is all too tempting to add more rooms when those you already have are dysfunctional but, increasingly, architects are steering clients away from bloating their properties and leading them towards more practically contained, functional and budget-friendly solutions.
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Richmond architect Peter Vernon recently recast a client's brief for a first-floor addition into a more modest side-boundary infill, which, he says, "was less expensive, still capitalised on outlook, reduced amenity impacts and resulted in a house where every room — old and new — works hard".

Clients often approach architects with a fixed vision of a domestic Taj Mahal, says Daniel Xuereb of DX Architects. Even worse, some clients arrive with "a sketched floor plan that tells us where the bathrooms, bedrooms and staircases are". Xuereb says the dreaded client-generated floor plan "often misses the whole point of engaging an architect".

So what do architects want from their clients? For starters, what is the best way to approach a briefing?

Xuereb says he doesn't want a DIY layout proposal but does want his clients to have thought "carefully about how they want to live in the space, what's important and what is the best design outcome".

Magazine images can be useful, "although architects often look at the ideas behind the images. We are not simply interested in reproducing a style".

The initial meeting, he says, is to work out budgets and for each party "to suss out" how client and architect can best work together.

Vernon, whose architectural practice covers Ballarat and Melbourne, says it is important to differentiate from the beginning between the client's wish list and the architectural response, which can create flexible spaces designed to evolve to meet future needs.

"In alterations, it is too easy to focus only on new work and to forget the existing remnant [of the house], which, if not properly utilised, becomes like a ghetto."

For Vernon, getting the kitchen right "is always a priority". And the question of how many living spaces are wanted or needed "is important to establish the overall size of a development".

"If the budget is tight, I like to open rooms up to the new things we can get for free: sunlight, breezes and outlook," he says. Where the budget is more generous, Vernon would "resist the urge to increase areas beyond what is sensible or specifying expensive finishes and suggest, instead, devoting money on landscaping to better integrate the house and site".

For Maynard, having a client's trust from the start is a paramount ingredient for achieving the ideal outcome. "Clients need to be generous with their trust to allow an architect to make the most of their brief, budget and site.

"Trust always pays dividends in the end because good architecture is a lot more than a plan or set of drawings. Only the author of the design can protect its richness and ensure it is fully realised."

The creativity-killer for all three architects is nearly always "inflexibility" on the part of the client.

Often, Xuereb says, "an architectural response involves a process of developing options and assessing the advantages and disadvantages of the likely outcome".

"The process of a client working with an architect should be one of embracing the design process and keeping an open mind."

Says Maynard: "We all need to be flexible. Designing a house is an endless jigsaw that you can never solve so it is simply a case of trying to get as many pieces to fit as possible. Being immovable or inflexible only constrains your opportunities."

If, on the other hand, "you allow an architect to be elastic and playful with their thought processes, they are very likely to find opportunities that you would never have come across in a rigid environment". Trust, Maynard knows, can be very inspiring because the quest is to repay that trust.

"It's a wonderful type of pressure that can inspire your design to new heights. Be very clear in your brief but then give the architect the freedom to explore it," he says.

Copyright © 2010 Fairfax Media

DX Architects Richmond Residence has been published in the The Age newspaper (Domain 22/05/2010) titled 'Flexibility can create space' by Jenny Brown.

Click here for The Age - Domain

Flexibility can create space
Jenny Brown

May 22, 2010

Daniel Xuereb found extra room where there was none with efficient use of space and fuzzy room boundaries.

In the hyper-density of inner-city Richmond, it is difficult to find a block with enough scope to make a renovation anything much in terms of amenity gain.

With overlooking laws protecting the privacy of neighbours, even an addition that goes up can have its site lines and building envelope so constrained it can become telescopically claustrophobic.

Fortunately for Rebecca and Daniel Xuereb, their double-fronted Victorian weatherboard, though on a narrow block of nine metres, was, at 23 metres, quite long. Better still, it also had a back western boundary facing a laneway, which gave a second orientation option.

Fortunately, too, Daniel is an architect and because the couple spent 10 years living in the house before the arrival of their two children, he had scads of time to consider all options on how to redevelop his own home.

By taking his time, he says he "could process how we really wanted to live and process what was important to us. By not rushing the design we could also develop a real efficiency in the use of the space."

In view of the fact that the Xuerebs now have a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a superbly fitted-out kitchen, a laundry room, storage above their current requirements, an upstairs adults' retreat with walk-though wardrobe and a potential third baby nursery or study room, the phrase "efficient use of space" is a complete understatement.

Even the curving nook under the spotted-gum staircase has become a room where children play or toys are kicked when visitors arrive. Upstairs, a narrow third room presents more storage and is virtually a foyer to even more capacity in the roof cavity.

"We pushed and pulled and manipulated spaces to work pretty hard for us. We considered how all the spaces would interlock and how they could be made flexible to work in multiple ways," Daniel Xuereb says.

The intersection of internal living space is actually fairly complex. In the main open-plan kitchen-dining-living room, for example, there are five different ceiling heights and two different floor heights.

But because all of the elements have real function, the complexity adds interest rather than visual overload. "That's also why we painted it white," the architect says.

"I tried to use the ceiling heights to define and divide the various spaces. The different bulkheads help define the areas. I also think it gives an honesty of form."

After utilising space, Xuereb says his biggest challenge was getting northern light into the house. The solution was a high north-facing mezzanine level balcony with sliding glass door that pulls light down into the sitting room while working for cross-ventilation for the whole house.

More light and air is gained through two one-metre-square light wells set on each side of the house that allow natural illumination of the central bathroom and that will one day be cubes of greenery.

The detailing and decor of a house that so ingeniously expanded from 93 square metres to 167 square metres, without looking over-stuffed or over-complicated, is very crisp and done in variations on a black, white and red colour scheme.

A black, shiny wall block in the kitchen hides cupboards and appliances — except the stainless steel fridge. Cherry-red splashbacks in the bathroom and adjoining laundry warm up the wet rooms.

A beautifully designed "dresser" that divides the living from the dining space is done in a dark Italian timber veneer.

"There was," Xuereb says, "an architectural justification and a practical reason for everything we did. The spaces were all carved out of the building but the borders of the rooms were blurred to make what is really a small house feel much more open and bigger than it really is.

"A lot of my inner-city residential work is like this," he says. "It addresses the question of how you change small inner-city houses and maximise their space so that they work for families who don't want to move out to the suburbs."

"How do you develop efficiency in the use of space?" The answer, as evidenced in his home, an entrant in this year's RAIA Victorian chapter architectural awards, is "that big spaces aren't always necessary but that flexible spaces are".

Copyright © 2010 Fairfax Media

DX Architects Richmond Residence has recently been listed on the Australian Design Review website.

Click here to visit ADR

DX Architects has recently upgraded our membership with the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) to a Member Level 1 corporate membership.

This provides our clients with the assurance that DX Architects is committed to the pursuit of the highest levels of professionalism architectural profession, and specifically abides by the AIA Code of Professional Conduct which defines the standard of conduct by which all members of the Institute are governed.

Click here for additional information on the AIA

DX Architects welcomes you to our newly relaunched website.

This website features some of our recently completed and current projects. Please check back for regular updates on some of our featured projects, and keep informed on new projects that we are undertaking.

Please contact our office via the contact page to request further information, or to discuss a development that you are planning.

DX Architects recent residential project in Abbotsford which was awarded the Master Builders Association award for the "Best Renovation/ Addition in Victoria 2009 has been featured in Winning Houses magazine.

Click here for Winning Houses magazine

DX Architects recent residential project in Abbotsford has been awarded the Master Builders Association award for the "Best Renovation/ Addition $150,000 - $300,000 in Victoria 2009.

Click here for additional information on this project

Click here for more information on this award

DX Architects is now part of the twitter world.

DX Architects has added new photos of our recent residential project in Yarraville.

The design of this renovation opens up the existing residence, creating a modern light-filled living area. The new living space is located to the rear of the property, and opens onto an external undercover deck, blurring the distinction between the inside and outside spaces.

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DX Architects has added new photos of our recent residential project in Hawthorn.

This project extends the existing living space of a large family home. The bold form creates a double-level modern appearance for the residence, which connects the living space to the back yard.

Click here for additional information on this project