Important Context

Vernacular Architecture uses materials and resources traditionally available in the area of the build, resulting in a localised style that is heavily influenced by the context of time and place. 

Critical Regionalism discusses the elements of topography, climate, tactility, light and tectonics fundamental to the art of building specific to the area.

The option to move outwards not readily available in Fremantle, an established industrial area with many heritage-listed sites, Perth’s obsession with space and sprawl was rejected by the prolific port city architect in favour of vertical designs capitalising on the structural bones. Low profile factories and warehouses with arched facades converted to liveable spaces in galvanised iron and red-orange brick, a nod to the heritage of Fremantle’s fresh-off-the-boat European working class roots and the utility of the original builds. 

Internal and external spaces connected by recycled timber beams and steel ties, running like veins through the body. Wrought iron staircases curling from lounges to lofts. Barrel vault ceilings, brick sand floors, exposed everything. Families called up for dinner through open mezzanine floors rather than being disjointed by walls and ceilings. Imperfect clinker bricks, typically rejected by commercial brickworks for their irregularities, found homes as heroes for the eclecticism that is the cultural melting pot of the region, adding warmth and character by the barrel load. Telegraph poles, railway sleepers; everything old would be made new again, nothing was safe from repurposing. Finally (and my personal favourite) are the fine steel-framed glass pains in a variety of often elongated, angular shapes. Not stopping at windows alone, glass walls and ceilings filled with triangular elements where industrial met gothic were supported by steel buttresses, championing the local climate and flooding the spaces with sunlight.