Final Chapter

The Dock Street residence by Surroundings is an exercise in transformation. The colonial heritage building underwent a significant conversion from industrial shell to an inner city residence in the 1980s, complete with rendered block walls, glass block windows and powder-coated aluminium window building components synonymous with the times. Some 25 years later, a sensitively considered alteration and third-storey addition brings a sense of completion and wholeness to the residence.

As you enter from the street, the sounds of the inner city hustle and bustle fade away and are replaced by the tinkling sounds of trickling water and suspended mobiles in the central garden. This first move effectively shuts out the city and begins the recalibration of the senses. Rising above this garden, designed with Darryl Mappin, is an existing courtyard that allows daylight to pour deeply into the section. The ground-floor guest rooms surrounding this space are planned to be naturally lit, and to enjoy pleasant sounds and a lush green aspect. The frangipanis will deliver a fragrant scent in bloom.

The first floor includes the public part of the program with the living, kitchen, dining and library desk opening onto the central courtyard. A sculptural work of art adorns the courtyard’s perimeter wall and looks back in above the tree canopy to give the kitchen a sense of generous space. The cavernous library lounge is lined with books, bricks and fine spotted gum joinery and supports Cicero’s thought that “a room without books is like a body without a soul”.

The new second floor contains the main bedroom, ensuite and robe at one end and a sitting space and terrace at the other. The terrace is designed as a covered entertaining space enjoying views of the city and river. Solar panels are cleverly installed on the ledge above and a retractable canopy allows full or partial protection from the elements. A generous void binds the sitting space to the living area below and enables visual and aural connections. A watercolour piece enhances the walls, and sliding screens provide entry to the main bedroom with strategically placed views over the courtyard and out to the city, while the bath tub in the ensuite enjoys a clear view of the sky, courtesy of skylights.

The roof terrace has two parts. The first is an open timber deck with a glass balustrade that delivers expansive views of the city, the river and beyond. The second is a fireplace and garden. The presence of water on the introverted ground plane is counterbalanced by the presence of fire on the roof terrace. Sitting around the fire with a view of the Kurilpa and Kangaroo Point reaches of the Brisbane River is a wonderful and enriching experience.

All of this is worked around the existing central courtyard and the carefully considered new stairwell insertion. The stairwell is a genuine architectural element that determines the programatic conditions of the entire plan. It rises up through the building, wrapped in a diaphanous screen of vertical brass rods and mesh. At each landing a view is offered. Internal diagonal glimpses and captured external views of the adjacent park and sky make for a memorable journey between floors. It is impossible not to be curious about what is just around the corner and that is the special thing about this stairwell.

The Dock Street project demonstrates thoughtful material reuse and selection. Existing floorboards have been carefully restored. New recycled floorboards have been installed to the additional second floor. Sand-blasted existing and recycled bricks line the insulated masonry cavity wall to the west, lending smaller service spaces along this part of the plan a handmade character. The new steel structure and timber sub- structure to the second floor and roof terrace are expressed as the ceilings below. The architects’ technique in the reuse of materials and expressed mode of construction arrives at a textured and warm industrial “style” (not fashion) that synthesises the entire building into a whole.

On one hand, the architecture inventively exudes metaphysical qualities. The way in which the elements are harnessed and senses are heightened dovetail into the clients’ engagement with art. Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying that “art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. From the works by local artists on the central and rear courtyards to the clients’ impressive collection, the awareness of art as a prompt for creative thought is ever present. There is a tendency here towards a deeper and richer sense of well- being beyond the components of the building.

On the other hand, the Dock Street residence is a successful project for three central reasons. Firstly, the capability of the architects Suzie, Laura and Jon in working collaboratively with each other, the clients, the consultants and the builder; secondly, the generous commitment of the clients to art and architecture; and thirdly, the capacity of the builder to execute the works with care and craftsmanship.

The team at Surroundings has delivered a distinguished example of how architecture can transform the ordinary to the sublime.