Designed specifically as a place of work and to showcase the fruits of home life, Alexander House is Alexander &Co.’s place of fortitude. It is where the team and it’s clients congregate, challenging the preconceptions of home, land, family and work. The house doubles as a vehicle for experimentation, a prototype for exploring concepts of sustainability, carbon sequestration and environmental innovation.
A Victorian terrace house nestled within Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Alexander House is Alexander &CO.’s way of practicing craft. The house nurtures the creative spirit of the design team, and allows the creative mind to run free, acting as a thesis, prototype and place for the team to test out and challenge ideas. The practice aims to use the house as a place of cultural significance, with Alexander &CO. reaching out to local artists in regards to a moving gallery concept. Susan Moylan-Coombs from the Gaimaragal Group has also been contacted in an effort to host a series of ‘Cultural Conversations’ at the house, to further connection with First Nations peoples and inform Alexander &CO.’s future projects as a result.
Exposed structures throughout the interior offer a feeling of honesty. Reclaimed timbers, rammed earth bricks from waste materials and a palette of plaster, steel, brass and stone are of an earnest quality. The practice opted for finishes and materials that are inherently imperfect. Materials are deeply expressive and were selected to show their age, as is the case with the sandblasted timber and brass which could blacken and develop over time. It’s all about creating a space of genuinity, tuning into and being acutely aware that the space around oneself ages similarly over time.
Conceived as a design laboratory, Alexander House supports various modes of working, whether it be for collaboration, meetings and solo time. Site limitations encouraged creativity when it came to encompassing the various program functions our team required within the small terrace footprint with each of the four floor plates conceived to be programmed separately and transition with time. There are both private exterior spaces and internal environments which vary in material, scale, lighting and volume. Each space allows the practice to provide both a true residential showcase experience for our clients and a flexible working environment for our team.
Intersecting home and working environments in a time when it is more relevant than ever, Alexander House is a physical embodiment of a commercial rethink. Alexander &CO. have looked beyond atypical office boundaries to create a prototype for their projects, that invites experimentation and the implementation of ideas. The house’s textural palette is equally intriguing and idiosyncratic, and will evolve with the processes and personnel of Alexander &CO. throughout their tenure at the practice.
