PGH Academy glazed bricks used on feature wall in award winning apartment makeover

An internal feature brick wall built using high gloss bricks from PGH Bricks & Pavers is one of the design highlights of an award-winning Teneriffe Warehouse Apartment in Brisbane.

Located on the banks of the Brisbane River, the Teneriffe Warehouse Apartment Block was originally constructed as a wool store, and formed part of a series of impressive ‘trading houses’, built specifically to support and showcase the state’s commercially successful wool export industry.

These buildings have now been turned into one of Brisbane’s most exclusive inner-city residential precincts, transforming the once industrious commercial hub into a prestigious and sophisticated neighbourhood. One of the renovated apartments in this block took out the 2013 Australian Interior Design Award for ‘Best of State - Residential Design QLD’.

Conceptualised and executed by Brisbane-based interior designers, Wrightson Stewart, the renovation combined old and new elements to create a masculine space as sought by the client. The project won acclaim for the designers for their ability to balance and retain the building’s historic integrity, while simultaneously fulfilling the client’s brief, which was to create the 'ultimate bachelor pad'.

According to Ian Wrightson, apart from the project’s finite budget, the team at Wrightson Stewart had complete design freedom, making the entire design process an easy and mutually rewarding experience for the designers as well as the client.

Wrightson Stewart retained the existing grittier architectural elements such as the solid oak flooring, exposed timber and steel trusses, massive 7-metre high raked ceilings and the original internal red brick perimeter walls, all of which provided the perfect backdrop and counter balance to the modern, streamlined building products that were incorporated into the final refurbishment.

One of the examples of this juxtaposition of new and old can be seen in the open plan kitchen area, which features a fully glazed black brick splashback and dividing wall. Commenting on the unconventional use of brick in this area, Ian explained that they had experimented with gloss faced bricks on a previous project and wanted to explore further but on a much larger scale, which they were able to do in the apartment renovation project.

Nobel bricks from the PGH Academy collection were selected by the Wrightson Stewart team because of the contemporary attributes of these glazed bricks. The sharp arrises, high gloss finish, smooth texture and deep solid colour perfectly contrasted with the American walnut cabinetry, oak timber floor, white painted walls and ceilings as well as the original handmade red bricks, which provided a textural link to a bygone era.

This project has served to revive interest in the humble ‘feature brick wall’ as a relevant and significant interior design element. To this end, PGH Bricks & Pavers has been working with leading colourists and design houses to create a comprehensive range of glazed, metallic, dry pressed and sandstock face bricks in an almost limitless range of colours and textures.