An Ode to Materiality – View House by Archier

Taking its name from the breathtaking views of Hobart that informed the architecure, View House was designed by Archier Director Chris Haddad as an enduring home for his parents. View House employs a rich colour palette, forming a home of dynamic and contrasting forms.

Situated in the Hobart suburb of Sandy Bay, View House is an exploration of functionality and materiality. “One of the most important aspects of the brief was to have a home that was inviting, warm and comfortable,” explains Chris. “Both my parents have retired recently, so this was going to be a home that they were going to be spending their later years in.” Without compromising on aesthetic or quality, View House has a strong understanding of purpose – flexible in its ability to suit the needs of its residents, allowing them to age in place.

Situated in the Tasmanian suburb of Sandy Bay, View House is an exploration of functionality and materiality.

Situated on a suburban block surrounded by bushland, View House is a two-storey home with an imposing street façade, crafted using black brick. “It’s a very steep site and we had to excavate a lot of stone,” Chris notes. “It’s all about bunkering down and embedding yourself in the hillside.” Buried deep into the Hobart landscape, a courtyard space was introduced to bring light down within the house. During construction, one rock could not be moved; the courtyard was turned into a fern garden with the immovable rock on display to represent the land below the surface, acting as a visual connection to the nearby mountain.

The dark façade is counteracted with the use of a warm terracotta tile from Artedomus. “The aspects of this house that make it unique for us at Artedomus are the combination of products used,” says William Pearse, Sales Manager at Artedomus. “Certainly, the most striking is the Cotto Manetti terracotta. [Chris] ended up really embracing it, so you see it used throughout this house in different areas and it really adds a brilliant colour to the place, brings in a warmth,” he says, “and it’s obviously a very durable material so it will look better with time as well.”

Affectionately behind every decision throughout View House is family, represented even through the choice of material.

Additional to the façade and interior, the terracotta tiling is also used throughout the balcony patio space on the second floor. “The terracotta adds a warmth to that light,” Chris explains, “which reflects off the ceiling – which is timber – so you get these really warm tones throughout the whole house.” The tile covers the patio floor and extends up along the wall, imbuing the external space with a contemporary warmth. “The colours, the textures, the materials, and the design overall, [are] just so striking,” William reflects.

Affectionately behind every decision throughout View House is the notion of family – represented down to the choice of material from Artedomus. “The Manetti family that had made these tiles – it’s a family business – and they’ve been making the tiles since 1780,” Chris explains. “An incredible legacy, and it’s really great to be able to bring a product that they’ve cared about within their family for so long and then be able to put it into a home for my family.”

Constructed using materials sourced from Artedomus, View House employs a rich colour palette, forming a home of dynamic and contrasting forms.

View House balances light and dark, curved and structured – meretriciously merging contrasts in a fluid interplay. The orange of the Cotto Manetti terracotta Arrotato Da Crudo (Rustic) juxtaposes against the dark textured clay INAX Homura tiles in the lobby. “It’s a clay tile with a very subtle, slightly metallic glaze on it, and it’s not installed with grout, so you get this lovely shadow play in-between the pieces,” William says. Manetti Terracotta and INAX Format tiles are also used in the bathroom, accompanied by an Agape Spin Mirror, Agape Normal Bath, Agape Pear Basins and the Agape Pear 2 sanitary-ware from Artedomus. The curves of the Agape Pear Basins are “a very unusual shape,” William says. “They contrast with the rest of the rather structured architecture.”

The Vigo Lena Marble from Artedomus is featured in both the kitchen and the bathroom space, connecting the two separate areas in a seamless and sophisticated nod to balance. “I think the fact that those two areas tie together because of that marble is really clever,” William muses. “I’m very proud of what we offered for this house because of the end result. It’s just terrific to see all of our materials used in this way in a house that is of great significance. Made me very proud, in fact, it’s made all of us at Artedomus very proud.”