"Mary: It's a secret garden.
Dickon: Secrets are safe with me. "
Hodgson-Burnett, 1911
[Image: 'Bondi Project Landscape Plan First Floor, Enter Architecture.]
There is a courtyard in the centre of the Bondi Residences. This courtyard is simply for the residents to use, and acts not only as access to all the individual pods, but forms communal outdoor spaces too.
Inspired by the art deco heritage of the area, residents walk through the main entry to ascend up a large staircase into the courtyard at the projects centre. And there, within the architecture, is a truly surreal hidden moment... and it engulfs you, as the ribbons skim past, and the light just reflects off the concrete bevels...the vines pour over the balustrades and over hang above...
Click on Image to Enlarge.
[Image: 'Bondi Project Section Expressing the Courtyard', Enter Architecture.]
The Bondi Residences was always about exploration. However it was not just about us imagining. Rather, it was about us trying to re-imagine how contemporary Bondi residents could perhaps live. It suggests a lifestyle about communal spaces, and introducing more ways in which the interior and exterior boundaries could be blurred.
[Image: 'Bondi Project Roof Terraces Landscape Plan', Enter Architecture.]
There seems to always be a distinction between an 'interior' and an 'exterior'. I am not sure what decides it (and it could be a lengthy debate) though many a theorist have attempted to define it....is it a door, a wall, a roof, transparency, porosity, or......however the fact that there is a distinction, is fascinating. This distinction means that we can continually explore and play with that boundary.
"The light filtered through the leaves and pine needles above as if through lace, the ground spotted in shadow."
John Green, Looking For Alaska
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