Architects at Home | Richards & Spence
“A place for one or a place for many”, La Scala is the unconventional home of architects Ingrid Richards and Adrian Spence, designed to test their deeply held belief in the importance of adaptability in an urban setting.
In many ways, La Scala is inseparable from the architects who designed and inhabit it, insofar as it reflects their personal and professional lives, beliefs and interests. Yet it is equally a building intended to transcend the particularities of its founding occupants. Ingrid Richards and Adrian Spence of the architecture practice Richards & Spence describe it as a “future ruin”, an aesthetically apt label for the building’s concrete mass – emerging from lush vegetation – that has been broken down and built up in picturesque ways, seeming at once both ancient and modern. The idea of a future ruin, however, goes far beyond an aesthetic and speaks to the architects’ fundamental belief that “the city’s fabric is not fixed; it must evolve in response to changing circumstances”, explains Richards. A future ruin, then, is a forward-thinking building that is inherently adaptable to whatever circumstance it may find itself in, whether in the near or more distant future.
This belief was central to the brief that Richards and Spence set for themselves when they acquired the site, a relatively small and steeply sloping block in Bowen Hills, on the fringe of Brisbane’s CBD. The location is a Character Residential zone, although it abuts the city’s commercial districts, “a condition that reflects the transitional nature of the inner city”, says Richards. As such, the architects observed that the requirements of the zoning were at odds with the likely evolution of Brisbane in coming decades, and they set out to create a more adaptable and enduring response. They describe the decision as “both ideological and pragmatic – an architecture that can absorb change over time feels more honest in the context of a growing, shifting city”.
Precisely how to achieve their aim eluded them, until, as Spence recalls, “one day we were on a flight, and Ingrid grabbed a napkin and drew the section of the house that we built.” By designing the house in section – the vertical plane through a building – rather than in plan, they were able to problem solve three-dimensionally as opposed to two-dimensionally, and the steep hillside slope became an asset that guided the spatial arrangement. Informed by this insight and their brief for a place that could function as a home without being limited by residential conventions, they divided the building in two, separated by a central courtyard. The smaller of the two – which the architects use as a studio – is set to the front of the site, while the larger volume – where they live – sits to the rear, at the top of the slope. For council planning purposes, this arrangement was an inversion of the typical house and granny flat. While it does meet the definition of a main and supplementary dwelling, the architecture goes much further – formally, spatially and materially.
The primary material of in-situ cast concrete immediately sets it apart from the surrounding residential architecture. All of Richards & Spence’s work preferences substantial materials like concrete, brick and stone over the timber, cement sheet and tin constructions traditionally found throughout Queensland. This is informed by the idea that such materials have greater precedent worldwide in hot climates like Brisbane and by the belief that the solidity and durability of these materials is important in terms of their emotive qualities and their longevity.
The city’s famed Calile Hotel, which Richards & Spence designed at around the same time, has a similar material palette and was constructed simultaneously. “But where the Calile required polish, La Scala had no need to be pretty. It leans toward the brutal,” states Richards. “The result is a building that feels like part of the escarpment.” This type of honest materiality is carried into the interiors, which forgo the adornment of more typical domestic materials. “The buildings were imagined as a ruinous shell: raw infrastructure holding precious pieces, furniture, objects, people,” explains Spence. There is minimal built-in joinery and, instead, an emphasis on the architects’ eclectic furniture collection, highlighting their belief that the built form is independent of its current use.
On arrival, one traverses the hillside, creating a sense of discovery that is heightened by the “sensory awareness of the concrete structure, a noticeable silence and stillness”, describes Spence. With what is currently the main house located at the rear of the site, “perched on the cliff edge facing the city”, there is a journey of compression as one enters the hill, “followed by release and delight as you arrive at the living level and look across the courtyard or towards the city”, says Richards.
This arrival sequence, the emphasis on the central courtyard, the arrangement of the two discrete yet connected buildings, the choice of raw concrete as the primary material – the architecture’s power lies in how all these factors are both immediately relevant to the way Richards and Spence live now and also to how this building may come to be used in the future. It is an intertwining of specific current needs and future possibilities that is highly compelling without being unduly complicated.
Their lifestyle, for example, prompted the idea of “a place for two or 200 … solitude and celebration”, says Richards. As such, the open-plan kitchen-living-dining space that looks onto the central landscaped courtyard is a key place for entertaining. The relationship between this room and the courtyard is also a means of enlivening and softening the raw concrete structure; the landscaped elements make the building conducive to domestic occupation, even as the materiality and scale lend themselves to possible future commercial use. “La Scala became a means to test how materially dense, contextually urban architecture could still feel generous and connected to the landscape,” explains Richards. This dynamic has become even more heightened over time. “As the garden matures, the built form recedes. Awareness shifts from inside to outside. The sense of outdoor living becomes more immersive.”
Since the build was completed in 2020, Richards and Spence have lived, worked and entertained in La Scala and have seen firsthand the impact of their beliefs in practice. Just as they shaped the building, so it has come to shape their practice. For one thing, it has strengthened their confidence in “the ability to create a reductive environment, the maximum experience with the least possible elements – contrasts of low and high, light and dark, rough and smooth magnified by a limited material palette,” explains Spence. “It has reinforced our belief in architecture as host, not object. As a result, our focus as architects has become Living and working in La Scala has reinforced the couple’s belief that architecture should be “host, not object”, valuing experience over form. even more about experience over form,” explains Richards.
Experience, of course, is infinitely variable and subjective, and by emphasising this, La Scala manages to not only balance adaptability with durability but also show how one can only come from the other. It is a built manifesto that is continually being rewritten, even as the monumental concrete walls stand as a forthright statement among their lightweight residential context. “The building is not to everyone’s taste, and that’s fine,” says Richards. “It resists consensus in favour of clarity – a deliberate architectural response to a complex urban site.”
Architecture and landscape design by Richards & Spence.
- 项目文案：Rose Onans
- 项目摄影：David Chatfield
- Video by：Dan Preston
- Portrait by：Amelia Rushforth
- Edited by：Dan Preston
- 转载自：The Local Project
- 图片@The Local Project
- 语言：英语
- 编辑：序赞网
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