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Architects: Matyas Architects & Interiors
- Area: 1150 m²
- Year: 2023
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Lead Architects: John Matyas
Text description provided by the architects. As both the residence of our Founding Director, John Matyas, and headquarters for our studio, 'Matyas Architects & Interiors, Bay Street mixed-use provides a living example of our studio's approach and John's 38 years of practice.
After looking for a few years to find the right new home for our studio, we came across the opportunity to build in a mixed-use neighborhood, which has a nice blend of offices, retail and residential use. John and his wife loved it so much that our plan for a new studio became a plan for a new home over the Studio, with a commercial space at street level. A key design consideration when deciding to make this building our home was to introduce a green front entry space as a separation zone to the street. This was achieved by setting the lower position of the building back from the street boundary, giving us the opportunity to landscape and create double-height voids for tree canopies.
Space and Form - As you enter the building from the front, you walk through a brick-paved pathway closely surrounded by dense planting. It brings a sense of tranquillity and separation from the busy street. Once inside the foyer, you are met with a staircase lined with a continuation of the red-blue brick tiles, carefully laid in a balanced formation. The stairs lead up to the first floor where of Studio is located. Upon entering the space you are greeted with our large entry bench, which acts as a functional space for casual meetings, but also a breakout space for our team to spread out and collaborate. As with all of our work, we focus on the use of honest natural materials where possible. We love the enduring qualities and honesty of raw concrete, exposed brickwork and warmth of timber, which are all featured throughout the project.
Our workstations are located at the South end of the Studio, comprising 14 spacious workstations. Our Architectural and Interior design teams work closely within the same open space – it allows us to easily interact and maintain an awareness of all projects as they develop. Our cabinetry was designed to be fluent and inserted into the space to firstly provide much-needed storage but also to bring some color and a point of interest to on length of the space. There are two openings within the cabinetry that act as a portal to our bathroom, storage and kitchen areas, creating a visual separation between our studio space and these service areas. It was important to design the studio space as we would our residential projects, as this is what we specialize in as a practice. We wanted to create access to as much natural light and ventilation as possible so that we could enjoy generous outdoor breakout spaces with garden elements that are visible from both ends of the studio and from the street. Pragmatically, the studio space works well, it is flexible with multiple small and large meeting areas, indoor and outdoor meals areas and plenty of storage.
There is a full-height frameless glass pivot door that separates the studio level from the residence on the level above. When you open the door, you are greeted by the double-height entry space and courtyard with a beautiful established maple tree – framed by a hit-and-miss lattice brick wall. The entry features an open winding concrete staircase within a half-round textural curved brick wall with a roof light, which acts as an internal light well. We designed the stair balustrade to be open so that there is a visual connection and light borrowed between spaces from all directions. The main living and kitchen area is screened from the entry by a sculptural half-round brick wall. The curved theme continues across the feature fireplace wall and ceiling downturn over the kitchen area. This space features an impressive 3.6m high ceiling and opens up to our north-facing Outdoor living space. Rooflights are a feature throughout, positioned to bask the interiors with natural light and provide more sculptural voids in the ceiling.
Materiality - The idea was to minimize the palate of materials, keep plasterboard to a minimum and celebrate structural concrete and exposed brickwork throughout
Sculpture - Another key design goal was to introduce some sculptural forms into quite a conventional flat streetscape. The decision to feature off-form concrete in the building allowed us the opportunity to express a deep rolled edge soffit to the street, finished with a timber board texture to give it a real hand-crafted quality.
Build complexity - The build had its challenges, not the least of which was building throughout the 2020-2021 Covid restrictions. And the related supply issues which did cause delays. Given the constraints of the site and the need to keep the building methodology simple, the building was built in 2 vertical halves. Access had to be from the front, so the 4-storey rear half was built before commencing on the 3-storey front half of the building.
Apartment - A key consideration was to ensure that all the living areas and bedrooms had direct access to natural light and airflow. All the habitable spaces open onto terraces with established gardens. It was important to us to design sculptural qualities into the apartment layout. The curved walls anchor the spaces and create light and shade that varies across the day. The curved walls and varying ceiling height create interest and are a pleasure to live with. More important of all, we wanted to promote a relaxed, spacious and comfortable lifestyle for myself, my wife and my cocker spaniel, with the opportunity to have guests or even kids come to stay with us. The spaces feel light and calming up here in our apartment oasis.
