North Adelaide Residence

As owners of Best Pavers, the Client was interested in show casing the Best range of natural stone and pavers in the renovation of their home in North Adelaide.

The strong minimalist lines of the building were transitioned into the landscape with a series of off form concrete walls. These walls contrast with the feature sawn cut granite, providing a backdrop to the pool and also a concealed pump house.

The concrete coping is extended down into the pool in a series of wide steps, broken up with the delicate mosaic tile of the pool interior.

The elevated pool adds an element of interest with a blade wall negating the need for a pool fence and creating a greater sense of connection to the central lawn area below.

The existing Ivy along the red brick facade was retained with a new granite raised garden bed beneath. A concrete wrap to the granite edge creates a series of seating walls along the length of the lawn and connects the lower garden with the design intent of the pool.

Tranmere Residence

Five existing significant Eucalypts encircle the perimeter of this corner property, providing a strong structure and boundary definition to the site.
Working with the closely with the client, WAX has designed a low impact mass planted garden that creates a green carpet of vegetation, with the existing trees providing an architecture to balance the two storey building facade.
A sense of arrival was created with an exposed aggregate entrance path, with slate banding to compliment the feature stone surrounding the front door. A meandering compacted quarry rubble path provides an organic intervention through the garden and a permable surface, sympathetic to the trees root structure.

Dysart, Boom or Bust?

Dysart, a purpose built mining town of 3200 people is located 240km northwest of Rockhampton, Queensland. Constructed in 1973 to service Saraji and Norwich Park open cut coal mines. Once a town with a strong and thriving community, the introduction of a drive-in drive-out work force and 12 hour shifts has seen Dysart’s community begin to break down. As a unwanted consequence this is now being reflected in the town’s character. Dysart now faces its biggest challenge: rebuilding the community and social fabric that had made the town so successful and desirable to live.

WAX Design, in collaboration with JPE, were engaged by ISACC Regional Council and BMA’s (BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance) community development program to generate a strategic and long term planning direction for the Town of Dysart. The aim of the project is to create an urban design framework to help the community focus on a future for the town by increasing tourism and economic development, attracting new residents and improving the quality of life for the local community.

WAX team members Warwick Keates and Matt Baida, along with JPE’s David Gregory visited Dysart late last year to undertake a planning for real consultation program. The intensive nature of the consultation process involved the establishment of a 4 day studio in Dysart and was designed to enable the team to develop a detailed understanding of Dysart as a place and a community. The consultation approach for the urban design framework focused on engaging the community early in the project process, with the strong intent of building a community ownership of the project and ensuring that the strategic directions of the framework were directly linked to the unique needs of Dysart’s community.