Stone Stories: Adam Haddow
Q: What inspired you to create this garden oasis in the sky?
When you live in the city, one of the things that people forget about is the luxury of a garden as opposed to luxury being simply more space. You can always find a restaurant to go to or a library to sit in, but to find a beautiful garden can be quite challenging and to have your own garden is fabulous. It was also about having the capacity to create an ecosystem for native animals, birds and insects. Rooftops across the city can house little microparks, so it’s about contributing to these, increasing the green cover of the city and increasing space for wildlife.
Q: How did you make the garden such an integral part of the apartment?
Will Dangar is all about gardens being not just plants and trees – they’re also about creating rooms, a sequence of spaces. He designed our garden so there were pockets and it meandered and you never really saw where it finished, which ultimately makes a garden feel bigger, and makes the internal/external relationship better because you’re always being drawn into a different space. And then there are practical things like, rather than having the inside floor finish go outside, we had the outside floor finish come inside, so it felt like the garden was taking over the house.
“Rather than having the inside floor finish go outside, we had the outside floor finish come inside, so it felt like the garden was taking over the house.”
Q: Why was Endicott split stone the best choice for the flooring?
It’s super robust, it’s almost bombproof. You can’t really stain it, it’s perfect for outdoor use. But I also think the colour of it is quite beautiful. It’s got a bit of a shimmer, it’s got beautiful greys and pinks which I think really talk to the colours of the Australian landscape. The light changes it between inside and outside, which is kind of like the difference between being underneath the canopy of a tree or not. It just plays with those light qualities.
Q: Raw materials shine in this project, why was this important?
There’s a couple of reasons behind that. One is to feel the authenticity of the material. The second is it’s much more sustainable. If you can get rid of things like plasterboard, if you can get rid of a whole lot of layers, you’re essentially using less resources. Thirdly, because the original building downstairs was a warehouse, I wanted to make sure the addition felt like it was part of it, that it had warehouse qualities. It really played with the sense of volume so that the spaces are very authentic.
Product Endicott split stone
Photography Felix Forest
