By Robertson's Building Products
Sunset House celebrates the tactile quality of Petersen D91 bricks
It’s a light-filled energy efficient home, superbly designed by Herbert & Howes, that will serve its owners well into the future. While sitting more than comfortably within its heritage context in Deepdene, Sunset House also presents a thoroughly modern and welcoming presence on its generous corner block.
The well-considered material palette is simple, yet stunning. Sunset House presents a restrained grey palette of handcrafted Petersen D91 bricks, creating a stunning display of feature brickwork, along with black steel, providing a crisp and contrasting accent, all offset by a simple grey render. And, in what is becoming somewhat of a signature of Herbert & Howes designs–the use of landscapes within the architecture–the chosen plantings for Sunset House provide a vibrant contrast to this palette, with spectacularly changing results across seasons.
Matt Herbert, the owner of Herbert & Howes, says, “Our landscapes are integral to our architecture, and we love the way the vegetation contrasts against a grey colour palette, with the black trim providing the accent.”
The most stunning feature of this four-bedroom home is its three generous gables; a welcome addition to the streetscape, warmly greeting passers-by and celebrating the beauty of the handcrafted Petersen D91 bricks.
“There is nothing quite like the organic nature of Petersen bricks. We have used them a number of times before and love their irregular size. The uneven surfaces create a tactile surface that is unmatched,” comments Matt.
Natural light, as well as internal and external entertaining areas, were a key requirement of the design; the north-facing garden enabled Matt to easily tick both of these boxes. Not only is Sunset House now fully equipped with a pool that’s north-facing, but Matt’s design has ensured that it’s visible from almost every room in the home, while still remaining private from the outside world.
Best of all, with the owners moving into their new home just prior to Christmas last year, Sunset House has provided a welcome and comfortable sanctuary for the family during this year’s Covid-19 lockdown. As they say, timing is everything. And so is exceptional design.
Architect: Herbert & Howes
Product: Petersen D91 bricks
Builder: Constructing Spaces
Landscaping: Maroondah Landscapes
Photography: Justin Alexander
A building products innovator, Robertson's Building Products provides innovative, customised wall and floor solutions to help architects, designers, builders and homeowners transform their visions into practical, high quality, award-winning designs, and leading edge projects in their field.
What sets us apart is the unique nature, breadth and quality of the products we supply, their flexibility to adapt to your project’s requirements, and the personalised service and proven expertise we bring to develop the best solution for you.
Our unique clay, glass and stone bricks and brick facing tiles and brick slips will enrich and invigorate your projects with their unconventional and contrasting textures, and their countless special colours and sizes, helping you to achieve state of the art designs. Using our products, your project won’t look like anything else on the street, but will become the leader others seek to follow.
And, our product range keeps growing. We’re continuously developing existing products and sourcing new bricks and thin brick tiles, both locally and internationally.
Just think of Robertson's Building Products as your partner in design: our approach is collaborative, considered and open, driven by a love of good design. We listen carefully, understand your needs and use our proven industry expertise to make it easy for you to find the best solution.