This two-storey pottery studio in the back garden of a house in Sydney’s Inner West features a crab mural in ceramic tiles that wraps one corner of its facade. It is also an environmentally regenerative project that’s an exemplar of sustainable architecture.
Coconut Crab studio was designed by Alexander Symes Architect in collaboration with the client, Casa Adams Fine Wares and landscape architect Jason Monaghan. The brief was for a freestanding building that could be used for ceramic production, educational workshops and business administration. The studio also shares a garden with the family home.
The client, Casa Adams, is a small ceramics studio run by Araceli Robledo Adams who makes porcelain plates and other ceramics decorated with finely painted marine life. Her illustrations of crabs, squid, fish and coral, one each per plate or bowl, are brightly coloured and highly detailed, educating and highlighting the need for marine conservation (5-10% of Casa Adams profits are donated to environmental organisations).
The new studio is a two-storey freestanding building with a ceramics workshop on the ground floor and an office on the floor above. The envy of any ceramicist, the workshop features drying racks made of reused ply filling on one wall and a sink with tile splash back showing colours of all the different glazes, as well as a separate room especially created for the ceramics firing kilns.
The building is also sustainable, created using passive design principles including high insulation values, and a heat-recovery ventilation (HRV) system creating a comfortable interior environment all year round.
The structure is also sustainable, with the foundation screws located so as not to disturb existing tree roots and the upper floor structure, stairs and handrail LVLs all remaining exposed with no additional finishes. Perforated aluminium flooring upstairs allows light to penetrate to the level below and encourages ventilation, while window frames and the sink bench top were made from recycled timber.
In the garden, natives including grass tree ‘Gadi’, gum trees, hakeas, wattles and endemic grasses are designed to support the endemic bird species and frog and native bee habitats. There is also an edible garden and a rainwater retention pond supports native plants, frogs and fish.
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