Less is Moore

STARK black and white is used to stunning effect in this Sydney warehouse conversion by minimalist architect Ian Moore.GALLERY

Ian Moore house

A SIMPLE black and white house was what Ian Moore's client requested in her initial brief to the architect, who is known for his minimal interiors.

And that's pretty much what she got. The Strelein Warehouse, as it is known, runs between two streets in the Sydney inner-city suburb of Surry Hills. It was originally built in 1895 as a grocery warehouse. "The split level was always here," says Moore, "and conceptually everything that is white was here and then everything that is black is a new insertion.

"Even though something might be lined or painted, if it's the original wall, the original beams, it's just wrapped in white," Moore continues. "The small stair is black because although there was always a stair there, it used to be on the other side, so it was swapped over and became a new thing. The main stair was also always there but it ran the other way so we've taken away the old stair and spun it around and, again, that's why it became black." The concept even extends to the furniture. Most of it was acquired specifically for this house so it's black because it's new.

The main entrance to the house is at the end of a small cul de sac and the garage entrance is on another street perpendicular to the one the entrance is on. The ground floor contains a living area, the kitchen, the garage and laundry, although, according to Moore, the garage, with its white epoxy floor, is hardly ever used for parking cars. Upstairs is another living and study space, the bathroom and bedroom.

"Originally, the upstairs was one simple, open space and what we tried to do was keep it that way by making the bathroom a big piece of furniture with clear glazing above so you can get a sense of the space running over the top and to allow in light to flood the bathroom," says Moore.

"All the joinery is clad in black anodised aluminium and when you anodise you get a subtle variation in the colour and you can sort of see that no two panels are the same colour. It's the same with the garage door, there are about 20 different colours in those slats, so it's just a bit of subtlety there."

Moore's client was also adamant she didn't want curtains anywhere in the house. "She hates them, so we used translucent, high-performance glass that is very heavily insulated. It's not quite double-glazing but it's the next step down," says Moore.

When it came to the bathroom, Moore placed glazing on both sides of the cabinetry that forms one of the walls to add what he calls a "slight quirk" to the design. "It's like a tank that is completely sealed," he says. "And the entirely mirrored wall is used to double the sense of space in the bathroom, even though it's a fairly big bathroom."

Moore, in partnership with interior designer Tina Engelen, is responsible for some of the more interesting apartment developments that went up in Sydney during the property boom of the 1990s. One such development, Altair in Kings Cross, won a World Architecture Award in 2002. The Engelen-Moore partnership ended in 2004 and since then Moore has been working in a more back-to-basics fashion. "It's sort of a weird period," he says. "I went through a stage of doing all those apartment developments in Australia and then everything crashed in 2008 and I closed down my office and went back to being a three-person studio.

"Our big work now is in New Zealand and that has been really keeping us going. We have quite a large mixed-use building development in Saint Heliers in Auckland and we are doing something called Rhubarb Lane, which is a [commercial/residential] redevelopment of a huge council works depot in the centre of Auckland.  There are six architects involved; everyone had to be a New Zealander, so I just scraped in. Each of us gets to do three buildings and there are 21 in total on the site. We've designed the first stage, which is six buildings.

"Then we're doing an amazing project in Broome, which is a house but also a mini private retreat/resort. When it's finished it will be very exclusive and probably very expensive. It's owned by an Australian woman who is married to an English banker who lives in Manhattan. She has connections with Broome and has lived there before and bought the 4.5ha site at the northern end of Cable Beach."

When WISH sat down with Moore in the striking Strelein Warehouse he was quick to point our that his design, which is 150sqm with just one bedroom and no outdoor space, is not for everyone. "It's very specific to its client and she is someone who has always lived in houses that were a little bit unusual," says Moore.

"Her last house in Paddington was also a warehouse, a stables conversion with an extra storey added onto it.
It was a most impractical house, the bedroom was on the top and the bathroom was on the bottom but she has always basically lived this way. She's a client I've known for 20 years and I've designed buildings for her before. Things work brilliantly when you have a great relationship with the client and they trust you and you're just able to get on and do your own thing."