What better way to acknowledge Petersen Kolumba™ bricks turning 10 than to celebrate North Bondi’s Deepwater House: A simply spectacular, three times award-winning home.

To look at the breathtaking result that is Deepwater House, you’d never dream that both Tobias Partners, the architects, and Bellevarde Constructions, the builder, had to overcome multiple challenges when designing and constructing this new home. Not the least was the dramatic three storey slope from the road to the water’s edge, as well as privacy and environmental considerations including Sydney’s intense afternoon sun, unpredictable coastal winds and the corrosive, salty area that is Bondi. But overcome them they did, with aplomb.

Deepwater House presents an impressive and visually solid  facade, adorned with white concrete, Burmese teak and handmade Kolumba™ bricks in two nine metre high perforated brick screens. Nick Tobias, Founding Principal, Tobias Partners, says, “We did a lot of research to find the right brick for the patterned screen walls .... We wanted density at the bottom and lightness at the top. To achieve this effect, we needed the thinnest bricks we could find, which turned out to be Kolumba™ by Petersen Tegl.”  And Nick continues, “The bright, rustic Danish bricks stand in beautiful contrast to the raw concrete, the white plaster facade and the cobblestone pavement in front of the house. For the screens we drew on Indian and Asian influences, but used a European product, which is actually a typically Australian way of doing things.”

The house also has an equally compact and incredibly creative curated display of paintings and sculptures, and a brilliant work of art on the roof terrace by Danish-Australian artist Mika Utzon Popov, created using custom made Petersen K21 bricks.

The development of this artwork is a complete story in itself, beautifully told in the Petersen, Issue 26, 2017, via an incredibly detailed five page spread. It shows how Utzon Popov faced one of the greatest challenges to deliver the most significant commission of his career, but how he experienced, first hand, the intimate connection between art and architecture.

You can read the entire spread here
 
If you'd like to receive a hard copy of the Petersen, visit our Petersen page and subscribe to have each edition delivered to your letterbox. You'll read about intriguing projects like this one, and keep track of the amazing array of Petersen projects taking shape right across the globe.
 
You can also read about both of these amazing 'artworks' by clicking on these links - Deepwater House and Utzon Popov's commissioned artwork found in Wish Magazine.

Architect:                       Tobias Partners
Builder:                          Bellevarde Constructions
Artistic decorations:    Mika Utzon Popov
Product:                         K91 bricks (screen walls) K21 bricks (custom artistic decorations)
Photography:                Justin Alexander