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What was your brief for the job at Fig Tree Pocket?
The brief for the Fig Tree Pocket house was fairly standard, fairly straight forward for a four bedroom house, plus a studio. It was on a block of land, a nice block of land, gently sloping to the north east. There was a recent subdivision so there were about five properties going through the easement so the clients had requested a single storey house because they also knew that the neighbouring properties were going to be single storey and they didn't want their house to stick out amongst that new collection of buildings, which is fair enough. Because it was a larger block, they didn't really see any need to go up two stories and that was fine to work with those parameters. They put strong emphasis on natural materials. They wanted a contemporary house but didn't want it to be too slick as such. Apart from that there weren't a lot of strong viewpoints given. They had an initial mud map of how they imagined things working but we interpreted that quite radically I suppose.
I noticed that you've used a lot of Centor Architectural products on this project including E2, A6, A14, Cenframe, and DF and DM dropbolts. Do you regularly specify Centor products?
We do actually. I guess that it is a name that is associated with quality and they have produced some nice looking fittings as of late and certainly they are very smooth running fittings. So they are the primary reasons, and a good catalogue.
What advantages do you see in the E2 system compared to other bifold door systems?
It's a bit hard for me to answer that question because I haven't used other bifold door systems but I do notice that there are some cheaper systems around that don't have the full weather sealing and ventilation sealing, so that's one advantage to the E2. It makes it a much more efficient system that way, and in a way the co-ordination between the different bits. The co-ordinated set of the drop bolt as well as the handles, as well as the hinging. In this job the extra long drop bolts were a necessity with the 2500 high doors. I've noticed other systems are doing that as well, but it still seems to be a superior product both aesthetically and functionally.
What areas of the house did you use A6 and why did you decide to use A6?
I used the A6 in those rooms where there was a sliding door obviously but it was more of an area of the house that I didn't want to just put a standard pelmet. Pelmets generally look pretty dumb when you've got a non-cavity sliding door. But the pelmets are generally the harder things to make look nice. You've got a fairly pared down contemporary house. That was the first time I'd used A6. Obviously there's an interest in that honesty of it and it's the expression of the wheels and the visual interest that that industrial honesty gives to the space as well.
You've used A14 to create bypassing parallel sliding windows in a number of areas of the house. What was the idea behind that?
I've used A14 on windows in both the kitchen and bedrooms. I just went for the sliding there instead of bifolds mainly so the windows didn't protrude into the circulation space and also economy reasons and the idea of the bypassing windows is that it gives more flexibility in terms of how you finish the space. Particularly the bedrooms. They might put the desk in the centre of the window, they might put it to one side. So if they want to open a full opening in front of the desk they could shuffle the windows to one side rather than constrained to the centre. I specified Minuet dropbolts with these to have the same series of fittings throughout the house.
Why did you decide to use the Centor's CF sliding system between some of the rooms?
A cavity slider has advantages that it frees up wall space for paintings and furniture etc., so that's the main reason why I used the cavity sliders in those areas. A couple of the doors are 1200 wide as well, going for a maximum width of Cenframe's dimension and that was really to get the maximum size opening between rooms for activity between the spaces. One of the Cenframes is between the children's bedrooms so that they could have flexibility of having more of a free flowing space between the children's bedrooms, rather than having them partitioned off in their own little rooms which we've done a couple of times and it seems to work well with kids. The parents like the idea of the young kids growing up in the same room initially and then the transition of having their own room.
What did Centor products add to this project?
The main thing that the sliding and bifold door and window systems of course give is that extraordinary openness between inside and outside. When you open up that 3½ metre or 4 metre space with 2.5 metre high doors, then it's quite a strong thing having the inside flowing out down the single step to the deck and similarly to the living room to the deck with the 2.8 metre high doors it gives that strong connection. With our climate it's nice to have that great ease of manipulating the degree of enclosure between inside and outside.
What do you think about the functionality of Centor Architectural products?
Obviously I think it's pretty good otherwise I wouldn't have specified it. I haven't had any complaints from clients who have had it installed in their house.
What kind of versatility do you think products such as Eclipse E2 have?
Well you can think about how you can rebate the tracks into the sills and things like that so you have a flush threshold and now they've got the self draining sill for inward opening doors which is good.
Were the products trade-friendly? Were they easy to install and specify?
Yes specifying was fine. Pretty straight forward and basically all the Centor gear apart from the A6 and the Cenframes were all installed in the factory by the window and door joiner. Really for the builder he wasn't much involved at all. They came and were pre-hung and the whole thing just slotted in place really.
Is there anything else that you wanted to add?
It's good that Centor keeps on trying to be innovative and that's really a critical thing I think and something that's got them to where they are today, that drive to innovate and keep on exploring how to make new products which can meet the demands of changing needs in architectural design.
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Chris Bligh