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“Alexander House is a cinematic, architectural rabbit hole, full of surprises and delight,” Jeremy Bull, principal and founder of Australian design studio Alexander & Co., reflects. He’s speaking of a 3,229-square-foot space that was rebuilt over eight months during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result—a hybrid live-work structure—is the product of love and creativity. It’s also a place to gather, explore new ideas, and foster leadership, all under one roof.
“The pandemic accelerated the hybrid concept of working from home,” adds his wife, Tess Glasson, who helms the marketing department of Alexander & Co. “Alexander House embodies this new norm by challenging the way we engage with one another—and how we practice our craft.” From the get-go, the couple shared the same ambitious vision for this multipurpose, four-story house, which is located at Bondi Junction in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. “I have a personal interest in exploring ideas of a postmodern, post-industrial office,” says Bull. “I see the challenge of being a human-focused practice, and the tensions this holds with traditional workplace design.”
Each floor of the multilevel structure is dedicated to a single use. The basement comprises materials samples, desktop computers, and casual meeting spaces—thereby functioning as a traditional studio for the Alexander & Co. team. Referred to as the café, the ground floor is a dining, group meeting, and lounge–lobby area complete with a courtyard. Up above, a mezzanine level overlooks the impressive kitchen and contains its own intimate library. A top floor, with sleeping quarters, a pink bathroom, and a steam shower, is intended to be a more quiet retreat.
The space, clearly, is so much more than your standard desk-filled professional environment. Living next door in their family home with four sons, Bull and Glasson not only view Alexander House as a testing ground and showcase for their work, but also as an extension of their own residence. “Outside of working hours, we use the kitchen, living room, and courtyard to entertain regularly,” Glasson confesses. But it doesn’t stop there. Personal and professional lives subtly intertwine at every moment, especially after school hours, when it comes to their children.
“We flow in and out; the kids are usually stealing food from the pantry and watching meetings or interactions taking place,” Bull says. “Alexander House has connected work and family life quite profoundly. It surprisingly hasn’t blurred the boundaries in a complicated way; it just seems to have [further] connected us.”
From an aesthetic point of view, shades of pink, burgundy, and gray pair nicely with materials like natural walnut, oak, and exposed concrete. This balance of raw and refined elements also keeps the house from feeling brand-new. “It is filled with harvested materials, which are already in the process of being repurposed,” Bull adds of their thoughtful sourcing.
That sentiment taps into another component of Alexander House: its commitment to sustainability. Solar and water filtration systems and the use of treated timbers are two examples. Another is a west-facing glass-block wall that allows light to flow in while excluding heat. Alexander House is also the first project to use rammed earth panels from the Natural Brick Co. in partnership with Re.Studio Collective. (The panels are handmade from recycled building waste, so they don’t require the firing of a high-heat kiln.) The ultimate goal is for the house to produce zero landfill contributions and zero carbon emissions by 2022.
“At its very core, Alexander House was conceived as a forward-thinking design laboratory that supports a diversity of [ways] to change our behaviors toward conscious consumption, [and how] we engage with one another and our environment….” Glasson notes. For such a creative couple, Alexander House is also clearly just the beginning of a new chapter. As restrictions ease, the duo plans to use the space to exhibit art and host talks about the future of the design industry. Its future is certainly bright.
