Kiosk Table

The table was commissioned by the family at our Roscommon House for their enjoyment when entertaining friends and family in their dining room. The table needed to feel right within what was a bespoke house and interior. The table needed to seat up to eight people, with Neil also selecting the Morosso Mathilda dining chairs with custom selected fabric to pair with the colour of the room and with the mood of the house and table.

Brad, Lisa & Neil had many discussions about how the house should feel like it sat comfortably in the unique suburb of Floreat. 

With a significant legacy of modernist and brutalist buildings still remaining in suburb, I felt a responsibility to produce a design for this new house that not only served the needs and desires of my clients but was also in conversation with the ethos of the suburb, without mimicking or replicating the past.

We carried out a photographic survey of the original modernist buildings in the area to find in excess of seventy such buildings still remaining. This information was then used to inform our design of Roscommon House in studying the devices and form making of the original buildings of the area. We found these buildings to show a consideration of the environment, consideration of orientation, simplicity of form, strong forms, transparency and an honest modesty to be consistent across the buildings. We found a regionally distinctive form of architectural modernism, independent from the rest of Australia.

Through the design of Roscommon House and through our community engagement we are taking every opportunity to create an appreciation & awareness of the unique architecture of this area to both the local community and to the local authority.

In keeping with suburbs ‘Garden Suburb’ town planning history, landscaping was designed to enhance the blurring of the boundaries of inside and out by the use of ‘pocket’ courtyards and roof terrace gardens. The spatial arrangement of the ‘pocket’ courtyards is also driven by environmental concerns: the building is teased apart to maximise winter solar penetration and to capture prevailing cooling breezes. 

The Garden Suburb movement in town planning evolved in the UK in the early twentieth century as a remedy to the congested polluted cities of the Industrial Revolution. The then Town Clerk of the City of Perth, W.E Bold was instrumental in the introduction of the Garden Suburb town planning movement in the conceptual design of Floreat and City Beach. The suburbs of City Beach and Floreat were conceived as part of an ambitious plan for a residential environment with private houses set in garden surrounds where they would be separated by ‘green belts’ of undeveloped bush land and parks. A special advisory committee was created to ensure that all new buildings showed ‘artistic merit’. Large front setbacks without front fencing were enforced so that all houses presented to the street in a landscaped setting.

Neil's design for Roscommon House celebrated this local history and embraced the concept of engagement of ‘buildings in a landscape’.

The tabletop hovers over the vertical profiled legs, which reflects the interaction of the roof form over the walls of the local iconic City Beach Kiosk building. In seeking to create a house, and its interior, and contents that are ‘of their place’, this referencing was an important design generator with the intent to create a ‘sense of belonging’. It is important to note that the iconic City Beach Kiosk building was in danger of demolition by the local council at the time of the design process. The design of the house, and the design of the elements within, such as this dining table, stand as a testament to the importance of recognising and capturing the ‘sense of place’. The plan form of the table takes its cue from the shapes used throughout the house in which it is located. There is a consistent use of curved edges to square or rectangular openings as is the case with the rounded corners of the dining table.

There is further referencing of elements of the house itself, in the use of the vertical scalloped profiled timber scotia. Throughout the house the vertical timber scotia has been used to clad internal walls, referencing the modernist period of the houses of the original suburban subdivision at the location of the house in the suburb of Floreat. This same scotia profile has been introduced to the table legs. These legs take on the round ended plan form of the table itself. The American Oak timber top and legs were stained to make a point of difference to the colour of the timber within the house itself. The chosen stain colour was selected to match the side table adjacent to the dining table in the dining room.

Yet more connections are made with the house using the quarter round brass edge profile to the perimeter of the table. The brass not only provides visual interest and detail, but it also functions to provide a durable hard-wearing perimeter to the tabletop.

Clients, Brad & Lisa commissioned Neil to custom design furniture, rugs and light fittings which reinforced the story of the house and its place in the suburb further.

The custom designed elements in this project as follows:

‘Kiosk Table’ – the main dining table within the house was designed and fabricated by Neil Cownie. The detailing and shapes of the table reflect that of the iconic local Brutalist Floreat Beach Kiosk building. The design of the table was Awarded in the 2018 Design Institute of Australia WA Awards in the ‘Product Design’ category.

‘Sea Breeze’ – the external family dining table was designed and fabricated by Neil Cownie. The tile colours and pattern to the tabletop represent Perth’s cooling summer breeze, known as the ‘Fremantle Doctor’.

‘Sea Breeze Rug’ – like the external table, a custom designed rug by Neil Cownie tells the story of the local cooling summer breeze.

‘Bedside Pets’ – bedside tables for the master bedroom designed by Neil Cownie sit alongside the bed just like obedient pets. The organic shapes of the bedside tables are intended to appear not only ‘animal like’ but also reflect the shapes within the house.

‘Wetlands’ Pendant lights – custom designed and fabricated pendant lights by Neil Cownie sit below and visually relate to the story within the profiled concrete ceiling over the main void space in the house. The pendants work together with the concrete ceiling to tell the story of the house’s location within the nearby wetlands, with its series of interlocking chain of swamps and waterbodies, named by Perth’s first European settlers as the ‘Great Lakes District’. Incorporating the large water bodies of Ncoorenboro (Herdsman Lake), Galup (Lake Monger) and Boojemooling (Hyde Park) and many others prior to the European settlers infilling of swamp lands and the gradual division of the chain through the introduction of roads and freeways. These wetlands were previously a place of an abundance of wildlife and a place of passage and encampment for local indigenous people. The design of the pendant lights was Awarded in the 2017 Design Institute of Australia WA Awards in the ‘Product Design’ category.

The table was designed with the intention that it would be relevant to ongoing generations of the family and has robust finishes with we hope will ensure that it will last the test of time.

Robert Frith, Michael Nicholson, Jack Lovel.