Reflection:
Huntly Street /Footscray is a small residential project designed as an alternative to an apartment for the same cost. With a stormwater drain diagonally dividing the site in half and occupying the front half, the resultant building sits at the back with a footprint taking up only 46% of the total site. This mini-monograph is equal parts project profile and polemic, and the architect’s confident, instrument-like use of visual language is matched by their prose.
The city is an ‘acute’ reality, a project a ‘customised architectural resolution’ of ‘anomalous’ atmospheres. When navigating this collection of statements and
images I found it easiest to begin with the most prosaic translation at hand: an ‘acute’ reality is simply one with understated unpleasantries, but stops
short of prescribing a value to it. A ‘customised architectural resolution’ speaks for itself. ‘anomalous’ atmospheres precedes a conventional architectural reliance on built outcomes with a grasp of the intangible value of each intervention, conceptually broadening the possibilities of what could
be done.
These sparsely presented, but maximalist concepts help to decipher the practice’s small scale projects perfectly matched to a future niche in unlikely, uncanny sites. While many architects would sympathise with this interest in the palimpsest of the city and the creative potential of constraints, few would have the confidence and ability to take a half step further realising their work with the concepts intact. Mirror Systems seems to encourage everyone to take themselves a little more seriously, apply a more critical lens to practice and be all the more enriched for it.
Text By @tindo8 / Images by @mbs0202
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