A colour system designed by one of the 20th century's most influential architects forms the inspiration for a striking new showcase of one of Australia's most celebrated furniture makers.
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Iva Foschia, founder of Melbourne-based IF Architecture, drew on Le Corbusier's Polychromie Architecturale for the swathes of pink, blue and green used in Jardan's retail space at Alderstein House, an art deco building on Paddington's Oxford Street, Sydney. It's a beautiful adjunct to Jardan's store on Church Street in Melbourne's Richmond.
The Polychromie Architecturale is a range of 63 colours created by the legendary Swiss-French architect that can be mixed and matched to create a palette of three to five harmonious shades.
The scheme indicates the shades that should be used on large areas such as walls versus those best used in small touches to create a sense of contrast. The initial 43 colours, comprising themes based on the natural world such as space, sky and sand, were released in 1931, and a further 20 colours, bolder in tone than the first range, were added in 1959.
Nick Garnham, director of Jardan, says he wanted the store to open up new ways of thinking about interiors for the company's customers.
"Melburnians tend to use colour quite a lot, but we find Sydneysiders are a bit more conservative and neutral with their colour choices, despite what you might expect given Sydney's climate and coastal lifestyle," he says.
"We wanted to use bold colour in the store as a way to get away from that minimalist white box aesthetic."
The unexpected mix of salmon pink, ocean blue and rainforest green is also an oblique nod to a number of storied Sydney creatives known for their vibrant style. These include painters Brett Whiteley, who famously depicted the view of Sydney Harbour from his balcony as a deep ultramarine, and John Olsen, who chose vivid blues and greens for his mural Salute to Five Bells at the Sydney Opera House.
Another muse is Marion Hall Best, Sydney's foremost interior designer of the 20th century, whose trademark was her eye-popping use of colours such as hot pink, bright orange and lime green.
Foschia says the colours used in the store were a way of giving the retail space context within its location. "The concept was to express these iconic Sydney families and identities by using colour," she says.
"The one thing that tied all of them together was the fact that they loved colour, so that was sort of our homage to them, but we still wanted to have it be very contextually relevant to today as well, and to push it out further for 2017."
In addition to the use of a colour scheme that had its genesis in the art deco era, the building's heritage is also reflected in a number of aspects of the design, such as the soft curves of the blush-coloured staircase.
"The sweeping curve on the facade of the building is reintroduced through the curves as you walk into the store, as well as the rounded triangle shape of the of the staircase," says Garnham.
"The sash windows are also reflective of the heritage of the site."
The open staircase, which runs up the centre of the three-level store, is very much a centrepiece of the design. The feature also acts as a light well, channelling natural light from the skylight above down through every level.
Jardan's modernist-inspired furniture designs, which seek to reflect the relaxed Australian lifestyle, have a strong emphasis on natural materials such as wood, leather and wool.
The pieces, which are handcrafted at Jardan's workshop in Melbourne, are often made from local timbers such as spotted gum, southern ash and Tasmanian blackwood. The Sydney store incorporates Australian materials wherever possible.
The striking pink and grey veined marble used throughout the building is harvested from the Cairns hinterland, while the timbers incorporated in the renovation include Tasmanian blackwood, Victorian ash and trees from Gippsland that bear the marks of drought and bushfires.
A quick guide to Le Corbusier
A pioneer of modernist architecture Le Corbusier (real name Charles-??douard Jeanneret) was a polarising figure.
His legacy includes ideas that were once revolutionary, but are now so embedded in contemporary architecture that we take them for granted. These include open-plan living spaces and roof gardens.
