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jeremystrele · 5 years

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An Incredible Adventure In Renovating An Iconic Piece Of Architectural History

Homes

by Lucy Feagins, Editor

The Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin-designed home of Mary and Marc Parlange in Toorak. The couple first purchased the home in 2017, soon after moving to Australia from Canada, and knew very little about the Griffins’ legacy! Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The view from the front patio into the study window, which has an interior window so you can see through into the inner courtyard. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The living room featuring a vintage Hans Wegner chair found in the warehouse Angelucci. Vintage lamp also from Angelucci. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Mary Parlange is a writer and editor who has covered the latest developments in science, engineering and medicine for more than 20 years. Vintage 70s bentwood leather chair by Farstrup Mobler in Denmark. Vintage ceramic lamp from Angelucci. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A wall of the master bedroom. ‘Marc saw this painting in a restaurant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso when he was working in rural Burkina on a research project. The restaurant owner promoted local artists by displaying their work on the walls,’ explains Mary of this painting’s origins. The stool was purchased when the couple were living in Switzerland, in celebration of their 20th wedding anniversary. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The front (TV) room. Vintage Eames chairs made in Australia in the 70s by Herman Miller, found by Mary at Angelucci. Lamp by Herman Miller. The rug belonged to Mary’s parents, from Belgium. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Left: Mary showing a remnant of a knitlock concrete tile, showing how the pieces slide together and interlock. The use of these unique tiles meant that there was no mortar used in constructing the walls. Right: In the dining room. A painting from Mary’s parents’ collection, depicting the US southwest landscape, by Peter Meyerson. ‘It reminds me of New Mexico, where I grew up,’ Mary says. The mountain lion is also folk art from New Mexico. The Polar bears are by an Inuit artist, bought for Mary by Marc when they were living in Vancouver. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The corridor to the inner courtyard. The cupboard door design is the same as the one used for the windows. ‘The Griffins often designed all the elements of a house, including light fixtures and rugs,’ Mary tells. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

A view from the kitchen into the corridor surrounding the inner courtyard.Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The guest bedroom. The bed belonged to Mary’s mother – forged in wrought iron by an artisan in rural New Mexico. The painting is by Forrest Moses and was also part of Mary’s parents’ collection. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

The Master bedroom. In the shelves are a small collection of Russian nesting dolls (matryoshka). ‘My parents started collecting them when my father (a particle physicist) traveled to the USSR for scientific collaborations’, Mary tells. Photo – Caitlin Mills. Styling – Annie Portelli.

Author Mary Parlange moved from Vancouver to Melbourne in late 2017, as her husband Marc took an academic position at Monash University. When scouting for a home in their new city, the couple bid on some contemporary houses, but ‘hadn’t really found the right place.’ After scrolling though real estate apps, Mary stumbled across the Salter House, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin in 1924.

Mary describes ‘when we walked in it just felt right, like Goldilocks finding the right bed.’ Their offer was accepted and as the reality set in, Mary reveals ‘we looked at each other and said “what have we just done?” At the time, we knew almost nothing about the Griffins or the history of the house. We just knew this could become a home.’

The ‘home-making’ process was not a straight forward or simple one, with their builder Stuart McLean reminding Mary and Marc ‘you can’t open a can of worms without expecting to find any worms.’ The budget and timeline were revised countless times to accommodate the essential excavation and re-stumping of bedrooms, reinforcing of walls, rewiring, gutting and refitting of bathrooms, and all closets, built-in shelving and door hardware being replaced. Floors were repaired, sanded, stained and finished, and fireplaces were updated.

In addition to these extensive structural changes, interior walls were painted matte white, against an exterior grey. The landscaping was also completely redesigned by Sam Cox, introducing Castlemaine slate, and native planting ‘more in line with Griffin’s landscape philosophy.’

Mary describes the joy of moving through the home, where different ceiling heights create a sense of opening out, and inviting in. The iconic Griffin designed knitlock concrete tiles create a curved ribbing effect, and give the home a distinctive and timeless aesthetic.

For such a unique house, it is almost uncanny how well the couple’s furniture and artwork sits against the Griffins’ design. Beloved items include the bed in the guest room, forged in Pojoaque New Mexico, which originally belonged to Mary’s mother. The home tells a story of the family’s globe-trotting life, with pockets of folk art from their travels peppered through the property. Mary particularly highlights the combination of her parents dining table, paired with the Hans Wegner sofa and chair (restored by Angelucci 20th Century). She explains that everything fits together in this house ‘like it was pre-ordained.’

This stunning renovation was a major undertaking, ‘from the time we moved to Melbourne to when we moved into the house, we lived in seven different apartments and AirBnbs’ Mary admits. But the process has not only delivered a beloved home, Mary has also developed a new passion for the life and work of the Griffins. She explains ‘we have lived all over the world, and this has – by far – been the biggest adventure and most rewarding result.’

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unit20millie · 7 years

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Technical Voice Exercises and Warm Ups

Tongue Twisters:

- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

- Bobby Bibbit bought a bat.

Bobby Bibbit bought a ball.

With the bat, Bob banged the ball,

Banged the ball against the wall.

- Unique New York.

New York is unique

- Red lorry, yellow lorry

- The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue,

the tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips

- A big black bug bit a big black bear

and the big black bear bled blood.

This black bug bled blue-black blood

while the other black bug bled blue.

- Better Botter bought some butter

But she said this butter’s bitter

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter

So she bought some better butter

Put it in her bitter batter

And it made her bitter batter better.

- Sister Susie went to sea

To see the sea, you see.

The sea she saw was a saucy sea,

A sort of saucy sea saw she.

- Dr Seuss tongue twister:

About socks

Give me the gift of a grip-top sock,

A clip drape shipshape tip top sock.

Not your spinslick slapstick slipshod stock,

But a plastic, elastic grip-top sock.

None of your fantastic slack swap slop

From a slap dash flash cash haberdash shop.

Not a knick knack knitlock knockneed knickerbocker sock

With a mock-shot blob-mottled trick-ticker top clock.

Not a supersheet seersucker ruck sack sock,

Not a spot-speckled frog-freckled cheap sheik’s sock

Off a hodge-podge moss-botched scotch-botched block.

Nothing slipshod drip drop flip flop or glip glop tip me to a tip top grip top sock.

Whilst we was doing these tongue twisters, as a class, we would be given different types of accents and characters to act out. This helped with my characterisation and my range / tone in voice. For example; I would have to say a tongue twister in the character of someone who’s dog has died, then the next one might be an excited 5 year old.

Nursery rhymes:

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream,

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,

Life is but a dream.

As a class, we sang this altogether and then the group would split and start doing a round (when one group starts the nursery rhyme and the other group will start when the other group sing/ say a specific part of the lyrics). This helped with me singing/speaking from my diaphragm, meaning the projection in my voice will increase.

Core balance: whilst working on our vocal exercises Conniba mentioned that it is important to find our core balance while doing breathing exercises. This is so we do not fall slightly backwards or forwards. To find your core balance sway from heel to toe until you slow down and stand completely still, this should be the position when you see that you have found your core balance.

david gordon’s vocal warmups

Intonation: this is the rise of the voice in speaking. An exercise we did was count from 1 to 10 and start of quiet then gradually get louder once you reach the number 10. You can also do the opposite, starting from 1 to 10 starting loudly with 1 and decreasing your tone as counting up. Another exercise we did was being loud at the numbers 5 and 10 (12345! 678910!). We also did this exercise with months of the year and days of the week.

Whilst doing exercises based on intonation, I learnt that this exercise is better for the diaphragm, it also helps with breathing a lot allowing you to focus on breathing.

focusing on letters - We would express the vowels, this is also called lengthening (filling up the room with our voices). For example;

Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie. = This is an example on the specific letters M and N.

This exercise will help with my annunciation and how I pronounce specific words. Making my words a lot clearer.

Yoga = We did yoga to help focus on our breathing a lot more and to ensure that we have a well presented posture. We would breathe in for a certain amount of time, hold for the same amount and breathe out for the same amount as well, whilst doing that we would raise our arms then bend all the way down, coming back up in our own time. We would also sit on the floor cross legged with our back straight, breathe in then hum to breathe out.

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