“Seen from afar, the pavilion reads as two parallel lines set against the gently undulating landscape. It is a defined architectural object that makes no pretensions to naturalness – but its every design gesture is imminently decipherable and logical, grounded in and given meaning by the experience it seeks to create. It does not take on the form of a glass pavilion simply to play with creating one of architecture’s most daring typologies, nor adopt minimalism as a purely aesthetic sensibility. The Glass House lays itself bare to the landscape because it is the most straightforward route to achieving an authentic, inimitable experience of place.”

More to come…

Replete with devastating panoramas, Apollo Bay, on Bruny Island finds itself nonetheless exposed.

Winds buffet the angled terrain and so we devised a high walled courtyard to protect the inner workings of this home.

The house employs an inflected non-orthogonal plan where massive stone walls encompass living spaces which are enriched by the resultant spatial complexity.

A black interior has been created which provides relief from the blisteringly bright Tasmanian light.

D’entrecasteaux House has a simple pallet, dark within and a pale stone exterior.

Face-fixed bespoke glazing focuses attention upon very specific elements within the overwhelming landscape continuum.

The Little Big House is located upon the eastern slopes of Mount Wellington, high above Hobart. The siting is mindful of its context; positioned close to and perpendicular to the curvilinear Huon Road. The house, on a vacant lot between established houses and gardens, is defensive and diagrammatic. Tucked carefully between cadastral constraints and a magnificent birch tree, the footprint has been kept deliberately small. The dwelling is stacked across two levels which step to match the undulating terrain.It’s just a box. A clean volume with two exceptions; a service core and an entry air-lock.The house is designed to be intensely private. Apertures are purposefully positioned to create pure window types opening to either garden, sky or shadow. Polycarbonate cladding on the eastern and western facades render luminous shadow walls which enable the house to be concurrently light and contained.

It has been previously noted that Hobart is a small city in a large landscape. This beauteous mountainous isle is justly renowned. But the most southern capital city in Australia is nonetheless beset by the perennial problem of an ever-expanding edge.
New homes in new suburbs are being built up and down the river further entrenching car-dependency. The lighthouse by room11 architects is a carefully considered consolidation project which demonstrates the potential for beautiful bespoke building which offer an alternative to the unchecked suburban hemorrhage.
The client came to our office with a proposal to deliberately downsize. Selling a large family house to finance construction, they wanted a smaller simpler inner-city home. A double lot owned by a family member was identified as a suitable site. In an older area with a convivial community and suitable services the lot was within walking distance everything. An existing single storey house on the property built to address the street was to remain. As one of the last unbuilt spaces, the site was indeed constrained with reactive soils and surrounded by heritage buildings.

All these things led logically to the adoption of a courtyard arrangement. A perimeter strategy of high walls defines a rectangle within which the house is positioned. A generous courtyard to the north offers space for outdoor living whilst a smaller court to the south hosts a productive garden.
An elegantly spare kitchen sits on the short wall of the living room. To the northern edge, sliding glass screens open, enabling the the space as experienced to extend up and over screening courtyard walls to the forested ridge which rises beyond.
The home is passively heated and ventilated with openings and orientation sensibly deployed. A free-standing wood fire provides winter warming and a ceremonial hearth. Bedrooms and bathroom are organised perpendicularly to the main space. Skylit and intensely private, these rooms are modest in scale and furnishings.

The house has a subdued vocabulary with pale cement sheet cladding, white gravel and unpainted cement block walls. Timber window reveals and wooden doors are meticulously detailed. Those parts of the house which are touched offer a rich haptic experience. The crunch of gravel and the texture and scent of timber enliven the formal simplicity of the architecture.
A vegetable garden has been established in the space between the existing heritage house and the new dwelling. Like a carefully kept secret the home is virtually unknowable from the street. The scale and tactics of the building are polite and respectful to neighbours.
Our office is a short walk from the Lighthouse and we often see our client out walking in the late afternoon sun. With a smile on her face she tells us that her house makes her happy every day. This in turn makes us extremely glad.

More coming soon!