Glenn Murcutt
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Glenn-Murcutt
Glenn Murcutt, in full Glenn Marcus Murcutt (born July 25, 1936, London, Eng.), Australian architect who was noted for designing innovative climate-sensitive private houses. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2002.
Murcutt was born in London while his Australian parents were en route to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His father found success as a gold prospector in New Guinea, and Murcutt spent the first five years of his life there. The family’s home was constructed of corrugated iron and set on top of stilts to keep out water and animals; the design of this house, and of other houses built by his father, would later inform many of Murcutt’s own choices as an architect of houses and other small-scale buildings.
After earning a degree in architecture from the University of New South Wales Technical College in 1961, Murcutt spent eight years with a Sydney architectural firm before founding his own practice. In 1970 Murcutt began a nine-year stint as a design tutor at the University of Sydney. After teaching at the University of New South Wales in 1985 and at the University of Melbourne from 1989 to 1997, he embarked on a series of visiting professorships at universities in the United States, Papua New Guinea, Finland, and Denmark.
Murcutt came to feel that buildings should be able to respond to changes in conditions. He said,
Buildings should open and close and modify and re-modify and blinds should turn and open and close, open a little bit without complication. They should do all these things. That is a part of architecture for me, the resolution of levels of light that we desire, the resolution of the wind that we wish for, the modification of the climate as we want it. All this makes a building live.
Murcutt’s buildings reflect his desire to maintain harmony with the environment. His houses often feature corrugated iron with the ribs laid horizontally, creating a linearity that he felt responded to the landscape instead of competing with it. As a result of his sense of a building’s functionality, few of his designs called for air-conditioning. The flow of air was controlled through the implementation of slatted roofs, screens, and blinds; wide eaves provided shelter from the sun.
Murcutt was born in London while his Australian parents were en route to the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. His father found success as a gold prospector in New Guinea, and Murcutt spent the first five years of his life there. The family’s home was constructed of corrugated iron and set on top of stilts to keep out water and animals; the design of this house, and of other houses built by his father, would later inform many of Murcutt’s own choices as an architect of houses and other small-scale buildings.
After earning a degree in architecture from the University of New South Wales Technical College in 1961, Murcutt spent eight years with a Sydney architectural firm before founding his own practice. In 1970 Murcutt began a nine-year stint as a design tutor at the University of Sydney. After teaching at the University of New South Wales in 1985 and at the University of Melbourne from 1989 to 1997, he embarked on a series of visiting professorships at universities in the United States, Papua New Guinea, Finland, and Denmark.
Murcutt came to feel that buildings should be able to respond to changes in conditions. He said,
Buildings should open and close and modify and re-modify and blinds should turn and open and close, open a little bit without complication. They should do all these things. That is a part of architecture for me, the resolution of levels of light that we desire, the resolution of the wind that we wish for, the modification of the climate as we want it. All this makes a building live.
Murcutt’s buildings reflect his desire to maintain harmony with the environment. His houses often feature corrugated iron with the ribs laid horizontally, creating a linearity that he felt responded to the landscape instead of competing with it. As a result of his sense of a building’s functionality, few of his designs called for air-conditioning. The flow of air was controlled through the implementation of slatted roofs, screens, and blinds; wide eaves provided shelter from the sun.
Glenn Murcutt's Architecture
Magney House
Altitude: 50m above sea level. Temperate climate with coastal influence. Rainfall approx 1,000mm per year. Summer, circa 20˚C with north-east on-shore breezes. Winter, circa 15˚C with extremely cold winds from south-west off Mt. Kosciusko and lows of 5˚C. Granite soils.
Situated on the southern coast of NSW, the site is a spectacular landscape between the ocean and western mountains with a nearby lake to the north. It is exposed, windswept and rugged. The clients had owned the land for many years using it for camping holidays and were interested in a house with tent like qualities. The building is a single pavilion divided by a central court and can operate as two self contained suites, one for the parents, the other for guests or family. Living areas open onto the shared court and a connection is implied between these adjacent spaces. The separate proposed garage bay in the plan illustrated was never realised.
A repetitive bay structure is employed. Typically, large rooms with rear service facilities are divided by a lower circulation zone rendering a functional distinction in the bipartite section. The implied internal corridor supports an oversized gutter which connects at either end to two large single downpipes. In this way both the functional hierarchy of the house and the collection of rainwater are given symbolic representation in the east and west elevations.
The striking roof form also registers the architect,s development of a pavilion type with a distinct front and back and this dominant spatial orientation is primarily developed in relation to climatic considerations. The open northern face is treated as a glazed sliding screen with individually adjustable and retractable external louvres. The large angled roof overhang shades the building from summer sun and allows winter sun access. In sharp contrast, the lower rear wall facing the predominant southerly winds is largely closed and is constructed of reverse brick veneer. Continuous upper fixed glazing along the southern façade admits light and sky views. These glass panels slope away from the wall to accommodate continuous adjustable horizontal vents at door head height.
The climatic and formal ambitions of the building are evident in the development and material resolution of the structural system. The design of the tubular steel frame refines experiments from previous buildings and achieves an extremely light skeleton. This material reduction is visible in the fine edge of the northern roof overhang where the metal skin acts with the tensile steel struts and eliminates additional supporting members. The improbably thin roof is symbolic of a house which feels unexpectedly light, almost transportable
Situated on the southern coast of NSW, the site is a spectacular landscape between the ocean and western mountains with a nearby lake to the north. It is exposed, windswept and rugged. The clients had owned the land for many years using it for camping holidays and were interested in a house with tent like qualities. The building is a single pavilion divided by a central court and can operate as two self contained suites, one for the parents, the other for guests or family. Living areas open onto the shared court and a connection is implied between these adjacent spaces. The separate proposed garage bay in the plan illustrated was never realised.
A repetitive bay structure is employed. Typically, large rooms with rear service facilities are divided by a lower circulation zone rendering a functional distinction in the bipartite section. The implied internal corridor supports an oversized gutter which connects at either end to two large single downpipes. In this way both the functional hierarchy of the house and the collection of rainwater are given symbolic representation in the east and west elevations.
The striking roof form also registers the architect,s development of a pavilion type with a distinct front and back and this dominant spatial orientation is primarily developed in relation to climatic considerations. The open northern face is treated as a glazed sliding screen with individually adjustable and retractable external louvres. The large angled roof overhang shades the building from summer sun and allows winter sun access. In sharp contrast, the lower rear wall facing the predominant southerly winds is largely closed and is constructed of reverse brick veneer. Continuous upper fixed glazing along the southern façade admits light and sky views. These glass panels slope away from the wall to accommodate continuous adjustable horizontal vents at door head height.
The climatic and formal ambitions of the building are evident in the development and material resolution of the structural system. The design of the tubular steel frame refines experiments from previous buildings and achieves an extremely light skeleton. This material reduction is visible in the fine edge of the northern roof overhang where the metal skin acts with the tensile steel struts and eliminates additional supporting members. The improbably thin roof is symbolic of a house which feels unexpectedly light, almost transportable
Simpson-Lee House
Altitude: 1,000m above sea level. Cool temperate climate. Occasional light snowfalls. Sited in the lee of a hill which protects it from cold westerly winds in winter and hot westerly winds in summer. Summer circa 29˚C. Winter circa 16˚C with lows of 1˚C. Volcanic and sandstone soils.
Critically acclaimed, this house has been acknowledged by many as a significant project in the evolution of Glenn Murcutt’s work. Located in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It is a development of many of the ideas employed in the house at Bingie Point but concentrated and refined and the result is more austere and abstract.The clients were engaged at every stage of the lengthy design and approval process; the decision making affected by their personal ethics and aesthetics. Alignments as well as tensions intensified the architect’s disciplined approach. Murcutt’s descriptions of the building reveal satisfaction with the results suggesting that “the detailing in this house is as good as I’ve ever done.”
The clients requested a house with a “secular monastic quality” with an insistence on restraint. Simple, hardwearing materials; polished concrete floors, bagged painted brickwork, steel structural frame and exterior corrugated metal sheeting are here reduced to a point of elemental abstraction. The plan follows the protective back and open front organisational strategy employed at Bingie point. This emphasis is reinforced by the site topography where the rear low service wall is grounded against an existing rock ledge. The living spaces form a new floating platform over a fall in the landscape which anticipates a much larger valley beyond. In tension with this implied strict back/front hierarchy is a more complex spatial configuration in which the rear bagged brick walls wrap to form rooms containing the services and connect with the frontal glazing.
Murcutt describes the circulation strategy as an acknowledgement of an existing aboriginal path. This linear movement connects two pavilions, a garage/studio and the major living spaces. A timber bridge, passing an external pond, includes this abstracted landscape within the built extent of the house. The pool reads as an implied platform which dimensionally anticipates the living area of the major pavilion. The timber bridge enters the house via a glass vestibule, one of two which bracket the glazed opening of the living areas. The vestibule dimension accommodates a series of sliding screens allowing the glazed wall to completely disappear. This uninterrupted connection to the landscape allows the room to be experienced as an open veranda.
Critically acclaimed, this house has been acknowledged by many as a significant project in the evolution of Glenn Murcutt’s work. Located in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It is a development of many of the ideas employed in the house at Bingie Point but concentrated and refined and the result is more austere and abstract.The clients were engaged at every stage of the lengthy design and approval process; the decision making affected by their personal ethics and aesthetics. Alignments as well as tensions intensified the architect’s disciplined approach. Murcutt’s descriptions of the building reveal satisfaction with the results suggesting that “the detailing in this house is as good as I’ve ever done.”
The clients requested a house with a “secular monastic quality” with an insistence on restraint. Simple, hardwearing materials; polished concrete floors, bagged painted brickwork, steel structural frame and exterior corrugated metal sheeting are here reduced to a point of elemental abstraction. The plan follows the protective back and open front organisational strategy employed at Bingie point. This emphasis is reinforced by the site topography where the rear low service wall is grounded against an existing rock ledge. The living spaces form a new floating platform over a fall in the landscape which anticipates a much larger valley beyond. In tension with this implied strict back/front hierarchy is a more complex spatial configuration in which the rear bagged brick walls wrap to form rooms containing the services and connect with the frontal glazing.
Murcutt describes the circulation strategy as an acknowledgement of an existing aboriginal path. This linear movement connects two pavilions, a garage/studio and the major living spaces. A timber bridge, passing an external pond, includes this abstracted landscape within the built extent of the house. The pool reads as an implied platform which dimensionally anticipates the living area of the major pavilion. The timber bridge enters the house via a glass vestibule, one of two which bracket the glazed opening of the living areas. The vestibule dimension accommodates a series of sliding screens allowing the glazed wall to completely disappear. This uninterrupted connection to the landscape allows the room to be experienced as an open veranda.
Walsh House
Altitude: 100m above sea level. Temperate climate. Rainfall circa 1,500mm per year. Summer, circa 26˚C. Winter, circa 23˚C with winds off Mt. Kosciusko bringing lows of 5˚C. Decomposed sandstone soils with organic matter and clay.
The house is located in Kangaroo Valley, close to the Fletcher-Page House, with which the Walsh House has some formal similarities. Both are linear, mono-pitch pavilions of comparable dimensions. However, in their ways of use, and the ways that they engage with the landscape, the two houses are extremely different.
Walsh House stands on open grassland, with its principal façade addressing a forested ridge to its north, and with its long axis directed precisely towards a large knoll of rock in the distance, to its east.
As at a number of other houses by Murcutt, the roof projects deeply to shield the upper, north-facing windows from direct summer sun, allowing these windows to be unscreened, and to frame the view of the ridge clearly throughout the year. However, unlike Simpson-Lee House, for example, Walsh House is not conceived as a single, fluid, interior space but as a series of connected rooms, each clearly identified from the outside by an individual glazed bay, protected by adjustable louvres, which allows the user to individually adjust the daylighting of their room. Each bay is intended for variable use, as for example a day-bed, writing desk, or small greenhouse.
The house presents four very different faces. Its southern and western elevations, facing the cold south-western winds of winter, have the character of a working farmhouse, crafted in rustic materials, with a few windows. The northern and eastern façades are of far more refined materials and detailing, and are more open to the luxuriant surrounding view.
The dining room/kitchen is the only room in the house with both a northerly and southerly aspect. The large southern window frames a view of the ancient tree which surmounts the adjacent hillock, and a small corner window frames a selected, diagonal south-easterly view, past the water tanks, which reveals the sloping form of the land. The two ultimate windows of the north façade can be slid back, and the glazed eastern end-wall can be slid completely away to the south side of the house. This both unites the sitting room with the veranda and sets up a north-easterly diagonal view across a shallow, tranquil pond which plays reflected patterns of sunlight onto the canopy ceiling, and tempers the heat of the summer air.
The house is located in Kangaroo Valley, close to the Fletcher-Page House, with which the Walsh House has some formal similarities. Both are linear, mono-pitch pavilions of comparable dimensions. However, in their ways of use, and the ways that they engage with the landscape, the two houses are extremely different.
Walsh House stands on open grassland, with its principal façade addressing a forested ridge to its north, and with its long axis directed precisely towards a large knoll of rock in the distance, to its east.
As at a number of other houses by Murcutt, the roof projects deeply to shield the upper, north-facing windows from direct summer sun, allowing these windows to be unscreened, and to frame the view of the ridge clearly throughout the year. However, unlike Simpson-Lee House, for example, Walsh House is not conceived as a single, fluid, interior space but as a series of connected rooms, each clearly identified from the outside by an individual glazed bay, protected by adjustable louvres, which allows the user to individually adjust the daylighting of their room. Each bay is intended for variable use, as for example a day-bed, writing desk, or small greenhouse.
The house presents four very different faces. Its southern and western elevations, facing the cold south-western winds of winter, have the character of a working farmhouse, crafted in rustic materials, with a few windows. The northern and eastern façades are of far more refined materials and detailing, and are more open to the luxuriant surrounding view.
The dining room/kitchen is the only room in the house with both a northerly and southerly aspect. The large southern window frames a view of the ancient tree which surmounts the adjacent hillock, and a small corner window frames a selected, diagonal south-easterly view, past the water tanks, which reveals the sloping form of the land. The two ultimate windows of the north façade can be slid back, and the glazed eastern end-wall can be slid completely away to the south side of the house. This both unites the sitting room with the veranda and sets up a north-easterly diagonal view across a shallow, tranquil pond which plays reflected patterns of sunlight onto the canopy ceiling, and tempers the heat of the summer air.
Marika-Alderton House
Altitude: 3m above sea level. Monsoonal tropical climate. Subject to occasional tidal flooding 500mm deep during cyclones. Wet summers, dry winters. Summer, circa 33˚C, hot north-west winds. Winter south-east winds, temperatures rarely below 25˚C with lows of 20˚C on winter nights. Sandy soil with good drainage.
Commissioned by the aboriginal leader Banduk Marika and her partner Mark Alderton this project is in Yirrkala on land associated with the Marika clan. The project presented a rare opportunity to design a house in Australia’s extreme north and to architecturally address the inherent climatic and cultural conditions. Facing the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria the site has a tropical climate with cyclonic conditions, high winds and very heavy rainfall. Surrounded by a beach, estuary creek and freshwater lagoon, the building is slightly removed from a generally suburban settlement.
It was conceived by Murcutt as a prototype and as a viable alternative to the house then occupied by the clients, a brick building with small windows typical of aboriginal public housing in this context. Prefabricated in Gosford, north of Sydney, all components were packed in two shipping containers and transported to site via semi-trailer and barge. The house was bolted and screwed together on site, the entire process taking four months.
The building is elemental. A pitched roof, dry timber platform and operable skin float in relation to each other. The structural system is comprised of a steel frame and Australian hardwoods. The fine sheet metal roof is dominant, deep eaves protecting the interior from summer sun. The exterior wall is treated as finely crafted infill panels with no glazed openings. These typically plywood and slatted timber screens slide or pivot open allowing prevailing breezes to naturally cool the house.
One of the most striking aspects of the architecture is the southern façade, where vertical plywood blades of varying depths project out from the steel column line. These register the dimensions of different built-in furniture elements; a kitchen bench, timber joinery or beds, framed as floating window bays. The fins provide both visual privacy and shade from the summer sun in early morning and late afternoon. Voids under the bay structures confirm the sense of suspension above a horizontal floor plane. In this house Murcutt creates a situation from which the inhabitants can observe the horizon, changes in the weather patterns, the movement of people and animals and the playing of children; a building which is experienced as an elevated shaded platform.
Commissioned by the aboriginal leader Banduk Marika and her partner Mark Alderton this project is in Yirrkala on land associated with the Marika clan. The project presented a rare opportunity to design a house in Australia’s extreme north and to architecturally address the inherent climatic and cultural conditions. Facing the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria the site has a tropical climate with cyclonic conditions, high winds and very heavy rainfall. Surrounded by a beach, estuary creek and freshwater lagoon, the building is slightly removed from a generally suburban settlement.
It was conceived by Murcutt as a prototype and as a viable alternative to the house then occupied by the clients, a brick building with small windows typical of aboriginal public housing in this context. Prefabricated in Gosford, north of Sydney, all components were packed in two shipping containers and transported to site via semi-trailer and barge. The house was bolted and screwed together on site, the entire process taking four months.
The building is elemental. A pitched roof, dry timber platform and operable skin float in relation to each other. The structural system is comprised of a steel frame and Australian hardwoods. The fine sheet metal roof is dominant, deep eaves protecting the interior from summer sun. The exterior wall is treated as finely crafted infill panels with no glazed openings. These typically plywood and slatted timber screens slide or pivot open allowing prevailing breezes to naturally cool the house.
One of the most striking aspects of the architecture is the southern façade, where vertical plywood blades of varying depths project out from the steel column line. These register the dimensions of different built-in furniture elements; a kitchen bench, timber joinery or beds, framed as floating window bays. The fins provide both visual privacy and shade from the summer sun in early morning and late afternoon. Voids under the bay structures confirm the sense of suspension above a horizontal floor plane. In this house Murcutt creates a situation from which the inhabitants can observe the horizon, changes in the weather patterns, the movement of people and animals and the playing of children; a building which is experienced as an elevated shaded platform.
Marie Short / Glenn Murcutt House
Altitude: 20m above sea level. Warm-temperate/ sub-tropical climate. High rainfall. Summer, circa 26˚C cooled by north-east winds. Winter circa 18˚C. Clay soil with poor drainage.
Located on farmland in northern coastal NSW the Marie Short House was designed in the 1970s, later purchased and altered by Murcutt in 1980. The 1974-75 house plan is disarmingly simple with two almost identical pavilions, rotated and slipped; one for sleeping, the other for living. Each pavilion is six, structural timber bays, the last two bays treated as an open entry porch. Between the two, a thickened wall implies an external corridor which links the porches and accommodates the collection of rain water. The strategy to repeat and distinguish the pavilions by function is extended to the kitchen and bathrooms where each functional component is individuated, repeated and grouped as a cluster of cells. The spatial contrast between the service and living zones heightens a sense of generosity in the larger rooms.
The orientation of the house and its articulation are conceived in relation to climatic considerations. The living pavilion faces north to receive sun for the majority of the day. Retractable metal louvers control levels of light and privacy and the glass louvers allow varying degrees of ventilation. This double layered system gives a high degree of personal freedom to orchestrate the building as an instrument, for both environmental comfort and aesthetic experience of the landscape. Climatic performance also drives the detailed resolution of the roof. Curved corrugated metal sheets overlap to provide horizontal ventilation slots. Doubling the layers calls attention to the immaterial edge and renders the building as a horizontal volume. This abstract treatment of the pitched roof form reinforces the conception of the house as a floating platform.
The 1974-75 house was conceived in terms of existing timber, stockpiled by the client. An expressed post and beam structure draws on farm shed construction techniques. The assembly system and junction details were developed in order to accommodate the client’s wish to pull apart and reassemble the components for future relocation of the house. This ambition for conservation and reuse was realised when Murcutt altered the property in 1980. In this House Murcutt offers a centred enclosure as well as the spatial repetition and extrusion of a machine. The abstract and original re-presentation of familiar forms such as the pitched roof and entrance porch using local techniques and materials assigns the building an important position within the pursuit and evolution of modernist architecture in Australia.
Located on farmland in northern coastal NSW the Marie Short House was designed in the 1970s, later purchased and altered by Murcutt in 1980. The 1974-75 house plan is disarmingly simple with two almost identical pavilions, rotated and slipped; one for sleeping, the other for living. Each pavilion is six, structural timber bays, the last two bays treated as an open entry porch. Between the two, a thickened wall implies an external corridor which links the porches and accommodates the collection of rain water. The strategy to repeat and distinguish the pavilions by function is extended to the kitchen and bathrooms where each functional component is individuated, repeated and grouped as a cluster of cells. The spatial contrast between the service and living zones heightens a sense of generosity in the larger rooms.
The orientation of the house and its articulation are conceived in relation to climatic considerations. The living pavilion faces north to receive sun for the majority of the day. Retractable metal louvers control levels of light and privacy and the glass louvers allow varying degrees of ventilation. This double layered system gives a high degree of personal freedom to orchestrate the building as an instrument, for both environmental comfort and aesthetic experience of the landscape. Climatic performance also drives the detailed resolution of the roof. Curved corrugated metal sheets overlap to provide horizontal ventilation slots. Doubling the layers calls attention to the immaterial edge and renders the building as a horizontal volume. This abstract treatment of the pitched roof form reinforces the conception of the house as a floating platform.
The 1974-75 house was conceived in terms of existing timber, stockpiled by the client. An expressed post and beam structure draws on farm shed construction techniques. The assembly system and junction details were developed in order to accommodate the client’s wish to pull apart and reassemble the components for future relocation of the house. This ambition for conservation and reuse was realised when Murcutt altered the property in 1980. In this House Murcutt offers a centred enclosure as well as the spatial repetition and extrusion of a machine. The abstract and original re-presentation of familiar forms such as the pitched roof and entrance porch using local techniques and materials assigns the building an important position within the pursuit and evolution of modernist architecture in Australia.
Fredericks / White House
Altitude: 500 m above sea level. Temperate climate with coastal influence. Rainforest Environment. Good rainfall. Sited in the lee of an escarpment which protects from cold south-west winter winds off Mount Kosciusko. Summer, circa 26˚C. Winter, circa 23˚C with lows of 5˚C. Volcanic and granite soils.
Located on the south coast of New South Wales, this house is surrounded by rainforest and oriented toward long distance valley views. The original building (1981-82) was designed around an existing fireplace remaining from an old farmhouse. It was extended by Murcutt in 2001-04 in order to accommodate a new owner’s additional requirements.
The design is an explicit reworking of many of the ideas initially tested in the Marie Short House in Kempsey. The building is a staggered double pavilion with curved pitched corrugated metal roofs and employs similar materials as the house at Kempsey. In both projects the pavilions are located on an east/west axis with the ‘living’ pavilion on the northern side. Timber is used as a structural frame and to line the interiors. The repetitive structural bay is similarly proportioned.
The systems developed in the Kempsey house are here adjusted in specific response to the particular qualities of this site and differing requirements. Murcutt’s reworking of the double pavilion is evident in his subtle treatment of the entry sequence. Here a substantially truncated southern volume defines an entrance threshold alongside the original fireplace. The section profile is manipulated to allow for a stair and upper loft and gives the internal volume a more vertical emphasis. An abstracted northern façade uses the sun shading devices employed in Kempsey but with variations. Sliding and double hung windows rather than louvres provide a better seal in the colder climate and external metal retractable blinds tilt to allow for greater adjustability. The northern glazed screen is oriented to the sun and views whilst the solid southern wall implies a ‘back’. This articulation of the building as a single pavilion with a dominant orientation confirms that the house is no simple repetition of the Kempsey design but is a careful translation.
The 2001-04 reconfiguration and extension illustrates the flexibility of the plan type. It also provided Murcutt with the opportunity to realise an embedded open screened porch, an unrealised component of his original design. In the new house this significant void provides an important opportunity to connect the building to both sides of the sloping site and registers the house and its garden as a stepped sequence of living platforms.
Located on the south coast of New South Wales, this house is surrounded by rainforest and oriented toward long distance valley views. The original building (1981-82) was designed around an existing fireplace remaining from an old farmhouse. It was extended by Murcutt in 2001-04 in order to accommodate a new owner’s additional requirements.
The design is an explicit reworking of many of the ideas initially tested in the Marie Short House in Kempsey. The building is a staggered double pavilion with curved pitched corrugated metal roofs and employs similar materials as the house at Kempsey. In both projects the pavilions are located on an east/west axis with the ‘living’ pavilion on the northern side. Timber is used as a structural frame and to line the interiors. The repetitive structural bay is similarly proportioned.
The systems developed in the Kempsey house are here adjusted in specific response to the particular qualities of this site and differing requirements. Murcutt’s reworking of the double pavilion is evident in his subtle treatment of the entry sequence. Here a substantially truncated southern volume defines an entrance threshold alongside the original fireplace. The section profile is manipulated to allow for a stair and upper loft and gives the internal volume a more vertical emphasis. An abstracted northern façade uses the sun shading devices employed in Kempsey but with variations. Sliding and double hung windows rather than louvres provide a better seal in the colder climate and external metal retractable blinds tilt to allow for greater adjustability. The northern glazed screen is oriented to the sun and views whilst the solid southern wall implies a ‘back’. This articulation of the building as a single pavilion with a dominant orientation confirms that the house is no simple repetition of the Kempsey design but is a careful translation.
The 2001-04 reconfiguration and extension illustrates the flexibility of the plan type. It also provided Murcutt with the opportunity to realise an embedded open screened porch, an unrealised component of his original design. In the new house this significant void provides an important opportunity to connect the building to both sides of the sloping site and registers the house and its garden as a stepped sequence of living platforms.
‘Riversdale’ – Arthur & Yvonne Boyd Centre
Altitude: 20m above sea level. Temperate climate. Rainfall circa 1,500mm per year. Sited between eucalypt forest and cultivated farming land, in the lee of a hill which protects it from cold winds off Mount Kosciusko. Summer, circa 24˚C, infrequently up to 40˚C with some influence from cooling north-east and south-east on-shore winds. Winter, circa 20˚C with lows of circa 12˚C occasionally down to 5˚C. Granular loam soil of sandstone and shale.
The distinguished Australian artist Arthur Boyd and his partner Yvonne donated this land in the Shoalhaven River valley for use by their Education foundation. The architects were commissioned to propose an arrangement of facilities in this spectacular landscape, a retreat for artists and students. Located between cultivated farmland and natural bush, the building emphasises the differences of each condition, framing views to both. It provides a large meeting hall with kitchen, bathing facilities and shared accommodation for up to thirty two students.
Three existing timber cottages prolong an entry sequence where one moves from a car-park between the dwellings and finally arrives at a large open platform via an old veranda. This entrance court with striking river views serves as a stage for a proposed landscaped amphitheatre and is dominated by the large portico of the multi purpose hall. The elevated ambition of this arrangement contrasts with the scale of the entry door and utility of the low bench with washbasin. The bipartite section employed in previous houses informs the organisation of the main pavilion where a large hall oriented toward the significant view is separated from its rear service facilities by a circulation zone. Here the greater scale acknowledges a more public situation.
The sleeping areas are treated as a linear arrangement, each accommodating four people. Located along an open walkway and grouped around shared bathrooms, each cluster is separated from the next by a breezeway. Precisely scaled according to the specific dimensions of the beds, each sleeping bay forms a window framing a personal view of the landscape. Fixed glazing is positioned below timber panels which pivot open or can be adjusted for screened ventilation. Painted plywood blades externally bracket each bed, and provide privacy. The larger blades accommodate a sliding door which can divide each room into two. The system is a development of the facade strategy employed in the Marika-Alderton House. Clustering and repeating the bedroom bays on the eastern façade gives a public scale to this previously domestic device whereby each bed (and implied child) is given symbolic presence.
The distinguished Australian artist Arthur Boyd and his partner Yvonne donated this land in the Shoalhaven River valley for use by their Education foundation. The architects were commissioned to propose an arrangement of facilities in this spectacular landscape, a retreat for artists and students. Located between cultivated farmland and natural bush, the building emphasises the differences of each condition, framing views to both. It provides a large meeting hall with kitchen, bathing facilities and shared accommodation for up to thirty two students.
Three existing timber cottages prolong an entry sequence where one moves from a car-park between the dwellings and finally arrives at a large open platform via an old veranda. This entrance court with striking river views serves as a stage for a proposed landscaped amphitheatre and is dominated by the large portico of the multi purpose hall. The elevated ambition of this arrangement contrasts with the scale of the entry door and utility of the low bench with washbasin. The bipartite section employed in previous houses informs the organisation of the main pavilion where a large hall oriented toward the significant view is separated from its rear service facilities by a circulation zone. Here the greater scale acknowledges a more public situation.
The sleeping areas are treated as a linear arrangement, each accommodating four people. Located along an open walkway and grouped around shared bathrooms, each cluster is separated from the next by a breezeway. Precisely scaled according to the specific dimensions of the beds, each sleeping bay forms a window framing a personal view of the landscape. Fixed glazing is positioned below timber panels which pivot open or can be adjusted for screened ventilation. Painted plywood blades externally bracket each bed, and provide privacy. The larger blades accommodate a sliding door which can divide each room into two. The system is a development of the facade strategy employed in the Marika-Alderton House. Clustering and repeating the bedroom bays on the eastern façade gives a public scale to this previously domestic device whereby each bed (and implied child) is given symbolic presence.