VISION 39 — HOUSE-MASTER
Your design response with the Louttit Bay House is
clearly very different from that of the neighbours.
How do you explain the difference?
I think what that says is interestingly that this house
probably connects to and is inspired by the landscape,
whereas a lot of houses in the suburban model are cookie
cutters. What we’re striving to do is to capture the
essence of the locality. In this case it's the coastal rusting
hulks of fishing boats and the exterior character of the
house which has that rusty quality, whereas the inside
is more polished. It’s is also just referencing the
environment and the beauty of nature.
There’s an extraordinary amount of glass in this house
compared to the average dwelling. How did the owners
respond to first sighting your proposal?
It's got glass where it needs it. There’s glass on the north
side and that's the larger exposure. And then there's
smaller amounts of glass on the east and west. I like to
allow people an understanding of the passage of time
throughout the day. Here we get a lovely morning light
streaming across the ceiling and in the evening the
orange evening light comes through the clerestorey,
illuminating the upper-storey. So, it’s my own type of
fishbowl, but this side's actually more restrained, given
there's a lot of glass on that side. It's about layers of
screening and vegetation.
It feels like what a real beach house should be –
much less the fortress, rather – open to the sunlight
and breeze.
This house reflects the informality of a family-oriented
framework. It’s a place where people gather in the
summer months and weekends. It was never about any
kind of edifice or trophy house statement. We wanted
a design that really felt grounded and with materials that
felt closer to nature and the earth rather than anything
highly synthetic.