Pictured: Klein Bottle House
Klein Bottle House and MRC are among the Australian projects shortlisted for the world's biggest architecture contest - the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards of 2009.
Among the 272 shortlisted projects are the Melbourne Recital Centre, Sydney's Ivy hotel and the Bendigo Bank Headquarters, with architects such as Grimshaw, Foster + Partners and Merrill LLP all in the running.
International nominees include a terraced ticket booth in Times Square, an international train terminal in Beijing, as well as other designs from as far as Ghana, Iran and Leone.
When asked how important it is to have Australian projects represented at awards like these, Robert McBride, director of McBride Charles Ryan, who’s Klein Bottle House has been nominated in the Medium Residential category, said: "I think it's very important because I think we have a very lively architectural culture, particularly in Melbourne, but also in other places."
The property, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, is based on the klein bottle, a two-dimensional enclosed surface without a distinct "inside" and "outside".
"The house originally started as a spiral home. We wanted the house to spiral up and around the sand dune, so it followed the natural contours of the land, and as we developed the idea of the spiral house, it basically evolved into the klein bottle, so we pursued that," McBride said.
"The klein bottle shape allows a central light court in the middle, and the house actually spirals around that central light court and so, even though it's a reasonably large house, it gives it intimacy. It doesn't matter whether there's a lot of people in it or whether there are a few people in it. The shape of it changes the nature of the home."
The WAF Awards will take place during the World Architecture Fesitval in Barcelona from 4-6 November.
