This project is credited with breaking new ground in Australia’s southerly most state by creating top quality outdoor living spaces that remain functional throughout the year and in all types of weather.
IN BRIEF
Build a residential home for a young couple with one child that includes liveable outside space, usable in all weather conditions. Design it solidly enough to withstand the worst that the Tasmanian climate has to offer.
ARCHITECT’S WORDS
The house has a duality of experiential qualities defined by context. On approach its angular and severe form is a toughened abstract container, bracing itself against the Tasmanian landscape and weather conditions.
On passing through the “hollowed out” portals the warm and sheltering underbelly is exposed and acts as a protective envelope. These areas of in-between, outside yet surrounded by the building’s form are the result of a considered approach to outdoor living within typical Tasmanian weather condition, i.e. “four seasons in one day.”
They allow family members to sit in the sunshine and avoid the cold winter wind, or alternatively sit outdoors and avoid the harsh summer sun. The spaces shift from fully enclosed to semi enclosed, with roof and without, culminating in a roof deck for maximum exposure and view. The client’s wish for the kitchen to be the heart of the home generated the internal layout.
The kitchen was required to be a permeable space of meeting /engagement, between visitors and occupants of the house.Alongside this permeability was a desire of the client to feel a sense of containment and enclosure.
Two “floating” bands were employed to essentially wrap the theatre of daily activities within the kitchen. The fridges and pantry were located adjacent to this space within the “service core” of the building – also housing the laundry, cellar, and bathroom. Gloss white surfaces continue the small palette of materials used throughout the house and enhance the elements within the kitchen itself – the books and objects in its outer and the people/activities/food among the inner.
As well as the permeable transactions between guests and occupants, between the participants of the theatre, there was a requirement to be able to see out from the kitchen to spaces around the house and to distant views beyond – the mountainous horizon. It is the centre of the experiential plan, connecting people within the house and those in the heart to the various view portals constructed by the volumes of the house.
A defined grid relating to the various uses set the kitchen at its centre, becoming slightly deformed as rooms shifted towards particular views. Revolving around this heart the house eventually lifts to peer over the first level ring and towards Mt Wellington. Voids make the heart visible from various spaces within the house.
The compact plan is made to feel larger via the positioning of the voids and linked external areas. Internal and external spaces are blurred at one extreme, and highly contained in others. Dark metallic cladding was employed for low maintenance and to allow the building to recede into the shadows of the hill-scape when viewed from afar.
Entry points and areas for outdoor living were cleaved out of the metallic box and lined with “warm” timber. The house has a suspended concrete slab through the living area for thermal mass, absorbing the heat transferred through glass walls to the north. Natural ventilation operates via airflow through the connecting adjacent tree voids.
ACCOLADES
Esmond Dorney Award for Residential Architecture 2011
SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS
The Allen Rivulets House 2 architectural team broke new ground by creating highly functional and comfortable exterior additions for outdoor living in all types of weather. The house features one covered deck just outside the front door that protects visitors from sun, rain, wind, and snow; a rooftop observation platform perfect for mornings and evenings; and an outdoor fireplace to keep everyone warm during the cold winter months.
The principles of energy efficiency motivated the overall design of the home. Solar heat and natural light gain easy entrance to the house through the glass sections of the ceiling, and the concrete slab floor of the living room acts as a thermal collector, absorbing heat and re-emitting it throughout the day and night. The two void areas that act as tree gardens can be opened during warm weather to provide excellent natural ventilation. The outstanding characteristic of the house is the way it has been carefully positioned to allow full and open viewing of the astounding natural vistas that define the landscape in this part of Tasmania.
PRODUCTS
EXTERIOR ROOFING
TONTINE
EXTERNAL WALLS
BLUESCOPE LYSAGHT, STRUCTURAL PLYWOOD
DOOR HARDWARE
HOLLOW CORE CAVITY SLIDERS
LIVING ROOM
CONCRETE SLAB
BATHROOMS
TILING
ALL OTHER ROOMS
TIMBER
INTERNAL WALLS
CSR GYPROCK, PLASTERBOARD AND BLACK MOSAIC (UNGLAZED) TILES
WINDOWS AND WINDOW FRAMES
RICHARDS ALUMINIUM
ALSPEC
ULLREICH
DOOR HARDWARE
LOCKWOOD AUSTRALIA
LIGHTING
M-LIGHTS SURFACE MOUNTED
BATHROOM BASIN
WHITE STONE TAP SCALA
BATH
MIZU TOILET IDEAL STANDARD
SHOWERHEAD
MIZU
BENCHTOPS
STARON SOLID SURFACES BY SAMSUNG
SHELVING
LAMINEX
HANDLES
HAFELE AUSTRALIA
PAINT
BLACK CORE WHITE INTERIOR
CLIMATE CONTROL
JETMASTER, OUTDOOR FIREPLACE
CHAZELLE, INTERIOR WOOD HEATER
SINK
ABEY AUSTRALIA
OVEN
AEG
DISHWASHER
FISHER & PAYKEL APPLIANCES
