Precedent: Rogers House, Wimbledon

Thanks to Matt's comment on the Free David Hicks post for pointing me to the Stories of Houses blog, and particularly to this early house by Richard Rogers. I like the plan because its kind of ambiguous as to whats inside and whats out. As far as I can work out, its two pavilions sitting on a paved plinth - but in reference to this discussion on courtyard houses, what is cool is if you invert that you get one big continuous house with two courtyards cut out of it.

Images: Richard Rogers, Dr. Rogers House, 1968-69

Free David Hicks!

That's so weird, i just made that same Guantanamo gag half an hour ago about this proof shot of a house we've just finished in Drysdale... And this is what the rest of it looks like if you're interested. I didn't work on it mind you.

Images: BKK Architects, Balla House, Drysdale, 2007

Familiar

When I saw this (David Hicks' Cell) in the paper on the weekend it seemed strangely familiar. I realised it bore strong similarities to the built in minimal bedrooms of the original Lily Cube design.

Bored!

Ok I can tell everyone's getting bored of precedents, I know I am, but I've got a scheme cooking at the moment, which I'm not yet ready to go public with. I've got to get it out soon though, as the ideas have woken me up at 3am the last 3 nights and won't let me sleep until I've drawn them up.

But on the other hand, maybe I shouldn't do anything until I've been to the site?

Materiality: Salk Institute, Louis Kahn

I love this combination of timber and concrete. Of course this is in-situ ashen concrete and probably maple wood, you could probably fake it with ply and cement bricks to get that beautiful combination of colour and textures.

Images: Louis Kahn, Salk Institute, La Jolla California, 1969-74

Precedent: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Frederick Romberg

This is the perfect example of all architecture needs to be. Square plan, elegantly squat roof and spire, basic but good quality materials, beautifully simple detailing (notice how the roof is held up by fine steel columns which are pulled off the corners to let the domestic timber window frames run past), a wonderful setting, and a warm soft light in the interiors.

Images: Frederick Romberg, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Canberra, 1961-63

Precedent: House at Lake Connewarre, Kerstin Thompson

When I first saw this house published I didn't really get it, there didn't seem to be enough, I was bored by it. But now I realise thats what's good about it, it's really un-pretentious, almost un-authored. It uses almost banal standard construction and materials and is draped over the site without any resistance or big gestures. But the plan and its subtle clever cranks makes it seem so liveable.

I also heard it was pretty cheap for the winner of the best residence in the national awards.

Images: Kerstin Thompson Architects, House at Lake Connewarre, 2004

Courtyard House 3: Court-house with Gararge, Mies van Der Rohe

The ultimate unbuilt courtyard house to complete the trilogy. A rare occasion when Mies went 'off grid'.

Image: Mies van Der Rohe, Court-house with Garage, 1934

Courtyard Houses 2: Baker House by Robin Boyd

Although there's a few things I'm not into about this house - mainly the 'country' overtones of Boyd's interest in the 'Aussie homestead' as a type - I really like the plan as it seems to both engage with the landscape beyond, while also defend against it.

The outer walls are very much of the landscape - quarried out of local slate - while the interior outer wall is set well back creating this great blurred threshold under the huge roof.

The other cool thing about this house is the interior courtyard covered with flyscreen - a bug-free outdoor room.

Images: Robin Boyd, Baker House, Bacchus Marsh, 1968 - Sorry they're a bit crap.

Courtyard Houses 1: Hill St House by Roy Grounds

The first in a series of many precedent posts. I've been interested in the courtyard house as a way of engaging with the idea of the house as a 'sancturary'. Maybe I'm taking the word to mean 'citadel', but I think there's something appropriate about having a well defined envelope that more intimate spaces are then carved out of, perhaps as a strategy for resisting the harsh environment beyond.

I've also been thinking a lot about Lily's art, particularly the frequent use of primitive geometries like circles and cubes. Grounds combines both these ideas, the citadel and primitive geometries, but with a delicate, almost Japanese quality of space.

Images: Roy Grounds, Hill St House, South Yarra, 1954

Sculptural Space

Thirty spokes will converge in the hub of a wheel; But the use of the cart will depend on the part of the hub that is void.
With a wall all around, a clay bowl is moulded; But the use of the bowl will depend on the part of the bowl that is void.
Cut out windows and doors in the house as you build; But the use of the house will depend on the space in the walls that is void.
So advantage is had from whatever is there; But usefulness rises From whatever is not.

From the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tze

Response to: Artwork

Original Post: Artwork

It's hard for me to speak about art, and I try not to pretend to know what I'm talking about, but I can try and relate it to architecture.

What I think about when I see (photos of) Lily's land sculptures is how diagrammatic they are - like abstract scientific diagrams of a magnetic field - but then obviously made from organic (Murray piece above) or domestic (as in the huge records installation) components. So the components are familiar, but not the arrangement. I love it how those sunburnt campers up on the Ovens river thought your underwater rock cairn was 'extra-terrestrial'.

Image: Iron filings in a magnetic field.

More Johnson: 'Building as Work of Sculpture'

'The third aspect, the most difficult, is the Building as Work of Sculpture. Architecture is usually thought of as different from sculpture and indeed not much great architecture is great sculpture. Pyramids: yes; Taliesin West, no. Stonehenge, perhaps; Versailles, no; the Guggenheim Museum, maybe. The Parthenon, certainly not. (Columns and entablatures see to that.) Frank Lloyd Wright roofs, arcades, colonades, all speak of architecture, not sculpture.'

- Philip Johnson, What Makes Me Tick
Extracts from a lecture at Columbia University, 1975.

Image: Philip Johnson, Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove, L.A, 1980

Chapple Vale in Google Earth

Here is the site in GoogleEarth. It would be good to put up a .kmz file which properly locates it, but Blogger is only letting me upload images. The satelite imagery is pretty lo-res around there anyway.
P.S- Check out the LandVic post for more detailed site info.

Getting tanked

According to this 36 month Victorian rainfall map from the BOM, your site is in one of the wettest parts of the state. The good news is that new water tanks are cool as! This ones called the 'Bagel' from Tankmasta. It's meant to go underground but i think its too special to bury...

'Spatial, not sculptural'

I've been thinking a lot about this idea of the house as a sculpture. I think I know what you mean when you say 'spatial, not sculptural', but I'm finding it hard to move on from there, as I maybe see spatial experience (emotion) and geometry (science) as inherently linked.

I had a good look at the Donald Judd at the NGA when Amy and I were up in Canberra after christmas. That's the same piece above, but it was placed differently, sitting on terracotta tiles at 60 degrees to the room - to line up with the triangular grid in the ceiling I think. And lit more sharply which created more reflections around it on the floor.

The thing I like about it, and why I think it could be relevant and useful for this project is for proximity. You are always explicitly aware of the position of your own body in relation to the piece, and I think its this that drags you around it, up to it and back from it. Material and formal properties aside, is that the effect you hope this sculpture in the landscape to produce?

Maybe we need to dig out your masters on how work effects how people move in galleries Lily?

Image: Donald Judd, Untitled (six boxes), 1974, collection of the National Gallery of Australia

The 'Crutch of Serving the Client'

"Then there's another very bad crutch that you will get much later in your career. Please, please, watch out for this one: the Crutch of Serving the Client. You can escape all criticism if you can say, 'Well, the client wanted it that way' ... Where do you draw the line? When do the client's demands permit you to shoot him and when do you give in gracefully? It's got to be clear, back in your own mind, that serving the client is one thing and the art of architecture another."

- Philip Johnson. From a lecture to students at Yale, 1954.

(I wonder whether this blog will turn out to be a good idea?)

Image: Philip Johnson guarding a model of his AT+T building, New York, 1984

*News Flash*

I got accepted for the Smart Geometry conference (the 'Bi-mon-sci-fi-con' of architecture design computing) in New York which starts next week on the 26th of Jan. Amy's going to tag along for all the fun too.
So I've been a bit slack lately, but I've been busy and busy thinking- mainly about what kind of sculpture this sculpture for living might be... I will now attend to your posts. Nice job with all the pictures BTW.

Check out this page on the SIAL website for my report on the conference. - RH 26.03.07

Current Barwon Heads House.

Our current house, built in the 50's of double-skin concrete brick, has been fun to play with but has stubbornly held on to its former character. The concrete has been a great insulator and it has a solidity that is palpable when you live in it. Here are some photos of it's current state along with the studio in the back.

Artwork

Here is some of Lily & Martin's most recent sculpture and painting












Lily's peice in the Ovens River (Jan 2006)




Lily's piece on the Murray S.A. (May 2006)




















Some of Martin's 'Couple' series.

Site Photos

Whilst our architect was at home making further online castigations, we were on the site, getting a feel of the layoutand a sense of the flora,fauna and architectural history. (Apparently the site was a butter factory up until the 1940s-more later). Here are some pics (as demanded).




















We would like to access this view over the valley from the North East corner if possible.







Assemblage on site.














West view.



South East pan to South.





North view.



Obviously the size of the trees on the block is going to be an issue.



















Coming and Going.