BREIF
The brief was to Design a holiday house for Peter Garret and his family at Bruny Island, Tasmania. The house will need to be functional and open to changes within the family structure. The house will need comfortable multifunctional public and private spaces which can accommodate large and small numbers of people. The house will also need a main public space that is separate from the sleeping areas to isolate noise. The main public space also needs to be able to perform day to day activities. The house will be orientated to collect most of the northern sun and use materials that enhance the sites natural vegetation. The holiday house will need 4-5 bedrooms for family and visitors, one bathroom, 2 toilets, office space, kitchen, living/ dining spaces, laundry, and outdoor spaces linked to indoor spaces.


Holiday House manifesto
A holiday house should be an escape from the pressures of every day life. It should perform as a house, be large, open and have a different and better quality of living from that of suburbia. Its spaces should be designed for entertaining and quality relaxation. Its planning should be such that it connects dining and lounging so as to promote social interaction with one another. A quality holiday house should not only cater for the family’s current needs now but for the future including changing relationships and family growth. Holiday homes are a chance for the owner to build an extraordinary home but with style and class With an Emphasis on relaxation, providing secluded reading spaces, a bathroom that captures all views and large comfortable bedrooms. The building should capture all available views throughout the buildings framework and the Materials should take into account aging and longevity, enhancing its position in the landscape.

The aim is to create an experience of transition through the building starting at a tight point expanding out into wings of sleeping and entertaining.

My idea stemmed from the gum leaf, how they change with time, which directly related to the materials I chose, how they respond to the climate, topography, and life cycle and how this has been correlated into my sketch design.

Potential

Although this module doesn’t fit into any particular category I just really love the experiential qualities of it. I like how it gives the suggestion of a path through two opposing elements and not knowing the destination. The smooth exteriors, lending themselves to the smooth internal possibilities. Also how at night the experience could be reversed with light spilling through the crack acting as a line of curved light in the otherwise dark deep rural landscape. Also how the light falling on the sides at every time of the day would lend its self to other qualities.

Flocking

With this module I used the clone and resizing tools to create a flocking of elements over a possible landscape. I really like how this informs a hierarchy of elements possibly relating to the orientation of main living rooms joined by smaller connecting paths that could possibly filter light into these circulation spaces.

This image could respond to the landscape and how the main spaces respond to the prevailing winds and breezes along the coast and how areas are shifted to be more sheltered giving a more organic frame of a footprint to work with.

Cracking

With this module I used the array tool but only in one direction which gives the effect of cracking the module into many elements. I added glass materialization to it to show the potential qualities of light spilling through the elements. This module gives a great response to how the building may look at a birds eye view showing the footprint. I also really like how the light plays on the refractions of each element and how this could look in a roof situation of patterning to camouflage into its environment.

Weaving

With this module I used the twisting and lattice metrifiers. By doing this I have discovered many potentials including an idea that I had for the structure of the building being like a skeletonised leaf acting as a canopy to allow beautiful light refractions and patterns into the buildings internal spaces. It also gives and idea of how possibly the building will sit on the landscape flowing with the contours of the land. Also looking at the internal central section, I believe that it could lend its self to becoming a large internal atrium hall, which links all of the neighbouring rooms and activities giving the project grandeur.

Spiraling

To create this module I used the array tool and stretch modifier and it came up with a few spatial elements. I really like how the light is filtering through each element giving a splash of shadows which could be interesting for ceiling element configurations such as large expanses of exposed beams. Another element I really like is how the soft outer edge catches the light and how I could integrate this into an external feature leading occupants to the house or as a subtle reminder that there is a building in this environment at night, possibly using a long thin line of windows along the side.

Module one.

My client is Peter Garret, who is an environmentalist and past rock star with the group Midnight Oil. He has a family of five all in their late teen’s early adult hood. I am going to design a holiday retreat for them in Bruny Island, Tasmania, Australia. This is my first module which I modelled on being a response to a gum leaf and going along the lines of how leafs change in their environment responding to climate, topography, drought and their life cycle and how this changes their abundance and appearance, and how this could then correlate in a building circumstance.