Figure 2: "Gold Coast House" (Crosbie, M)
ARCHITECT: Innovarchi
LOCATION: Mudgeeraba, QLD
A HOUSE IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL FILTER
Gold Coast House sits on an elevated site among the grasslands appearing to be in the middle of nowhere. The high grassland plays an important role in the design of the house by the Innovarchi architects aiming to create a number of contrasting moods and environmental variances inside the design. The lower level of the house accommodates an art gallery, art studio, and a ballet studio and is somewhat opaque, with masonry block construction. While the upper level in contrast, is open and airy, with panoramic 270 degree views of the surrounding grassland environment.
Despite the glassy, transparent nature of the upper floor, the upper level houses the pavilions more private and intimate precincts. The design incorporates moveable floor to ceiling screens and walls to offer temporary privacy when needed. This enables the client to essentially vary the environmental filter levels and hence either bring in or take out the surrounding environment from the home. (Fitzgerald, 2010)
Gold Coast House has been designed with mechanical cooling to make the house comfortable in its quite hot tropical region. The glass windows are again an important aspect of the houses ability to filter the environment and ventilation in or out. They also help to offer a clean way of opening the glass walls, while on the other side of the house entire glass walls can be moved to provide an unrestricted flow of cooling breezes. (Fitzgerald, 2010)
A HOUSE IS A CONTAINER OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES
In addition to the house providing a private apartment for the occupants, the design also offers places to display art or private dance tutorials, all within the sweep of the grassy Queensland environment. The open living plan allows for communal activity throughout the day, while the flexibility of the design incorporates moveable floor to ceiling screens and walls to offer temporary privacy when needed. Architects Stephanie and Ken McBryde of the Sydney based firm, innovarchi, explain that the house was conceived as “a fishbowl with somewhere to get dressed” (Innovarchi, 2009).
A HOUSE IS A DELIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE
The two pavilions executed in glass, steel and concrete combine to produce a fine modern pedigree. The client uses this house for entertaining friends as well as for practicing her craft as a dancer and teacher, and the house accordingly dedicates the ground floors of the two unequally sized pavilions to these activities. Conceptually we might see these spaces as the ‘earth bound’ delights of the house that act to remind us that it is these pleasures which act as the foundation of which ones life is built. (Fitzgerald, 2010)
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