Iconic Australian Houses 708090 by Karen McCartney

Author:Karen McCartney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

The sense of structure, where everything is visible and has a purpose, characterises Poole’s quadropod architecture. Developed to be portable, there is a transparency of method and honesty of intent. This section shows a guest bedroom on the lower floor.

She doesn’t like cooking – the kitchen is small. She wanted seclusion – the house is approached via a bridge accessed through a lockable garage. She wanted an open house with breezes – the house is sited for maximum airflow. ‘The site is extremely steep and drops over the edge of the cliff to the floor of the valley some hundreds of metres below, with views to the north-east over the Gold Coast and the Pacific Ocean,’ says Poole.

Without the quadropod system, and its reduced footings with only slight disturbance to the site, and the ability of the system to calibrate the platform to get it square, it would have been impossible to build. Poole’s brother Simon, a steel fabricator, built the structure to platform level and then a builder friend of Angela Rawnsley took over from that point.

‘By this time I was separating quadropods into towers and using the space in between to install staircases,’ says Poole. Indeed the internal staircase spans the entire width of this space with Perspex risers providing a lightness and visibility of the terrain below.

The roof, however, is the defining feature of the Gartner House. The cross-section shows the Oriental feel of the sweeping Custom Orb corrugated steel roof that peaks above both the living room and the master bedroom. In each instance the ridge becomes a strip of Perspex, which acts as a light source but also, when viewed internally, enhances the feeling that the roof is afloat. While the interior is refined, the exterior blends with the setting as rough hewn weatherboards and corrugated steel become lost in the tropical rainforest.

Rawnsley remains, to this day, delighted with the house. Once, after a glass of wine, she steeled herself to call Poole and tell him, ‘I love this house – it has changed my life.’ While the RAIA Gold Medal (which Poole received in 1998) is the ultimate accolade from his peers, Rawnsley’s statement must surely be the ultimate accolade from a client.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.