ar+d

Highly commended

Sean Godsell

Single Family House

Victoria, Australia

December 2000

Round traditional Australian country and suburban houses is an intermediate space: the veranda, which forms a space between exterior and interior, shaded but partly open to the elements. This house abstracts the notion of the veranda by making an external skin of louvres that cover the walls of the 6 by 12m box which is embedded in the side of a sand dune in Victoria. Panels of the skin can tilt open, allowing inner spaces to be completely open, enclosed by sliding fly-screens or glass, according to time of day and year. When open, the panels become horizontal awnings at the same height as the ceilings, so spaces seem to extend into the landscape.
Internally, sliding screens allow spaces to be divided or amalgamated as the occupants and their guests change their habits. The external moving panels tell continually changing stories about life in the house. This potential for change, both externally and inside particularly attracted the jury, so did the qualities of light generated by the abstracted veranda.

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