Double bass: this coastal retreat on the Bass Strait poetically responds to climate and views

Architectural Review, The, June, 2005 by Paul Finch

Architecture's endless quest for 'transparent' buildings can simply mean excessive use of glass. This then requires ingenious design to solve problems created by the designer. In many parts of the world, sunlight, far from being the essential ingredient of a health and efficiency type of architecture, is the key problem which has to be overcome. Nor do extreme daytime temperatures imply a clement night-time environment.

The Bass Strait in Australia, south of Melbourne, is a case in point. Climate comfort is more important than universal views, and this coastal retreat, a house and studio pavilion at Cape Schanck by Denton Corker Marshall, keeps glazing to an appropriately low level. That said, the house (which is located on a steep site in the middle of a golf course) is designed so it can enjoy ocean views, but does so in the context of a 'black box' steel structure clad in cement sheet, with a concrete ground slab and suspended floor.

It is not the black box approach which makes the house interesting, however; rather, it is the array of angled elements deriving from the twisting of the box tube in section. This leads to raked cladding, cranked lower windows, and a chimney which emerges from the wall at a faintly alarming angle. The desired impression was of a building which has rotated on its axis as the box lands on the site.

Not just one box, but two: one sitting atop the other and peeking out through the native ti-trees, entered via a glass-enclosed (but shaded) concrete stair beneath its belly. The top deck contains the living area with a long narrow window that frames the view along the western elevation, and cruciform columns of hot dipped galvanised steel set into the box's volume. Living, eating and sleeping zones are located in free-standing maple timber veneer cubes within the body of the house, with the master bedroom and its bathroom separated by a concealed sliding door.

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Glass ends in the house provide vistas to the landscape, and to the new studio across the north-facing courtyard separating the two buildings. The studio entrance is via glass sliding doors at either end of the box, with the interior space marked by an aluminium cube containing storage, kitchenette and bathroom. In all, a variety of materials, deployed to environmental and/or aesthetic advantage, has resulted in a piece of architecture where client delight and climatic considerations have been successfully reconciled.

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