Exampler house Drawings

The first thing that has captured my attention in the design was that the design of the gully house was very simple and has strong natural character. It was surrounded by the nature and the large openning windows allow the house to have maximum adventage of the views.

The house is placed between and around existing significant trees. Also, the house is elevated above the ground with minimal number of supporting posts.

All external and internal windows and doors are placed to maximise the shade, minimise the heat gains and also for the weather protections.

Cabin Design

Gully house has a special aspects that the house actually forms a tree. It has small base and bigger top above the ground floor. This aspect makes the house to have more space even there are rough hills around the house. Also, the nature environment around house make it very safe place as a shelter. Furthermore, the aspect of tree form makes extra space for the sunlight.

There is also a additional space in Cabin design which is stretched to the river side so that people in the cabin can actually feel that they are above the river. As there is a hill around the house, there is only a certain amount of land to build the cabin. By using tree form of the design, it can be design without any problem with the size of the land. Also, the hill and nature around the house block the strong major wind so that the cabin can be felt as a shelter. There are big opened windows in the public area and small windows in private area to control the amount of sunlight to come inside.

There is a public area infront of the private area in the exampler house, Gully House. Therefore, it is impossible to see the private area in the outside of the house. Also, the private area is sperated from the public area as it is located in the 2nd floor.

The cabin design also followed the aspects of the exampler house, so that private and the public areas are seperated as well. Also, the vision to the house can only see the public area.

The surroundings of the house reduce the major noise from the outside so that people can have the delightful time in the house. Also, the large opened windows make the natural wind to come through the house. Furthermore, the living area of the house is the only space that is opened for the sunlight to come in so that there are limited sunlight for cooling air effect. By putting white material for interior walls so that the house is still bright with only certain amount of sunlight.

The majority of wind hits the wall first and reflected into the cabin so that people can avoid the strong wind from outside but still enjoy the coolness of the wind. Also, the location of the window in the private area, lets the morning sunlight to come in. Furthermore, the hill totally blocks the major noise form the road and people can enjoy the ambient noise from the river.

The major space of the 2nd floor is above the river which is supported by the minimal posts. This aspects let people in the cabin feel that they are with the nature as the house is above the river and also surrounded by the hill with trees.

There are two large openning areas in the cabin. One is in the 2nd floor where living area is and another one is in the base where dining area is. The ceiling is seen from the kitchen to make the cabin look grander and also for the ventilation as there is open space between 2nd and 1st floors.

Sunrise beach house research

Sunrise beach house
LOCATION: Sunrise Beach Queensland
Much has been said about the ‘death of the classic beach house’. Reflecting on the design of the Sunrise Beach House, the house maintains the fundamental idea of living at the beach — the connectedness.
With its extensive openings and shifting views the beach house does not preoccupy with just the ocean. It is also about connection to the sand and beach vegetation. It is about the weather. It is about these textures and materials which although considered to within an inch of their lives, are fundamentally rooted in the senses.
This beach house avoids the preoccupation to hug the boundary to maximize sea views; instead a sequence of ocean vignettes are playfully screened and framed against the house and landscape.
The immediate surrounding materials of caked sand, native pandanus and water were the reference for a palette of raw concrete, glass and zinc offset with the warmth of timber and the twisted sculptural nature of pandanus to create an environment of contrast where the 'elegant' versus 'raw' versus 'refined' versus 'natural' would allow the client to feel dressed for dinner in wet togs.
This project was a collaborative fusion of architecture and landscape architecture within our integrated practice.

We are all familiar with the pavilion beach-house type, planned to respond to the four points of the compass, as we are familiar with the urban courtyard house that serves to cocoon a gentle internal domesticity from an uncontrolled urban context. This house represents a very effective hybrid building type.
The U-shaped boundary walls create a zone of calm, grounded-ness at the rear of the site, a wonderful counterpoint to the light airiness of the building. The seemingly counter-intuitive decision to draw back from the allowable beachfront building line gives a painterly control of mid-distance detail to strengthen the primal connection to the breaking surf and the immense horizon beyond.
In this project the landscape, particularly the magnificently placed pandanus trees, creates the place, and the built works, indisputably beautiful as they are, are merely well-crafted places to respectfully dwell within the landscape.
The need for pool safety and the impact of visual impediments has been a constant tension in the development of the pool enclosure. The placement of the pool as an important visual intervention in the landscape required minimum disruption to this view. A ha-ha negotiates this view whilst preventing physical access. The ha-ha is a feature in the landscape gardens laid out by Charles Bridgeman, the originator of the ha-ha, and was an essential component of the "swept" views of Capability Brown.
"The contiguous ground of the park without the sunk fence was to be harmonized with the lawn within; and the garden in its turn was to be set free from its prim regularity, that it might assort with the wilder country without. " Essay upon modern gardening - Walpole, Horace, 1780
With this beach house the ha-ha harmonizes the garden within to both the pool and the ocean beyond whilst the ‘wilder country’ in this case are the children from within.

Innovative Design
For many people, the most essential quality of a beach house is to feel open to the elements, even part of the beach beyond, yet still retain enough shelter and privacy for comfort.
The beach house constructed directly onto the beach successfully combines the built and natural environments.
“The beautiful landscape created within the immaculate cast-concrete walls steps down towards the beach view, and a range of sophisticated operable walls, windows and screens allow precise tuning for sun, view and breeze.”
Peter SkinnerRAIA Jury Director

Casa Tolo Research

Casa Tolo
Casa Tolo is designed with the purpose of using as a vacation house for the architects wife, children, and cousins, the Casa Tolo is located on one of the steep hill northern Portugal. Normally, architects use to fight with natural environment, however Siza did in contrast. He embraced it and uses the slope as the buildings main feature. This unique home created by Siza begins at the top of the hill, and slowly show off its beauty as you go down the outdoor staircase. Despite of being the son of a well-known and award winning person, the house has a tight budget of $150,000, no so expensive for an eco friendly building.

Gully House Research

Gully house (Yeronga, Qld completed in 2004)
Located in a verdant Brisbane gully, near the river in Brisbane’s inner southern suburbs, this small house seeks to take full advantage of its secluded site and intimate views over the lush sub-tropical vegetation. By its location in the lower lying areas of the suburb and being close to the river, the site is subject to severe flooding in periods of intense rainfall. The need to raise the living areas above flood level whilst also retaining significant existing trees on the small site influenced the decision to arrange the house over 3 levels, maintaining a small footprint.

The lower floor under the flood level accommodates cars, storage and rainwater tanks. Access to the main floor is by a long bridge across the gully with views to both the north and east over adjoining gardens, providing large living areas, study, guest room, kitchen, laundry and guest bathroom with the living areas opening onto a large north facing deck with stairs connected to the garden. The upper level which overlooks the large, almost two storey high living spaces includes a generous master bedroom with bay window toward the river views and a mezzanine studio.

The character of the house and the method of construction responds to the particular physical characteristics of the site including the fragile nature of the soil conditions where the house straddles both a storm water and sewer line, the close proximity of neighbors to the west and the dense tree canopy providing high levels of shade over the site. More specifically, the house employs a lightweight construction system supported on a grid of steel columns to the lower level with a hybrid timber and steel frame to the upper levels, clad externally generally with black stained plywood to diminish the apparent bulk of the house.

Other elements including the fire place, bay windows to the study and master bedroom and an extension to the guest bedroom which protrudes from the main body of the house are clad in zincalume sheet. Large expanses of glass enable maximum advantage to be taken of the intimate views the surrounding gardens.

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