Arch.itect.us

You are browsing the archives of 2008 October 29.

I’ve been sent a photo of this years Serpentine Pavilion. Although not in co-ordination with the blogosphere’s saturation of its opening, it is nice to see the structure up close and in London’s Autumn light.

[photo taken by Kate Moore]

Architect: Julius Elischer.

Completed: 1981-82

Design and Build: 3 years

Address: Lot 42 and 43 Wellington Street, Mosman Park.

Current information:

An iconic large scale residential project commissioned by Mr & Mrs Rodgers. There was a generous budget, and was meticulously detailed accordingly. With the added luxury of a keen and Architecturally astute client, Elischer was able to create something of scale and grandeur.

The residence is sited across both lots along an east-west axis facing North, and overlooking the Swan River toward the city beyond. Elischer has applied the Golden rule to the proportion of rooms throughout, with many social living spaces opening to semi-enclosed court spaces on both sides of the building.

Although the scale could be criticised from a sustainable point of view (Sitting over the lobby is an industrial strength air-conditioning unit), many principles applied during construction are applicable to today’s sustainably oriented designers. The mass of the building faces north, glazing appropriately shaded with custom aluminium louvres. All upper rooms have external sliding screens, as well as cavity sliding glazed doors and fly-screens, and reveals on the inside for curtains, providing many varying states of “venting”.

The house is still comfortable, functional and highly applicable by today’s standards, with many contemporary Perth Architects trying, though falling short of such an astute attention to detail, proportion and livability. Areas to note are the concealed A/C outs and returns in the thick door thresholds, matching of grain in the tiles, the 5.50 metre long single pane of glass in the family dining room, dropped balconies to maintain views of the city from sitting height, the trademark bomb-shelter and the brutal though seductive off-form nature of the concrete.

To quote from the Julius Elischer Architect Exhibit 2003, curated by Simon Anderson and Michael Bradshaw;

The detailing is superb with handcrafted doors, gates and fitting by Stelio Cotterle and furniture designed by the Architect and executed by the furniture craftsman Robert Groom. The best materials were chosen include imported plate glass and a specially designed dye that was manufactured for extruding aluminium window/door frames with the narrowest profiles to reduce the perception of any obstruction of the views from the interior to the exterior.

Disappointment: It has been recently sold for near $20 million, and is set to be demolished very soon. Drive past and catch a glimpse before it is replaced with a house that looks like all the other lifeless, less than functional neighbouring properties, all ripe shining examples of expressed “Individualism at the expense of context”.

For more images click here. More plans, sections and elevations are going to be added soon. If more images of this house or others of significance are in circulation, contact me thru this page. I’ll be happy to add them to the archive and keep them publicly available.