Buildings
Pirates Bay House is Record's House of the Month
(archrecord.construction.com - 07/21/2006)
By Ingrid
Spencer
For architect Stuart Tanner, growing
up in Tasmania—surfing, diving, and bushwalking through
the Australian state’s many rainforests—has given
him a love of the land and has strongly influenced his architecture.
The Pirates Bay House, a small coastal retreat the Tasmanian-based
architect designed near Eaglehawk Neck on Tasmania’s
Tasman Peninsula, reflects his awe. “Ultimately, anything
you build here is engulfed by the landscape,” he says.
“I’m completely humbled by it.”
Tasmania, an island roughly the size
of West Virginia located about 150 miles south east of mainland
Australia, has a rich history, though is perhaps best known
for its remarkably unspoiled natural landscape. With the rear
of the Pirates Bay House site abutting the forested edge of
Tasman National Park, Tanner’s client had a piece of
prime coastal property. The site itself, however, was awkward—a
narrow, steep wedge above a road that runs along a cliff escarpment
above Pirates Bay Beach.
“I saw an opportunity to connect
the forest with the ocean,” says Tanner about the house,
which is surrounded by Tasmanian blue-gum trees and wild vegetation.
With the help of local engineer Jim Gandy, Tanner used suspension-bridge
technology to design the house as a hovering platform, with
a minimum footprint, that seems to reach out in a grand gesture
toward the sea. An existing driveway became a place to park
under the house, while the support wall served to hide plumbing.
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Midway through design process, however,
Tanner’s clients decided that the two-bedroom retreat
would be too small for their growing family, so they sold
the site. Happily, the clients that purchased the land were
not only excited by the design, they were willing to take
it a few steps further, as a high-end real-estate venture.
“My original clients envisioned the place to be more
like a high-tech shack,” says Tanner, “with industrial
materials and a colder, more stark look. The new clients were
willing to give the house a different feel. We were able to
bring in more rich elements, like blackwood cladding on the
exterior.”
With two generous bedrooms, one bathroom,
and a large open kitchen and living area, every element of
the 1,184-square-foot home is simple, flexible, functional,
and elegant. Even a stair was considered an unnecessary element,
as the design offers the entrance in the rear of the building
where it connects to the site, and where procession along
the platform reinforces the “bridge journey.” The
platform is suspended midway by two steel straps, and thin
steel rods attached to footings provide more support to the
entire structure. The building is oriented with a north/south
axis, and huge windows ensure maximum visual connection to
the landscape, as does the deck, which wraps three sides of
the home. Careful attention was paid to keep the house sustainable,
including passive methods such as cross ventilation, cedar
louvers, and exterior sunscreens on windows, as well as active
tactics like an on-site waste management system and gray-water
recycling, fresh water catchment and storage, use of energy
saving lighting, heating, and appliances, and smart use of
insulation in floors, walls, and ceiling to create good thermal
control.
Because the site was such a difficult
one to reach, Tanner chose to prefabricate some of the home’s
steel structure in nearby Hobart. “I couldn’t have
people out there framing for weeks on end,” he says.
“By using a partially prefab structure, we got the steel
framing up in two days.”
Tanner’s clients sold the home
to the retired dean of the University of Tasmania’s School
of Fine Arts and his family, and according to the architect,
who visits the site frequently, they are constantly surprised
by the natural drama they witness from the house. “He’ll
tell me about the black cockatoos sitting in a tree right
outside the window,” says Tanner about the home’s
owner, “or the joy of living with the changing of the
light from day to moonrise.” Tanner agrees that with
this home, no matter how compelling the structure, it’s
the natural landscape that steals the show.
Gross square
footage:
1,184 sq. ft. + 592 sq. ft. deck area
View
complete specs
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