CASA31_4 Room House

CASA31_4 Room House re-interprets the role of memory, tradition and social and cultural value in a rich spatial experience that is simultaneous familiar yet unfamiliar. Our architecture preserves and reinterprets the past, history is layered but never erased, fragments of the past continually remind us that we are only another layer in the rich and unfolding history of this place. All spaces contain elements of the past, often manifest as objects of intrigue, the sloping floor (the former roof), the barge scrolls on the front fence, the roof tiles creating a musical score along the boundary, the chimney as water collector and the up-cycling of former building elements as decks, gates, architraves and furniture. A front deck engages with the street, re-introducing the value of the front garden as social setting and meeting place, a past tradition by the immigrant Italians and Greeks that has almost disappeared in societies obsession with privacy and security. To the rear a large operable screen provides privacy, sun protection and a drip fed cooling system based on the old Coolgardie Safe. The screen transforms over the day and night and over the seasons, life unfolds in both an abstracted and literal manner.