A Vernacular Tectonic

ARCH1322: Architectural History and Theory 3 2014 ALEXANDER CASSAR 3415280

A Vernacular Tectonic The development of the tectonic of the ‘Queenslander’ in Andresen O’Gorman’s Mooloomba House and Donovan Hill’s House at Kangaroo Point.

Brisbane architectural practices Andresen O’Gorman and Donovan Hill both

of the ‘Queenslander’ has been retained and developed by Andresen O’Gorman

adopt an expression of the tectonic which stems from the vernacular. Through

and Donovan Hill. It is useful as grounding the architecture in site. It perseveres,

an alternate revival of the hardwood, timber construction of the traditional

as it proves “essential to the phenomenological presence of an architectural

‘Queenslander,’ the tectonic of this suburban type is reinterpreted. This

work and its literal embodiment in form.”6

development of local, tectonic tradition allows for the preservation of the sense of place already embedded in this vernacular. An examination of the

Brit Andresen states that on driving from New South Wales to Queensland she

interpretations of Andresen O’Gorman and Donovan Hill’s work by critics, writers

found the timber ‘Queenslanders’ to be incredibly beautiful. “These timber

and historians highlights the ‘Queenslander’s’ suburban tectonic as a pervading

houses with their big roofs and wide verandahs, with filigree and batten work

theme in Andresen O’Gorman’s work, and a somewhat fragmented one within

were so different from the Sydney houses.”7 Originally from Norway, Andresen

Donovan Hilll’s. Both the Mooloomba House and the House at Kangaroo Point

was introduced to Australian hardwood and its properties by Peter O’Gorman, her

display this tectonic explicitly.

colleague at the University of Queensland, in the beginning of their partnership, with the scheme for Deer Park.8 Each of their projects from then, have “refin[ed]

The traditional ‘Queenslander’ is a well-known, colonial approach to the

the use of Australian hardwood as a building material”9 states Goad, with “the

sub-tropical climate of Brisbane. The oft-seen “timber and tin forms that

notion of a poetics of construction.”10 The Mooloomba House built in Stradbroke

perch within… [the] verdant landscape”1 are characterised by wrap-around

Island is sited on a steep slope and is described by Goad in plan as “essentially

verandahs, a central “Georgian”2 core of rooms, and timber latticework.3 The

a long inhabited ‘wall’ with two permanent ‘tents’ attached.”11 The ‘wall’ is a

entire structure is elevated from the ground as a means to protect the building

1200mm wide gallery, with two 600mm wide cantilevers on each side; one a

from flood. Internally, solid timber beams are visible, but usually painted, and

corridor, and the other, two bed boxes. The ‘tents’ are an open dining space and

all other structure is concealed. Frampton, in commenting on the continuation

living space. Andresen alternately describes it as consisting of three elements.

of the trajectory of the tectonic, states that the “progressive loss of the

A long two-storey gallery with the integrated bed boxes, a north ‘bower’ room

vernacular throughout the last two centuries has largely stemmed directly

and a south ‘cave’ room.12 The building utilizes a primary and secondary timber

from the elimination of the traditional agricultural base that gave rise to its

frame; the first a post-and-beam structure with plywood lateral bracing; the

form.”4 Despite this change, “the tectonic resists and has always resisted the

second is confined to the first floor, a frame supported on the beams of the first

fungibility of the world.”5 While the processes of gentrification have assisted

frame.13 The hardwood members, to avoid warping as they dry post-construction,

the preservation of this typology, as a whole, the form of the ‘Queenslander’ has

consist of two small sections that are vertically laminated with the grain running

lost its contemporary relevance. Yet, the local tectonic, as part of the language

in opposite directions with 18mm of plywood sandwiched between and bolted

1. Andresen O’Gorman, Mooloomba House, North Stradbroke Island, Brisbane, structural axonometric.

2. The street facade of a conservative renovation of an existing Queenslander.

ARCH1322: Architectural History and Theory 3 2014 ALEXANDER CASSAR 3415280

3. Andresen O’Gorman, Mooloomba House, North Stradbroke Island, Brisbane, plan.

4. Donovan Hill, House at Kangaroo Point, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, view through outdoor living spaces, with timber batten roof structure.

5. Donovan Hill, House at Kangaroo Point, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, outdoor dining.

6. Donovan Hill, House at Kangaroo Point, Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, view through timber ‘tree trunk’ columns.

together.14 Locally sourced cypress tree trunks support the structure with the

writes that they learnt to ask “‘What does it mean to people?’ as a founding

sand courtyard between the ‘tents’, as well as in the interior, in the Mooloomba

thin laminated beams and are present in the sand courtyard between the living

basis for making judgements, rather than simply ‘What does it look like?’”18

House are here, four columns “seemingly adzed from a single tree trunk.”24

spaces. In describing the nature of the spaces, Andresen states that the ‘bower’

Applying this rationale to the “much-loved ‘Queenslanders’ with Victorian

This deviates from the ‘Queenslander’ tectonic, reverting back to more rude

space of the belvedere, with its woven balustrades, is a tectonic space, whereas

verandah skirts of shade and filtered light around their Georgian cores”19

timber shelters. In both schemes the preservation of the original character of

the ‘cave’ space which is the winter room is stereotomic.15 While spatially and

the House at Kangaroo Point goes “past this construct to appeal directly to

the tree, results in a resonance with the material nature of the locale. This is not

structurally dissimilar to the form of the ‘Queenslander,’ this relationship could be

the basic sources of those qualities such as the action of the light, the primal

achieved fully by the local, but machined timber posts they work in conjunction

seen as a development of the ‘Queenslanders’ elaborate timber skirt in relation

reactivity to landscape/climate and reciprocity in territorial space”20 important

with. This furthers the tectonic in establishing a sense of place. These trunks

to its core of rooms. Furthermore, the same material is used for construction.

to contemporary habitation. House at Kangaroo Point is the renovation of

assist in framing the spaces and starkly contrast in scale to the delicate batten-

Local hardwood is prioritized in every instant. Andresen writes that a primary

a fifties house on the Brisbane River. The existing house was retained, and

work. As a whole this building also significantly develops the tectonic of the

intention is to “continue exploration of the expressive capacity of hardwood in

the new additions are timber-framed outdoor living spaces. Battens are use

‘Queenslander’ while permitting it to become part of its material and structural

terms of its material properties, geometry and metaphor.”16 The tectonic of the

consistently, distinguishing the new work from the white painted existing

dialogue. Goad argues, however, that the concerns of Donovan Hill are entirely

‘Queenslander’ is drawn upon in the use of this local material as a filigree of

surfaces. Despite the modest scope of the scheme, it provides “beautifully

independent of the contemporary interpretations of the ‘Queenslander’ clearly

fine batten work, and in the posts which create a threshold with the landscape.

crafted open spaces which reorder the house through implied zones that

seen in Andresen O’Gorman’s work.25 The vernacular tectonic is perhaps only

However, here is a transparency established by the proportionate, exposed

connect it to the river.”21 The suburban context make even more poignant the

read as fragments in other projects, such as the D House, where the architects’

structure of the timber frames and acrylic roofing, and a celebration of the

reworking of the familiar ‘Queenslander,’ reducing the sections of spanning

statement draws parallels with the ‘Queenslander,’26 but explicitly in the tectonic

junction, clearly not of the vernacular. Andresen O’Gorman take the basic sources

members and increasing their centres, to create lattices of battens backed by

of the building discussed, as highlighted by O’Gorman.

of the ideas apparent within the ‘Queenslander’ of light, shade and relationships

clear acrylic, which “register the nuances of the day and time of the year in

to the exterior and entirely rework them poetically with a greater emphasis on

texture, filter light seen and felt simultaneously through the transparencies

Both Brisbane architectural practices, develop an expression of the tectonic

the timber members as the only architectonic means (with the exception of the

and frame of the deep shadow of the surrounding house and the landscaped

originating from the ‘Queenslander.’ Their expression of this differs according

winter room). Thus, the Mooloomba House, while being an original rendition

and rivers beyond.”22 This is the tectonic lyricism present in the treatment of

to each firms priorities. Andresen O’Gorman work exclusively with Australian

of its own, develops the existing tectonic of a vernacular typology present on

the ‘Queenslander’s’ ornate timber street façade, appropriated as semi-indoor

hardwood and emphasize the junction, and the timber member as creating

the mainland. The “constant search for an appropriate creation and definition of

roof structure. This building through the tectonic, O’Gorman says, “strikes

space and atmosphere. Donovan Hill begin with the architectural atmosphere,

place”17 is therefore, achieved through the development of this tectonic.

deeply and directly at sensory responses that are acutely Queensland.”23

at times in their other works almost verging on abstraction. Both firms prioritize the notion of place-making in their architecture, ensuring their architecture is

Donovan Hill’s House at Kangaroo Point also displays such a development of

As in the Mooloomba House, there are tree trunks used as supporting members

of Brisbane, thus enabling the continuation and development of the tectonic

tectonic. As students of Brit Andresen at the University of Queensland, O’Gorman

which are both sculptural and structural. The cypress poles in the external

lineage of the vernacular. ‘Queenslander.’

ARCH1322: Architectural History and Theory 3 2014 ALEXANDER CASSAR 3415280

Endnotes:

Image Credits:

1. Antony Moulis and Silvia Micheli, “A Unity of Experience,” AR Australia 119 (April-May 2011): 82.

2. Peter O’Gorman, “Kangaroo Point,” Architecture Australia 83 (July-August 1994): 40.

3. Ibid.

4. Kenneth Frampton, Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press,1995), 375.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. Karen McCartney, 70/80/90 Iconic Australian Houses (Millers Point, N.S.W.: Murdoch Books, 2012), 158.

8. Ibid.

9. Phillip Goad and Patrick Bingham-Hall, New Directions in Australian Architecture (Balmain, N.S.W.: Pesaro Publishing, 2001), 61.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid., 62.

12. Brit Andresen, “Mooloomba House (1995-99),” UME 22 (2011): 116.

13. Ibid., 124.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid., 118.

16. Ibid., 116.

17. Goad and Bingham-Hall, New Directions in Australian Architecture, 61.

18. McCartney, 70/80/90 Iconic Australian Houses, 222.

19. Peter O’Gorman, “Kangaroo Point,” Architecture Australia 83 (July-August 1994): 40.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Ibid.

25. Goad and Bingham-Hall, New Directions in Australian Architecture, 91.

26. Brian Donovan and Timothy Hill, “Donovan Hill Brisbane, Queensland, Australia D House,” UME 15 (2002): 10.

1. Brit Andresen, “Mooloomba House (1995-99),” UME 22 (2011): 125.

2. “Another Productive Weekend,” Hudson’s House, accessed 15 November, 2014, http:// thehousethathudsonbuilt.blogspot.com.au/2012_10_01_archive.html.

3. Brit Andresen, “Mooloomba House (1995-99),” UME 22 (2011): 123.

4. Peter O’Gorman, “Kangaroo Point,” Architecture Australia 83 (July-August 1994): 41.

5. Ibid., 40.

6. Ibid., 41.