PMA was pleased to accept the 2007 National RAIA Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture for the Cape Schanck House. This major accolade followed a Houses Award in the 2007 RAIA Awards Victorian Chapter.
Jury Citation
The RAIA Robyn Boyd Award for Residential Architecture - Houses 2007
Cape Schanck House
Practice: Paul Morgan Architects
This small residence is an exemplary empathetic development of a pristine coastal site. And as development pressure on coastal areas mounts, sensitive and specific design strategies will become increasingly important. Here, the architect’s observations of patterns of wind movement, the arrangement of the various stands of coastal tee tree and slight shifts in the gradient of the ground informed the whole strategy of this construction. The single level plan is set into an open grassed area on a site containing substantial remnant coastal vegetation. Two distinct parts of a contrasting composition present to the roadway and describe a particular code of inhabitation. The bedroom and services strand is wrapped in a contoured framework and clad in stained plywood, its external face indicating the influence of the strong prevailing coastal wind. The resultant shaping provides a drag coefficient bettered only by a CX Citroen. A carefully choreographed thoroughfare through the whole site is suggested by the wrapped profile of timber decking that pronounces the entry, defines the single passageway through the house and then reappears to lead into the garden. The living zone is a counterpoint of shear glass and open plan but sways clear of convention by imploding into the house’s most defining feature. A large steel bulb that collects rainwater from the central point of the roof provides coolth to the space during summer months. This splendidly eccentric element provides comfort, character, and good company, while defining the radial point of this articulate and inventive small home.
In the tradition of this awards namesake, Robyn Boyd, this is the kind of modest project with generous ambitions that help in promoting new ideas for our concerns with settlement.