Pants House

"RESEARCH BACKGROUND<br />This project represents research into the contemporary Australian family house and is based on ESD principles. Located in the foothills of Mount Dandenong, it reworks a classic L-shaped house into a directional V-shaped form. <br /><br />RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION<br />Both the design of the house and the 1:50 scale model involve innovation. Stuart Harrison's design is a bulk form that creates sheltered outdoor space beneath and above the house, as well as forming the house itself. It is created from a single bent line that creates communal and separate domestic spaces. The cladding system for the house was developed with a metal fabricator and the constructed house will demonstrate this unique cladding system. The set-out for the panel cladding was initially developed through computer-based design; elevations were then unfolded and printed to create the physical model which was used for documentation and was exhibited at the 2008 Venice Biennale. This is a working model, rather than just aesthetic end-point, and it follows a process used in Harrison's office where models are issued as construction tools.<br /><br />RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE<br />The 1:50 Pants House model exhibited in Abundant: Australian Pavilion at the 2008 Venice Biennale of Architecture and featured in the accompanying exhibition catalogue. The project was published in The Australian newspaper and in Architecture Australia during 2008."<br /&gt