An architectural gem in Australia gives “eco-friendly” new meaning with a sculptural design which harmonizes with its surroundings in unexpected ways.
It’s impossible to not think of water when you step inside the Cape Schanck House, located on the Mornington Peninsula, an hour outside of Melbourne, Australia. The property’s centerpiece is a teardrop-shaped rainwater tank that acts as architectural motif, roof support, water supply and conversation piece. Designed by Paul Morgan Architects, the house has been hailed locally as a beacon of sustainable style, but the architect never intended it as such. “In the past, sustainable Australian architecture tended to wear its heart on its sleeve with an aesthetic of mud brick, solar panels and water tanks,” explains the softly spoken Morgan. “Our primary interest was design over sustainability.” With himself as the client and his wife and close friends all prominent artists, the house took on two roles: as a crucible for Morgan’s architectural ideas, and as a gallery. In the month-long art exhibition that celebrated the building’s completion, his network of artist friends were invited to comment through their work (sometimes, it turns out, rather subversively) on the relationship between art and architecture.
When Morgan first discovered the site — a clearing surrounded by a canopy of native tea-trees reaching for the sun – he was struck by its drama. “It formed a funnel and created an almost architectural quality to the bush,” he says. He retained the tea-tree formation as the signature landscaping feature and let the wind funnel it created inform his design process. Morgan measured the wind speed, direction and frequency using wind roses from the Bureau of Meteorology. After the initial concept model was complete he finessed the design in a makeshift wind tunnel at his office.
The otherworldly chamfered design (with a drag coefficient as low as a sports car) works on both a practical and aesthetic level. Wind scoops on the southern wall provide shade and bring cooling breezes into the bedrooms during the summer, while adjustable vertical louvers provide privacy when closed at night. All gutters drain into a steel water drop — the arresting, bulbous form at the center of the house – which has a capacity of 450 gallons to be used for flushing toilets, washing wetsuits and watering the garden. It also provides passive cooling and visually divides the common areas into distinct zones.
Being sculptural in form, the house wasn’t conceived with many art friendly spaces and, Morgan admits, his brief to the artists wasn’t easy. They rose to the occasion: the result was part creative housewarming, part subversive roast – a response that appealed to Morgan’s self-deprecating sense of humor. Artist Starlie Geikie poked fun at the traditional tacky décor and permissive mood of vacation homes with an embroidered piece titled “Cape Shag.” John Meade affixed a giant rubber ring to the provocatively-shaped water tank. Jo Scicluna’s crop circle wallpaper installation and video titled “You are Not Alone”, seemed a pointed reminder to Morgan (her husband) that in realizing his concept he would soon have to give it over to unruly visitors. Damiano Bertoli referenced Superstudio, an Italian collective from the sixties with a piece titled “Continuous Moment”. The tiny reflective model made from acrylic, concrete, plywood and a bonsai is reproduced from Superstudio’s seminal drawings which sarcastically proposed a grid of monotonous architecture covering the earth. Like the original, it poses the question, “Why not dispense with architecture altogether?”
With aerodynamic lines and wind tunnel testing, it’s a good thing Cape Schanck House was designed to weather thunderstorms and storms of controversy alike.
Words by Adam McCulloch. Originally published in Surface Magazine. The format has been altered to suit Tumblr.
