Lakeview townhouses, Yarralumla

martin — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 09:45:05 +0000

‘Lakeview’, at 127 Hopetoun Circuit, Yarralumla, is a group of 11 townhouses facing Lake Burley Griffin designed by Harry Seidler in 1982 and completed in 1984. The townhouses enjoy an uninterrupted northerly view of the Lake and Black Mountain, with the design of the group ensuring that each house is oriented toward the view.

The group houses exhibit a number of the central ideas present throughout Seidler’s illustrious career: the building as a radiating presence; large outdoor spaces in front; restrained, sober character and the relationship between straight and curved lines.

They represent one of a small number of medium density housing projects in Canberra designed by Seidler, the other major ones being Campbell Group Housing (1964-68) and Garran Housing (1968, demolished in 1999). Other buildings in Canberra designed by Seidler include the Canberra South Bowling Club (1959), Ethos House (1970) and the Barton Offices (1973). Seidler’s only detached houses in Canberra are the Bowden House (1951-52) and 12 Yapunyah Street, O’Connor.

Description

The 11 houses are each 230 square metres and constructed of solid masonry materials throughout. Walls are of grey face brick, cavity construction, with concrete floors and tiled steel framed roofs.

Each house is individually air conditioned. The plan of the group is fan shaped, emanating from a central landscaped garden which provides access to the individual, private courtyard entrances. Underneath this garden are the underground garages—ingeniously lit with daylight by large, sculpturally formed openings which emerge in the gardens. The central swimming pool is screened by similarly curved walls, as are most courtyards and the stairwells and driveway entrance to the underground garages.

North elevation, with living on the first level and main bedroom on the top level.

The houses follow the natural slope of the site and are planned on a split level system which, including the garages, spans 5 levels. The first living level contains the living room which faces north and opens onto a screened garden. Each living room has an individually designed open fire place. The dining room, kitchen and family room are located on the middle level, along with the entrance. From here, stairs lead up to the main bedroom, which faces north, then up further stairs to the other bedrooms overlooking the central garden.

The play between straight and curved lines continues inside the houses. The plans are identical (with the exception of an eastern entry for houses 1, 2 and 11 resulting in larger family rooms) and interior spaces are arranged so that the split levels merge in a high, clerestory lit space above the dining area. The dining area is overlooked by the mezzanine study; its curved parapet and that of the dining room restating the forms used in the entrance courtyard and garden.

Sources and further reading

Kenneth Frampton and Philip Drew, Harry Seidler: Four Decades of Architecture, London, 1992
Harry Seidler: Selected and Current Works, The Master Architect Series III, Melbourne, 1997
Short biography of Harry Seidler

Garran Housing Group

martin — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 07:21:16 +0000

The Garran Housing Group comprised a group of 58 two bedroom and 43 three bedroom houses for families of University fellows and research scholars. The group was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates from 1964-1968 for the Australian National University (ANU). The houses were located off Gilmore Crescent, Garran.

The ANU sold off the land in July 1998 for $6.88m to finance the enhancement of its campus facilities and the townhouses were demolished in 1999.

The group of townhouses was a late example of the post-war international style with their cubiform overall shape, plain wall surfaces and external sun control devices. They were one of a small number of medium density (this was 36 people per acre) housing projects in Canberra designed by Seidler, the other major ones being Campbell Group Housing (1964-1968) and Lakeview (1982).

Description

To avoid through traffic the site plan consisted of cul-de-sac access roads with staggered rows of houses in pairs, all with enclosed courtyards for privacy. The nearby school was accessible from every house without crossing any roads.

Each type of house was identical, with opposing roof slopes for two and three bedroom types. Inside, the planning used a split level arrangement with approach to the houses possible from the north and south, depending on the street frontage and carport location.

The townhouses were a good example of Seidler’s rigorous and well executed site planning. The staggered placing of the houses in pairs along the contours of the site and the alternating roof slopes to preserve views contributed to a varied streetscape and avoided what might have been the boring repetition of identical houses.

In both designs, the kitchen dining area was on the upper level and the living room and main bedroom were on the lower ground level, opening on to the courtyards on both sides of the house. In the three bedroom version, the secondary bedrooms were on a third level.

Internally, the split levels were 1 metre apart vertically and produced a more interesting interior space than expected in houses that were only 102-118 square metres. The design was similar in some ways to the two and three bedroom houses in the Campbell Group Housing and the Curvilinear project house that Seidler designed for Pettit & Sevitt in 1969.

Sources and further reading

Peter Blake, Architecture for the New World: The Work of Harry Seidler
Short biography of Harry Seidler
The post-war international style

Canberra House » Late C20th international

Lakeview townhouses, Yarralumla

Description

Sources and further reading

Garran Housing Group

Description

Sources and further reading