Entanglement

Investigating how humans, nature and architecture can exist intertwined.

Dalesford Longhouse

Partners Hill (2019)

Daylesford Longhouse

Partners Hill (2019)

A modern take on the traditionally English vernacular long house, the portal frame shed collates numerous functions of living, cooking, learning, entertaining as well as nurturing animals and plants underneath one roof. The large rectilinear greenhouse provides a sanctuary for occupants against the hostile environment and becomes a blurred space where landscape and the traditional notions of the house meld together. The large roof further is a strategic design to harvest enough rainwater for the gardens and everyday living needs.

The superstructure’s skin is made of translucent glass-reinforced polyester, while each façade is clad with smart gel-coated materials for varying levels of UV and IR resistance according to its orientation. Openings are for ventilation and frame views of surroundings. Interior volumes made of brick and timber provide a more homely texture within the industrial shed.

The entry experience is also beautifully orchestrated. The visitor first enters the large garage of tractors and machinery, then walks through a small, compressed doorway, to finally reach the oasis of gardens and living spaces in a spatial release. This is expressed through the series of sectional cuts across the width of the volume.

The idea of living among nature reminds me of the Featherstone House by Robin Boyd with its lush indoor garden and climbing vines, all underneath a large translucent roof. Boyd has taken the house even further in incorporating the pool inside, which shimmer and reflect light onto the brick walls to create truly exquisite visual moments.

This project interrogated the conventional separation between the garden/courtyard and the house, with one being outside and the other inside. The combination of the two creates a blurred zone of the interior and the exterior, the garden and the house, which is something I am excited to further explore in my projects.

Indoor-Green-Living-with-Plants-Featherston-Yellowtrace-05.jpg

Featherston House

Robin Boyd (1969)

Engawa as circulation and intermediate space, photograph by Emzett85 (2010)

Japanese Minka Vernacular Principles

The richness and refined beauty of vernacular Japanese architecture has been a source of inspiration to architects internationally for decades. Indeed, there are many lessons to be learnt from the Minka (vernacular house of the people) which are applicable to modern day living. The primary structure of Minka consists of post and beam system while moveable partitions: shoji and fusuma, create flexible spatial divisions inside. The Engawa functions both as a passageway and an element connecting the inside and the outside, resulting in ambiguous and multi-layered boundaries controlling light, heat, sound and passage (Vitorino). What is particularly interesting is that the occupant has a high level of autonomy in adapting the constructed space and associated boundaries. Schweitzer also mentions that the Japanese Minka “is not a complete object to be maintained but a collection of living spaces on which people imprint, with each passing day, their lifestyles and their efforts to engage in dialogue with their constructed setting and the materials it comprises.” (2004) These themes of user autonomy, flexibility and the built house as architecture to be completed by its users may be the answer to the uncertainty and impermanency faced by our society today.

I have infused some of these ideas into my project as hybrid typologies of a co-living unit with engawa-inspired access route. The timber passageway guides circulation to wrap around communal volumes, forming a connection to the outside. The translucent shoji screens have also informed the use of moveable danpalon systems as ambiguous boundaries that still provide control to users.

Japanese Minka Vernacular Principles

Hybrid Typology

Speculating the incorporation of Japanese engawa in a co-living typology

Bonpland Building

Adamo Faiden (2018)

Indoor and Outdoor Entanglement

I am enamoured by the indoor outdoor treatment in the Bonpland Building, where the garden became an extended living area. The balcony level is stepped down for soil to be level with the studio unit. Similarly, in Tree-ness House, the window is fused with the planter-box to create character as well as a privacy screen of plants.

I really appreciated the generosity of these designs and the way they infused the building with vegetation. The indoor outdoor condition was a main source of inspiration in Interwoven for me. These ideas manifested in the poetry of moving between levels through a garden and the entangled edge condition of Greenhouse Typologies. The quick sketch illustrated a lovely moment where plants became a buffer between the interior and the exterior, although the depth of the soil needed to be greater to support a larger variety of plants.

Circulation through a vegetated void as entanglement

Treeness House

Akihisa Hirata (2017)

Edge condition of entangled engawa space

Reference List

Bamford, L. (n.d.). [Featherston House]. Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/featherston-house-by-robin-boyd/
Emzett85. (2010, November 28). Corner of a traditional japanese house [Taken in Meiji-Mura, Inuyama, Aici-Prefecture, Japan]. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Japanese_House_-_Engawa.jpg
Pintos, P. (2021, August 15). Daylesford longhouse / PARTNERS HILL. ArchDaily. https://www.archdaily.com/945347/daylesford-longhouse-partners-hill.
Schweitzer, R. (2004). Traditional Japanese wood construction . https://www.forum-holzbau.com/pdf/traditional_japanese_wood-Schweitzer.pdf.
The Bonpland Building / Adamo Faiden. Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/909437/bonpland-building-adamo-faidenTapia, D. (2020, September 27).
Tree-ness House / Akihisa Hirata. Retrieved fromhttps://www.archdaily.com/895346/tree-ness-house-akihisa-hirata
Vitorino, C. (2012). Patterns in Japan’s vernacular architecture: envelope layers and ecosystem integration. In Patterns and Layering: Japanese SPATIAL Culture, nature and architecture (pp. 118–125). essay, Gestalten.