Exemplar Houses

Exemplar House #2

Name: Great (Bamboo) Wall House

Architect: Kengo Kuma

Location: Beijing, China

(Kengo Kuma & Associates, 2002)

Environment:
The Bamboo Wall House is a building that responds to the environment that surrounds it, this is the source of its beauty. Hans (2009) celebrates the sites “intricate undulation” and the symbol of the Great Wall of China that Kengo has captured in the bamboo house that serves as a filter for the natural surroundings by allowing the elements to effortlessly pass through the structure.

Interaction:

According to Extravaganza Design (n.d.) the Great (Bamboo) Wall house consists of an entrance hall, kitchen, closet, living room, bathroom, guest room, laundry room and staff room. Kuma varied the thickness and spacing of the bamboo canes throughout these rooms in the house, creating walls which provide a different level of fluidity from one space into the next, allowing occupants to do activities indoors and experience the outdoors at the same time.

Experience:

The website, Travel with Frank Gehry (2009) describes the use of bamboo and simplicity in the construction of the house has a direct connection to Chinese and Japanese cultures, creating a meditative atmosphere by channelling breezes, light and creating a sense of weightlessness. The light enters between the varied stalks of bamboo making the occupant feel as though they are experiencing the local forests of Asia as shown in the above photograph. Kengo describes his architecture as a “frame of nature. With it we can experience nature more deeply and more intimately”.

Exemplar House #3

Name: Sunrise Beach House

Architect: Wilson Architects

Location: Sunrise Beach, Queensland, Australia

(CSR Building Products, 2008)

Environment:

The Sunrise Beach House doesn't only frame the ocean, it is also connects to the sand, beach vegetation and the weather by acting as an environmental filter. This beach house avoids the preoccupation to hug the boundary to maximize sea views as stated by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (2008), instead a sequence of ocean vignettes are playfully screened and framed against the house and landscape.

Interaction:

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (2008) describes the boundaries as blurred lines between the house and beach where intimate spaces and expansive views align, connecting the private and public spaces to create the illusion of infinite space. Allowing occupants to interact with the environment from within each section of the Sunrise Beach house.

Experience:

In this house the landscape, particularly the well placed pandanus trees, creates the place, according to the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (2008) and the structure of the house creates secluded areas that capture the experience of the environment within the dwelling.