Houses Australia — Issue 118 2017

Mijuscovic House

by Enrico Taglietti

• CANBERRA, ACT •

Designed in 1979 and completed

in 1983, this house embodies Enrico

Taglietti’s skill in setting the building

in its specific landscape.

Words by Eugenie Keefer Bell

Photography by Dianna Snape

REVISITED

I

n August 1998, after looking for an

Enrico Taglietti house for some time,

Robert Worley and glass artist Judi

Elliott seized the opportunity to buy this

property as soon as it came on the market.

They know Taglietti and Judi recalls bursting

in on him in delight to announce their

success. The purchase significantly marked

the consolidation of two previously separate

lives, as Robert and Judi were married in the

house on the day they moved in.

The Mijuscovic House, named after its

original owner-builder – designed in 1979

and completed in 1983 – is located in the

southern Canberra suburb of Wanniassa.

Taglietti designed the house during a period

marked by the establishment of satellite

towns and subdivisions on the “bush”

fringes of the original designed city

of Canberra. Residential building

was permitted in the valleys and lower

slopes, with the ridgelines and higher hills

retained as reserves. In these newer suburbs,

such as Wanniassa (established 1975),

relatively generous domestic block sizes

were innovatively developed by architects

and their more adventurous clients.

The house embodies the architect’s great

skill in setting the building in its specific

landscape. As with many of his domestic

works, Taglietti skilfully wove references

to Japanese traditional and Brutalist

architecture with traces of Frank Lloyd

Wright’s organic form language, while

the house remains clearly recognizable as

coming from his hand.

Stepping down from the road on a site

that slopes back toward the south-west, the

house commands sweeping views over the

Tuggeranong Valley below and Brindabella

mountain range in the distance. White-

rendered, asymmetrical walls secure the

sides of the house between neighbours.

Punctuated with narrow windows and

sculptural openings, they offer glimpses

of trees and sky. At the front and back,

the sculptural walls are counterpointed

with horizontal cedar and large windows.

Taglietti’s trademark overhanging flat

roofs, with their thick, timber-clad fascia,

are in part counterpointed with pitched,