02 Dangling creepers and a
raw ceiling contribute to
a conceptual exploration
of ruin and decay.The fluid spaces that skim the central courtyard, including
the kitchen, dining room and sitting room, are held together by
a monolithic green roof. Imprinted on the roof’s board-marked
underbelly are the striated textures of old cottage floorboards.
The rawness of this ceiling surface contributes to the idea that the
polished spaces of the interior have taken up shelter inside a vacant
and forgotten shell. As creepers lower their glossy tendrils from the
roof garden above, the belief that the landscape could threaten the
building’s return to ruin becomes powerfully suggestive. Where
apertures are introduced in the ceiling, elements of accentuation
and drama follow. Above the kitchen bench, a light well is cast like
a vertical sundial in the concrete, bending the light down into the
interior and offering vistas skyward.
Suspended between the garden wall and grounded platform and
with sides open to the courtyard and backyard, the sitting room
is positioned to offer “a genuinely external experience.” The scale,
materiality and, most of all, the overwhelming presence of the
garden recall some of Brisbane’s most memorable domestic sitting
rooms. As conversation turns to Sandy’s experience working with
Donovan Hill, we talk about his thoughts on room-making and
the projects that have influenced his thinking, including D House
(2000) and Z House (2008, which he worked on as a student).
“When I think about that project [D House], the quality we tried to
emulate was the sense of privacy and sanctuary ... and [finding] a
way of making a series of private gardens without making a fortress,
without ruining the streetscape.”
A place of sanctuary revealed through the synergy of landscape
and architecture is precisely what has been achieved at Gibbon
Street House. What further enriches the site is the civic-minded
attitude to place that upholds the qualities observed of this tight-
knit community, neighbourly interactions across chainwire fences
and the passive interaction between the life of the home and
the street. What resonates deepest is the powerful idea that the
building occupies a fleeting moment in the passage of time. As the
edges of the building become indistinguishable from the garden, the
presence of the “ruin” is strengthened and, like a Piranesi etching
brought to life, the experience of the occupant is heightened,
a counterpoint to the sublime wilderness slowly engulfing this
remarkable structure.03 The architects aimed
for fluidity and synergy
between the landscape
and the architecture.03