Glenn Murcutt, The Magney House, Bingie Point, New South Wales, Australia, 1984 (view in google maps)

The purpose of a project was to design a lightweight shelter, closer to a tent than a country house, in direct communion with nature. A building supposed to be simple, practical open house with a feeling of informal holiday lifestyle.  The Magney House is a long pavilion facing the lake and sea, turned back to the faraway hills.

Living rooms are positioned on the north side, the facilities on the south. Longtudinal passage is open in the living spaces, and acts as a corridor in the bedrooms. Façade provides maximum views and allows as much light as possible into the interior. Venetian blinds, and the gable is partly glazed to frame the view of the headland. The curved metal roof forms a salient feature and appear to hover over walls of glass. From afar the house looks like a silver line on the hill.

The Magney House is a good example of a contemporary costal residence that reflects the analytical process of the South Coast site landscape undertaken by the architect. The project expresses architect’s interest in the need for harmony between man and nature, and highlights the importance of designing for the climate within a carefully detailed, logical structural system.

The climatic and formal ambitions of the building are evident in the development and material resolution of the structural system. The design of the tubular steel frame refines experiments from previous buildings and achieves an extremely light skeleton. This material reduction is visible in the fine edge of the northern roof overhang where the metal skin acts with the tensile steel struts and eliminates additional supporting members. The improbably thin roof is symbolic of a house which feels unexpectedly light, almost transportable.

References: