1+2 Architecture acknowledges the Palawa people as the traditional custodians of lutruwita, the lands on which our company is located and where we conduct our business. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present. We are committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to society.
Swansea House
LOCATION + TRADITIONAL COUNTRY
The Palawa, Swansea, Tasmania
CLIENT
Private
STATUS
Built (2006)
AWARDS
Not applicable
media
Australian Architectural Review, Issue 108 (2008), pp.112-119
Habitus, Issue 04 (Jul-Sep 2009), pp.132-139
Better Homes & Gardens (December 2008), pp.160-161
PHOTOGRAPHY
Not applicable
For more than three generations, this coastal property at Swansea has been a place for family holidays, shared memories and time spent together. Owned by the same family since the 1960s, the site holds a history that the new house was designed to continue.
Swansea House accommodates an extended family of more than 20 people, creating space for different generations and family groups to enjoy their own routines while coming together as one. The design draws on Tasmania's tradition of simple coastal shacks, reinterpreting their informal character through a series of connected pavilions.
KEY COLLABORATORS
+ Builder:
Carter & Franks
+ Structural Engineering:
+ Building Surveyor:
Place
Set within a gently sloping coastal landscape, the house responds to both the natural environment and the family's longstanding connection to the site.
A simple wall marks the transition between the surrounding vegetation and the inhabited area of the property. The buildings extend across this boundary towards the sea, establishing a close relationship with the coastline while creating sheltered spaces within the site.
The arrangement offers opportunities to experience the landscape from different perspectives, balancing exposure to the coastal setting with more protected areas for outdoor living.
Process
The design brings together three separate pavilions, each accommodating a different generation of the family. Their arrangement creates distinct sleeping and living areas while establishing a shared outdoor space at the centre of the home.
Simple building forms provide a sense of unity across the complex arrangement. Within the pavilions, uninterrupted ceilings connect the interiors, while low bay windows, recessed decks and glass-topped dividing walls create smaller spaces suited to the different needs of family members.
The material palette draws on the modest character of traditional coastal shacks. Unadorned timber and painted fibre cement sheeting define the exterior, while white plasterboard walls, timber floors and plywood fittings create simple, practical interiors. Some of the plywood fittings also serve as room dividers, allowing the spaces to accommodate different uses without unnecessary complexity.
Together, these decisions reflect an approach to coastal living that values simplicity, flexibility and a close relationship with the outdoors.
Impact
Swansea House provides a setting for the family's holiday traditions to continue, accommodating the changing needs of three generations while preserving the informal spirit of the original coastal retreat.
The separate pavilions allow family groups to enjoy a degree of independence, while the central outdoor space brings everyone together. The result is a home shaped as much by the relationships between its occupants as by its connection to the surrounding landscape.
Awards + Jury Citation
AIA – Residential - New 2008
“This simple complex of buildings and the spaces they create successfully captures the shack culture and all it evokes. The client’s extended family has fond memories and associations with the site, with the brief requiring the permutations and extensions of three generations to be accommodated. 1+2 Architecture has designed a retreat that is sure to nurture and continue this tradition, with three separate pavilions each for a different generation that forms a central outdoor social space.
A simple and understated wall that demarcates the natural vegetation from the inhabited platform interrupts the gentle slope of the coastal plain. Two pavilions reach out over this wall to the sea, a third anchors the complex at the rear and forms a linear central space.
Pavilion, social space, shelter and a framed view are all brought together in a wonderfully simple yet effective and evocative play.
Overall simple forms are deliberately chosen to unify a complex program. Internally, spaces are unified with uninterrupted ceilings. Low bay windows, bold cut-outs that form decks, and glass topped dividing walls create a wonderful array of subspaces that accommodate the varied needs of the extended family. The choice of unadorned timber and painted fibre cement sheeting as external cladding reinforces the shack references. This theme is taken into the interior where a limited palette of white plasterboard walls, plywood fittings that double as room dividers and timber floors further unify the spaces. The shack, its reflection of simple lifestyle, of intimate relationship with context, of economy of form and material, its blending with the landscape are all beautifully reinterpreted in this house.”
