The St. Lucia House, located on Hiron Street, was personally designed by Peter Skinner and Elizabeth Watson-Brown for their family. The principles, strategies and applications used upon their design were implemented though extensive theoretical research and thus was the base of the design itself, which in choice was their view of what a house should be like and not as an examination of some sort for built environment; although this design itself has innovatively responded towards a various amount of considerable issues.
What makes this design stand out was its minimalistic character, its small frame and its focus upon the local environment. The house has no emissions, containing no artificial heating or cooling of any sort. And it uses natural variables to produce heat and to cool down the house by using light materials and large windows to efficiently change the temperature of the interior within the home.The St. Lucia House was deliberately synced with the environment. Designed around three trees that grew prior to the design, the façade of the building contains a long wall height window which merges the boundary between inside and outside the house thus making the design more innovative by providing more ventilation within the house.
With its interesting ploy by coming up with a strategy to connect the spaces, the living room was designed to be as one large room that interconnects most, if not all, rooms on the first floor and separate them with little counters. By doing so, the somewhat semi-independent house allows a very flexible lifestyle to its inhabitants and gives a more visual experience towards its area.
References:
N.A. (2006) St Lucia House, RAIA Robin Dods Award for Housing http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:3544.
(Accessed March 15, 2011)
Skinner. P.S. (2004) Claims to the significance of the St. Lucia House.
http://docs.google.com/viewerv&q=cache:bF1yDGYJ:espace.library.uq.edu.au/e-serv/UQ:1634House.pdf+significance (Accessed March 13, 2011)
Tsukamoto, Y.T. (2009) Cubes: back to basics. http://studentbiennale.com.au/i-cms_file?page=12336/Cubes_May_2009001.pdf. (Accessed March 15, 2011)
Tsukamoto, Y.T. (2009) Cubes: back to basics. http://studentbiennale.com.au/i-cms_file?page=12336/Cubes_May_2009001.pdf. (Accessed March 15, 2011)
