Marika-Alderton House
Northern Territory, Australia · 1994
Photo · Photo by Glenn Murcutt
A key precedent for climate-responsive, lightweight residential design, demonstrating how an elevated steel-framed structure with operable plywood shutters can facilitate natural ventilation in a tropical climate.
- What we like about this project
- The roof structure features small rotating ventilators along the ridge line to release hot air.
Materials
- corrugated-metal
- painted-steel
- hardwood
- plywood
Visual identifiers
- operable-shutters
- elevated-structure
- gabled-roof
- corrugated-cladding
- red-ochre-paint
Style tags
- regionalist
- modernist
- climate-responsive
- lightweight
Visual tags
- subtropical-architecture
- passive-cooling
- lightweight-construction
- stilt-house
- operable-facade
- australian-modernism
- Geometry
- A long, elevated rectangular volume with a simple gabled roof. The long facade features a series of repeating, operable vertical shutters and horizontal flaps that project outward when open.
- Facade system
- Operable plywood shutters and horizontal awning flaps integrated into a steel structural frame.
- Structural guess
- Steel portal frame on short concrete or steel piers.
- Spatial scale
- Single-story residential scale, elevated approximately one meter above the natural ground level.
- Lighting
- Overcast, diffused daylight casting soft shadows beneath the elevated floor and the deep roof overhangs.
- Atmosphere
- A light, breezy shelter resting gently on a vast, open landscape.
- Environmental context
- Set in an open, grassy tropical or subtropical landscape with sparse trees under a wide sky.
- Spatial experience
- The building is raised on short stilts above the grassy ground, creating a light footprint. Its highly operable envelope allows the interior to open completely to the surrounding landscape and breezes, blurring the boundary between inside and outside.
- Composition rhythm
- A rhythmic series of vertical pivoting shutters along the long facade, balanced by the horizontal lines of the elevated base and roof.
- Style reading
- Regionalist lightweight modernism
- Program
- Single-family residence
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- corrugated-metal, painted-steel, hardwood, plywood
- Visual identifiers
- operable-shutters, elevated-structure, gabled-roof, corrugated-cladding, red-ochre-paint
- Style tags
- regionalist, modernist, climate-responsive, lightweight
- Visual tags
- subtropical-architecture, passive-cooling, lightweight-construction, stilt-house, operable-facade, australian-modernism
- Geometry
- A long, elevated rectangular volume with a simple gabled roof. The long facade features a series of repeating, operable vertical shutters and horizontal flaps that project outward when open.
- Facade system
- Operable plywood shutters and horizontal awning flaps integrated into a steel structural frame.
- Structural guess
- Steel portal frame on short concrete or steel piers.
- Spatial scale
- Single-story residential scale, elevated approximately one meter above the natural ground level.
- Lighting
- Overcast, diffused daylight casting soft shadows beneath the elevated floor and the deep roof overhangs.
- Atmosphere
- A light, breezy shelter resting gently on a vast, open landscape.
- Environmental context
- Set in an open, grassy tropical or subtropical landscape with sparse trees under a wide sky.
- Spatial experience
- The building is raised on short stilts above the grassy ground, creating a light footprint. Its highly operable envelope allows the interior to open completely to the surrounding landscape and breezes, blurring the boundary between inside and outside.
- Composition rhythm
- A rhythmic series of vertical pivoting shutters along the long facade, balanced by the horizontal lines of the elevated base and roof.
- Style reading
- Regionalist lightweight modernism
- Program
- Single-family residence
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture