Fletcher- Page House & Four Corner Villa

Collection 2 ARCH 330 – Architectural Design Theory Fundamentals Fletcher-Page House and Four-Corned Villa Jacob Waldbillig

Table of Contents Fletcher-Page House......................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 3 Roof Plane and Clearstory Lighting ............................................................................................................... 3 Interior............................................................................................................................................................ 4 Four-Corned Villa .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 5 Sustainability .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Building Form ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Interior............................................................................................................................................................ 6 Comparison ....................................................................................................................................................... 7 Sustainability .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Natural Light .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Building Form ................................................................................................................................................. 8 Interior............................................................................................................................................................ 9 References ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

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Fletcher-Page House Introduction Glenn Murcutt is one of Australia’s most recognized architects. He has accumulated numerous awards such as a gold medal of the Australian Institute of Architects, and the national honor of Australia.

Among his many successful works, the Fletcher-Page house (Oz.e.tecture, n.d.). A small residence built in 1996 and located in the terrain know as Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales, Australia. This long and narrow building is located on a heavily sloped hill side. Though this building uses relatively simple construction, it has key features such as a tilted roof Figure 1. Fletcher-Page House - Entrance plane, clearstory lighting, self(Guess.Who., 2003) sufficient sustainable elements, and an elegant interior layout to set it apart from a traditional house.

Roof Plane and Clearstory Lighting One of the defining features of this building is the tilted roof plane. This sloped roof plane follows the Australian topography it lays upon.

The strong roof lines “establish the boundaries of this field, shape, size, and height” (Ching, 2015, pg. 126).

As a result of the roof plane being sloped it creates a new space that Murcutt utilized to feature clerestory lighting. This component creates a positive space in the exterior wall planes. It also helps to create a connection to the valley it sits in and with the orientation being to the north, the house invites natural light into all spaces. The natural light is very important to Murcutt’s sustainable strategy as “natural light adds delight to our lives by providing

Main Entry

Figure 2. Fletcher-Page House - Back (Guess.Who., 2003)

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movement, change, and connection to the outdoor environment� (Bainbridge, Haggard, 2011, pg. 136). In Australia the sun follows an opposite path to what we experience in Canada. Due to this orientation of the clerestory lighting facing north, it invites in sunlight rather than daylight. Sunlight helps to light a space and it can also give excess heat gain. The daylight remains at a relatively constant intensity and softens the light in the spaces (Ching, 2015). This roof plane also helps the rainwater collection system that the building utilizes.

The water runs off into large tanks on the south side of the building for internal use. The plane also overhangs on the south side of the building to shelter from the sun and protect the vertical planes (Bart, Faddis, 2016).

Interior This building is created with a closure of vertical planes that all directly control the form of the exterior. Inside the house there is a long corridor that feeds into all spaces of the house. Along this corridor there is a series of sliding panels that creates a strong Figure 3. Fletcher-Page House - Plan connection to the exterior. This sliding (Bart, Faddis, 2016) feature can change the degree of enclosure at any given time. The house offers three bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room (Drew Lindsay Real Estate, n.d.).

Sliding Door Panels

Figure 4. Fletcher-Page House - Kitchen (Drew Lindsay Real Estate, n.d.)

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Four-Corned Villa Introduction

Figure 5. Four-Corned Villa – Front (Arch Daily, 2011)

One of the most important things for an off the grid cottage are the views.

Avanto Architects out of Helsinki, Finland wanted to create a retreat that connected its users to the environment in multiple directions and experiences. The final product is the Four-Corned Villa, a building that features a radial shape with four corners that present different connections, directions and experiences (Inhabitat, 2011). The building sits upon a horseshoe island in the diverse Virrat, Finland wilderness. The key design principles exhibited in this house are sustainable strategies, an elevated base plane, outdoor connection, and interactive interior layout.

Sustainability Located in the deep wilderness, this lakeside house uses a sustainable strategy to affect the surrounding environment as little as possible. To do this the building features, wood fire heating, no running water or electricity and gardens. A sustainable approach like N this is great for a building off the grid. “Harvesting onsite resources and using resources more wisely can help improve the quality of life for everyone and can rebuild ecosystem health” (Bainbridge, Haggard, 2011, pg. 164). Thus, not only are you helping yourself live a Water healthier and happier life, but you’re also helping build the ecosystem around you. “Although we depend on natural systems for the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the materials we use to build our homes, we have lost touch with this Figure 6. Four-Corned Villa – Site connection to nature” “But natural and managed (Teicu, 2012) ecosystems still provide us with the requirements for life” (Bainbridge, Haggard, 2011, pg. 165). Avanto Architects has done a great job of not only connecting its user with the environment but helping it grow.

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Building Form The building uses an elevated base plane to enhance the sight lines and to assert the dominance of its presence on its site. This also helps to separate the snow from the building in the winter months. The elevated planes “visually support the form and mass of a building” (Ching, 2015, pg. 117). As for the overhead plane, it is virtually hidden from the guest as the vertical planes act as the space defining elements of the exterior form. The exterior wall planes feature a black wood finish that can hide the building at long distances. This exterior finish is contrasted by an all-white interior (Teicu, 2019).

Figure 7. Four-Corned Villa – South (Arch Daily, 2011)

Figure 9. Four-Corned Villa – Inside 2 (Arch Daily, 2011) Figure 8. Four-Corned Villa – Inside 1

Interior (Inhabitat, 2011) The building can be thought as of an additive building as all corners of the building extend from the center of the space. Due to this, the building appears as an assemblance of separate entities to create four dominate spaces (Clark, Pause, 2012). The building has large scale glazing on all four corners. This creates large amounts of visibility out on the naturally introverted space. The architect places the windows in the middle of their respected wall planes to dominate the plane but not too weaken the edge definition of the form. This allows the user to feel as if they are connecting with the surrounding environment (Ching, 2015).

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Figure 10. Four-Corned Villa – Floor Plan (Arch Daily, 2011)

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With the building facing all different directions, the architect was able to organize the interior to enhance or decline direct sunlight. The bedroom features a terrace that covers the space from direct sunlight. All other corners are open and great for capturing sunlight to heat the building and daylight to light the space inside the house.

Comparison Cottage life has different experiences in different parts of the world. For example, in Australia one will endure hot summers and a desert like terrain. In Finland, one will undergo cold winters and a mountain terrain. The key to capturing these respected terrains is the connection to the building. This connection can be how the building adapts to its surroundings, such as sloping a roof plane to follow its topography. It can be connecting the user with the exterior through the use of interior comfort or opening the interior to create an exterior interactive space.

Sustainability The first important similarity between these buildings is sustainability and adaption to the environment. In the case of the Fletcher-Page house rain water collection is used to reduce water use. A metal roof is used to keep the water as clean as possible. The water runs through gutters and pipes to be stored in large tanks on the south side of the building. This water is now known as graywater and can be used for toilets, sinks, showers, laundry or landscaping. Due to the isolated location of this house “Australia has relied on rainwater for many decades, and many building codes now require catchment and storage systems” (Bainbridge, Haggard, 2011, pg. 187).

In comparison, the four-corner villa has no running water at all. The building has very minimal resources to suit is remote location. The house also includes a garden and wood fire heating. The building only uses wood from the surrounding forest and is highly insulated (Avanto Architects, n.d.). The use of sustainable features used on both these buildings is great for not only the user’s well-being, but it can help to rebuild the ecosystem around it (Bainbridge, Haggard, 2011).

Natural Light Glenn Murcutt saw the sun as a way to light and heat his house more than to create energy. He features a large extent of clerestory lighting that stretches to all rooms of the slender house.

These windows are facing north, which in Australia gives the maximum amount of sunlight. Murcutt located the glazing high on the vertical plane such that it doesn’t blind the user’s visibility but provides the occupant with natural lighting. The natural light helps the light the house for the majority of the day and can give a heat gain to the building. This gain can be beneficial to the user in the winter months, but in the summer months it can be bothersome (Ching, 2015).

Clerestory Lighting

Exterior Wall Plane

The four-corner villa doesn’t use any electricity, thus it relies on natural light to light its interior. The all white interior helps to

Figure 11. Fletcher-Page House – Clerestory Lighting (Guess.Who., 2003)

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brighten the space, but as seen in figures 8 and 9, the interior has a large amount of natural light inside the house.

The south face of the building has one face with glazing on it. This opening is offset into the building to create a porch space. This space helps to block the direct sunlight from entering the building. This means that the house is inviting more daylight than sunlight. This is an exceptional design, as the building isn’t experiencing any access heat gain. “daylight remains fairly constant, even on cloudy days, and can help to soften the harshness of the direct sunlight and balance the light level within a space” (Ching, 2015, pg.

188). As seen in figure. 12 The wood burning fireplaces also help to light the interior with a warm orange tone.

Elevated Base Plane Figure 12. Four-Corned Villa – North (Arch Daily, 2011)

Building Form While both these buildings have simple forms, they have intentions for their designs. Their purposes are to not disrupt the land they sit upon. The four-corner villa does this will its extensive sustainable strategy and its exterior connections. Murcutt accomplished this through his use of clerestory lighting and rainwater use. The four-corner villa designed their form to connect to different parts of their surrounding environment. The building stretches in four different directions to give its users four different experiences. While the FletcherPage house stretches across an Australian hillside to utilize natural light.

The defining elements of both these buildings are different. The four-corner villa’s spiral layout has a minimal amount of interior partitions, thus the exterior planes directly define the form of the house. In the Fletcher-Page house the interior layout has many partitions that only help to define the space (Ching, 2015). The major defining elements are the integration of the clerestory lighting and the tilted roof plane. As mentioned the roof plane follows the slope of the hillside it sits on. This connects the building to its site and allows extra space in the vertical planes for the clerestory lighting.

Figure 13. Fletcher-Page House – Perspective (Guess.Who., 2003)

Houses like this can be developed in many ways, some focus on a concept such as natural light or sustainability. Others create a main element and design a building around it, these main elements can be on the inside or the outside. Sometimes this element isn’t even part of the building. The main thing architects like Avanto and Murcutt want to do is connect their users with the environment.

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Interior The idea to think about when designing the interior of a cottage is comfort.

Cottages are most commonly used to escape the everyday troubles. The layouts featured on the four-corner villa and Fletcher-Page house are very different but are also very similar.

Avanato Architects wanted to design an interior that could create connections with its exterior environment. They achieved this by creating four distinct spaces that are all open to each other.

The kitchen can be thought of as the central location for the home; as it is directly beside the main entrance and looks into all other rooms. Much like this, the Fletcher-Page house is centralized around its kitchen with sliding doors connecting to the exterior and connection into all other rooms via a corridor. The large difference between these two spaces is that four-corner villa has visuals into all other spaces of the house. In the Fletcher-Page house the kitchen is only connected through a corridor and not a visual.

One similarity that is seen is that the bedrooms are moderately separated from the central area. The Fletcher-Page house has many more doors to limit the visibility and to create more private spaces. Unlike the four-corner villa which just has a small walkway into the bedroom space. This separates the space in a physical and mental sense, but not in a visual sense as seen in figure 15.

Figure 14. Fletcher-Page House – Interior (Guess.Who., 2003)

Bedroom

Figure 15. Four-Corned Villa – Inside 3 (Arch Daily, 2011)

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References Arch Daily. (2011). Four-corned villa/Avanto Architects. Retrieved from https://www.arc hdaily.com/129977/four-cornered-villa-avanto-architects Avanto Architects. (n.d.). Four-corned villa. Retrieved from https://avan.to/works/four-cornered-villa/ Bainbridge, D.A. Haggard, K. (2011). Passive Solar Architecture: Heating, Cooling, Ventilation, Daylighting, and More Using Natural Flows. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Bart, G. Faddis, H. (2016). Fletcher Page House. Retrieved from https://www.behance.n et/gallery/34611643/Fletcher-Page-House Clark, R.H. Pause, M. (2012). Precedents in Architecture: Analytic Diagrams, Formative Ideas, and Partis.

New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, inc.

Ching, F. (2015). Architecture: Form, Space, & Order. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, inc.

Drew Lindsay Real Estate. (n.d). Fletcher-Page House: Kangaroo Valley. Retrieved from http://www.drewlindsay.com.au/property/fletcher-page-house-kangaroo-valley/ Guess.Who. (2003). Fletcher-Page House. [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr. com/photos/78604623@N00/sets/72157594177126451/with/174668340/ Inhabitat. (2011). Four-Corned Villa is an Off-Grid Minimalist Retreat in Finland. Retrieved from https://inhabitat.com/four-cornered-villa-is-an-off-grid-minimalist-retreat-in-finland/# Lomholt, I (2019). Four-corned villa, Finland. E-Architect. Retrieved from https://www.earchitect.co.uk/finland/four-corner-villa Oz.e.tecture. (n.d.). Glenn Murcutt – Profile. Retrieved from https://www.ozetect ure.org/glenn-murcutt-profile/

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Teicu, A. (2012). Unusually Minimalist Four Cornered Villa For An Ascetic Lifestyle. Retrieved from https://freshome.com/2012/06/21/unusually-minimalist-four-cornered-villa-for-an-ascetic-lifestyle/

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