Issacson Davis Beach House Analysis

The Isaacson/Davis Beach House located in Balnanning, Melbourne Victoria is both visually appealing and a quite simplistic design in many senses. Made from predominately timber materials it fits in perfectly into the context of the surrounding nature.

To gain a further insight into how this House was constructed and designed here is a descriptive passive that will give you a greater understanding:

"The sequence of entry and threshold is also carefully considered. Like many Breuer houses, Wardle's design is hidden (or "unpacks") as a way to heighten discovery. Visitors are made to approach the house from the road, a distance that allows, indeed "forces them to consider the form they are about to enter" (Masello, p47). Visitors to the Balnarring house must then track along the long northern face of the building to enter into an outdoor room, carved out of the long box that is the house, which makes the (binuclear) plan that separates the living and sleeping zones.

The house also floats above the site. This gravity defying notion Breuer referred to as "atavistic instinct". Thereby the landscape remains relatively undisturbed and paving, garden walls and driveways are "free flowing forms that are foils to emphasise the otherwise linear empha-sis of the house" (Masello, p13). Like Breuer, Wardle incorporates these earth defying elements with earth bound or anchoring elements, so that the house cantilevers over the site. Being elevated the house needed to be light - a quality inherent in timber building.

The building is clearly Modern. Interior spaces are spanned with a structural efficiency that allows for a maximum interplay between inside and out. Dynamic interplay between solid and void is also explored, at times extending into the landscape (protruding southern niches).

The open roof of the outdoor room fosters the sense of capturing additional space. Like Breuer, the house is contextual, where local materials and vernacular traditions are embraced."Timber Building in Australia, 1997 Isaacson- Davis House ,http://oak.arch.utas.edu.au/projects/aus/459/default.htm (accessed 2nd, March 2010)




Information accessed from;

Ferguson. S, Walker. P, Isaacson/Davis Beach House, Architectural Resource Package, http://www.timber.org.au/NTEP/Resources/17s.pdf (accessed 26th, March 2010)

Timber Building in Australia, 1997 Isaacson- Davis House ,http://oak.arch.utas.edu.au/projects/aus/459/default.htm (accessed 26th, March 2010)