Three Houses (Architecture in Detail) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is full of amazing and inspiring photography that is only surpassed by the author's exquisitely written essays. I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in our built environment. Murcutt's ability to synthesize modern architecture with regional and environmental concerns is truly remarkable. His buildings contrast with nature in that the natural environment's raw and delicate attributes are enhanced through the comparison with the finished industrial character of his buldings. Murcutt, however, does not subvert nature to man because his buildings, with their reflective quality, depend upon the environment for their identity with facades that change with the time of day and the colors of the foliage. His buildings sit very lightly on their harsh yet delicate sites describing Murcutt's early concern for environmental preservation

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Murcutt's houses bring together the minimalist Miesian pavilion with the primitive hut to produce a new, striking and peculiarly Australian synthesis. The three houses covered in this volume chart the development of his unique style. The Marie Short House, with its shed-like appearance, inaugurated the architect's primitive treatment of form. Despite its tough exterior, the timber-lined interior of the building is a masterpiece of delicacy and warmth. The Ball-Eastaway House, designed for two artists as a dual gallery and dwelling place, takes the primitive aesthetic further and is constructed entirely from corrugated iron. The definition of the interior spaces in this building invites comparison with Mies van der Rohe's famous Barcelona Pavilion. Magney House with its expressive wave-shaped metal roof marks a new level of confidence and maturity. All three houses demonstrate an alliance between refinement and primitiveness that is characteristic of Murcutt's work.

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