When first
published, the project was described as a granny flat at Burleigh
Heads in Queensland. The article - see: http://claredesign.com.au/granny-flat-burleigh-heads/ - was reviewed in
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2015/06/pairs-15-naked-queenslander.html
The description of the work, ‘Granny Flat, Burleigh Heads,
Queensland,’ was a refrain that kept appearing as the project was
promoted in numerous other publications and on various sites.^ Peter
Hyatt, the author of the original publication in Steel Profile, even waxed lyrical about the context: ‘In suburban Burleigh
Heads, within earshot of the surf on a clear evening, Clare Design’s
Granny Flat brings all of the stars into alignment.’ Where was he?
Knowing Burleigh
Heads fairly well, one wondered where the granny flat might be. It is
always important to see the broader context of any building: place is
an integral part of the experience of a building – the neighbours;
the region; the suburb; the town; the city: the aspect and prospect. The idea to seek out the
particular context of a project was stimulated by an interest in
Street View, and the critique that the understanding of
‘architecture’ is being changed by the special way of seeing that
architects appear to promote: see –
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-need-for-street-view-in-architecture.html
and
http://voussoirs.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/seeing-what-we-believe-idyllic-visions.html
Modernism seems to like singularity rather than community:
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2020/02/villa-mairea-city-of-solitude.html;
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-rose-seidler-house-private-visions.html
and
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/03/architectures-two-remote-islands-too.html
Burleigh Heads
The images that
accompanied the text in the magazine, and those that appeared on
other sites, all carefully excluded the context of this granny flat
with a precise framing of clever, wide-angled photographs: it could
have been anywhere. Only the suburb named as ‘Burleigh Heads’ identified
the location. Very few visual clues remained; so the search of
Burleigh Heads started on Google Earth, using the clue in the
published text that told that the flat was ‘in suburban Burleigh
Heads, not far from the rolling sea . . . in a suburban street.’
The search was not a difficult challenge, as this description limited
the zone that one had to peruse: the ‘Burleigh Heads’ strip of
the Gold Coast. Unfortunately, the project could not be found; the
search started again: nothing. Where might it be?+
'not far from the rolling sea' at Burleigh Heads.
A reflected gable.
The adjacent rusty corrugated iron roof.
The rear house or flats and nearby palm trees.
Clare Design, (Kerry
and Lindsay Clare),** had designed this building, so the company's site was
opened in the hope that more precise information might become
available. Here the listing of the Granny Flat included a
series of photographs. These were studied closely in order to glean
more about the context that might be useful in locating this place.
One could see reflections of low, gabled homes typical of the Gold
Coast that confirmed the ‘suburban street’ location; but it was
the rusty, corrugated iron roof that stood out: there are not a lot
of these on the Gold Coast where typically ‘fibro’ roofs were
used on the older homes, with the newer houses being roofed in tiles
or the more durable coloured corrugated sheeting. Different photos
suggested other distinctive clues: there appeared to be a white,
possibly newer home or flats behind the granny flat that also had
some tall palm trees nearby.
The adjacent housing.
The fibro cottage 'six metres' in front of the 'Beat Box.'
There was not a lot
of contextual information available from the skilfully edited images, so the
text was perused. The Clare Design description was interesting:
There seems to be no similar reluctance to publicise all the spaces in, and details of this granny flat.
Granny Flat
The new two-storey
pavilion has uncomplicated and flexible planning. Both levels consist
of an open studio space that can be subdivided for living and
sleeping and both have an attached bathroom.
Passive solar and
ventilation strategies inform the pavilion’s plan and section, and
lightweight materials acknowledge the character and scale of the
neighbourhood beach shacks that are part of the Gold Coast story.
Being more than familiar with this low density beachside suburb
typology from our early years on the Sunshine Coast we find it
natural to use simple forms and robust details.
This two-storey
‘box’ is placed six meters behind a 1950s fibro beach shack on a
long and narrow site. The space between the two buildings is
connected by a roofed deck with added battened doors that slide to
screen the rear of the existing house allowing the buildings’
occupants to come together or retreat as required.
This project
explores the concept of the intergenerational house, allowing an
extended family of grandparents, married children and grandchildren
to co-habitate within two dwellings on a 400m² suburban lot
originally intended for one dwelling. The benefits are environmental
(better use of resources), cost effectiveness and better social
outcomes from increased density and mutual family support.
Design:
2013
Completion: 2014
Architect: Clare Design
Project
Team: Lindsay Clare, Kerry Clare, David Currie, Britta
Wingender
Contractor: ClareBuild
Engineer: Mark
Traucnieks
Photographer: Peter Hyatt
The published detailed plan.
All the interiors are presented with the 'wide-angled' spaces usually seen in real estate brochures.
The best information
in the text appeared to be: ‘This two-storey ‘box’ is placed
six meters (sic) behind a 1950s fibro beach shack on a long and narrow
site. . . . a 400m² suburban lot.’ So one was looking for a long,
narrow site with an old ‘fibro’ home on it, located not far from
the ocean. The scrutiny of Burleigh Heads had not revealed anything, so
the search was extended. The question was: if not Burleigh Heads,
then where? The region that needed to be studied was the narrow
coastal strip of the Gold Coast that would have been developed in the
1950s: Fibro houses are found in many suburbs along the coastal
strip, from Southport to Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach, Palm Beach
to Coolangatta.# As an approximation, this meant the zone along
the coast comprising only a couple of blocks back from the beach. The challenge turns out to be not too different to the "Where's Wally?" question, the equivalent of the search for a needle in a haystack.
Wally at Surfers Paradise : Where's Wally?
The Gold Coast
Where's the granny flat?
Where might one
start? Why not look north and south of Burleigh Heads? Could the
reference to the suburb have been muddled with some flexible
idea of its boundary; perhaps generalised as the central zone of
the coastal strip? It is interesting that ‘Burleigh Heads’ is not
identified in the Heritage Guidelines as a suburb that had fibro
houses, although there are still a few to be seen in the area. The date mentioned in the project overview, 2014, was useful,
as it suggested that there would be no confusion with any differences
between the Google Earth view and Street View: see -
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-hawthorne-house-context-place-street.html
One looked north of
Burleigh Heads, but the project could not be discovered. As one moved
into Mermaid Beach, the sites became smaller and shorter; so the
search shifted to the suburbs south of Burleigh Heads. Here one discovered a mix
of long and short sites; the search continued. Only the couple of
blocks bordering the ocean were of interest, but could the search be
limited to even a smaller zone? One thought that if the site had been
on the east of the Gold Coast Highway, then the text might have boasted
about there being an ‘ocean frontage,’ or could possibly have expressed some other
notion of convenient adjacency to the beach; but the words were ‘not
far from the rolling sea.’ This suggested that the site was on the
west side of the Highway. These areas south of Tallebudgera Creek
were studied.
One was looking for a long, narrow, fully-developed site with a cottage and a 'box' behind it;
complete with an adjacent rusty corrugated iron roof.
Palm Beach, Queensland
At last a likely
location appeared at Palm Beach: might that be the rusty roof? The
building forms looked credible. The 3D view of Earth was opened; yes,
this was the granny flat, the ‘box’ with the yellow detailing seen in the publications: the
clues of the adjacent features were confirmed. The view could be
manipulated to allow the project to be studied from all angles;
Street View showed the more particular, more familiar experienced
context. Why had this location been described as ‘Burleigh Heads’?
What had Peter Hyatt been doing? Might it have been that Burleigh
Heads was a better known location, with it now assuming the tile of
‘The New Noosa’? Could the idea have been to avoid any confusion
with Palm Beach in Florida? Had Hyatt seen any more than the
photographs? Had he really heard the surf, or could it have been the highway traffic?
'not far from the rolling sea' . . . 'within earshot of the surf.'
'The space between the two buildings is connected by a roofed deck.'
Street View was
perused. Yes, one could agree with the description: ‘. . . a large
statement . . . artfully composed in a suburban street not known for such quiet
innovation.’ Glimpses of the ‘box’ could be seen from the
street, but not much of the 1950s fibro house was exposed. This low,
gabled building seemed to have been shrouded in slats and painted a
charcoal colour. One expected that, given the reports of the Clare’s
love of the beach shack, that the raw and naive beauty of this
building might have been on display instead of having what looked
like a smartly refurbished shack transformed with the stylish
qualities and sleek ambitions made clear in the new granny flat: The
buildings had an economy of construction and attention to detail, and
they developed their own character and architectural language.
(Lindsay Clare).# The front fence and gate were corrugated steel
just like the cladding of the flat, unlike anything nearby. One
wondered why the character and language had been
changed, disguised, when they had been so lauded.
The fibro cottage with the 'box' behind.
A glimpse of the 'box' from the street.
The 'box' as it appears behind the neighbour's residence.
The slatted fibro cottage.
Looking west along the street.
The front fence.
View of the 'box' from an adjacent backyard.
The surrounding open spaces are all the private backyards of the eight neighbouring blocks.
The descriptive
words, ‘a large statement,’ left one pondering. The project was
impressive in its planning and detailing: it filled the site. The
Earth view showed how the scheme seemed to use the open space of the
adjacent backyards for its comfortable, sunny success: the 'box' could be seen to
loom over these nearby private places as the rear neighbour's building had apparently
previously done to this backyard.* If one applied the test of
precedent to this set of housing blocks, with each backyard being
developed likewise, then one gets the impression that the whole area
could become a cluttered cluster of undesirable development, with
every granny flat having the same proximity as the older homes they sat
behind, creating an awkwardly snug complexity that would test the 'passive solar and ventilation strategies.' It is with this
understanding that questions about the Clare Design granny flat
get raised. What might be the form of development that could be
successfully replicated by everyone? Should a development consider
others, or challenge their potential possibilities; limit their options?
The dominant stylish, backyard form - the neighbours' view.
Backyard supervision?
Can the Palm Beach
granny flat be a precedent, a model, or is it just a one off? Its
promotion in the publications seeks to display its exclusive qualities as an
item; the beautiful ‘box’ that it is, free of any context.
The basis of this critique of segregation, the search
for and emphasis of singularity in things bespoke, is best exposed
by Google Earth and Street View which carry no pretence or personal ambitions: Earth and Street View highlight the difference in the intent of perception.
Here one sees what is before one’s eyes, without review,
distortion, expectation, or editing. The street vistas may appear ordinarily crude, and somewhat brutal to ‘sensitive’ eyes that seek the preconceived,
managed order of self-consciously arranged, stylish compositions; but
if we continue to ignore our real world, our everyday, then we are
promoting only a dream, a hopeful vision; possibly a deception. Our
suburbs are our cities, those places that locate us, and others too. To deny their
identity, their community, however muddled this might be, is to formulate a denial in
order to structure a fantasy, a maybe, ‘let’s pretend’ world, where 'within earshot of the surf . . . a clear evening . . . brings all of the stars into alignment' – if only. For this to be envisaged, one has to ignore the neighbours, their lights and noise; and the street, its lights and noise; and the overhead electrical wiring: the context.
The other side of the street.
A glimpse of the 'box' over the neighbouring eastern property.
The fibro shack / 'box' site in the street context.
The corrugated steel fence.
Stylish compositions.
One might be able to
forgive the ‘Burleigh Heads’ siting ‘oversight,’ but the
promotion of the scheme in such a singularly exclusive
manner does little other than to perpetuate the ‘special’ way of
viewing architecture that is ‘other worldly' - ethereal. We cannot expect
anything else for the profession than its being viewed as ‘elitist’ and ‘exclusive’ when architects themselves shut out, deny what is blatantly obvious to everyone, as
they seek what appears to be the identity of bespoke, creative experts. We need to learn how things
everyday can be inclusive and rich, special in their just being there
without any self-conscious pomp, or any unusual circumstance of
viewing or orchestrated isolation in what looks like the struggle to have work recognised as unique, sensitive, and meaningfully beautiful.
A peep at the neighbour's shed distracts from the artwork.
One has to be
careful not to be seen to be shrewdly selective if architecture is
to gain any standing in the ‘ordinary’ world which is our 'everyday' experience.
Deliberate manipulation and unintentional accidents have become indistinguishable.
Paul Virilio Strategy of Deception (see: MORE IS LESS in sidebar.)
^
https://viewer.joomag.com/vision-issue-16/0576703001414045660?short&
http://claredesign.com.au/granny-flat-burleigh-heads/
https://hyattgallery.com.au/blogs/news/15712992-clare-design
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/622130136004546532/
+
Previous searches
like this have been carried out on other projects that have been presented without a context; see -
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/10/taylor-square-warehouse-variations-in.html
and
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-hawthorne-house-context-place-street.html
**
This is 'Clare Design, Architecture firm, Elanora, QLD, AU;' not to be confused with 'Clare Designs, Wedding services, Derby, UK.'
#
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/documents/bf/heritage-guidelines-10.pdf
While these fibro
houses on the Gold Coast were often quite different from one another,
there was usually a common element. Most of these houses were modest
and unassuming, small and informal in plan rather than larger and
grander. They were often owner-designed and owner-built, over many
weekends. Large, elaborate houses were not normally constructed of
fibro.
Fibro houses are
found in many suburbs along the coastal strip, from Southport to
Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach, Palm Beach to Coolangatta. They
provide a snapshot of a particular time in the history of the Gold
Coast at the middle of the 20th century, when small, unassuming
houses were constructed on what must have been relatively cheap
blocks of land, when the beach house was a small weekender, and not a
place of permanent accommodation, and when the pace of life on the
Gold Coast was much quieter than it is now.
This quote from the
Queensland architect Lindsay Clare captures the contribution of the
fibro house to the built environment of Queensland:
The small-scale
fibro beach house plays an important role in the history of
Queensland housing. The buildings had an economy of construction and
attention to detail, and they developed their own character and
architectural language.
They were modest
in plan, elevated on stumps, and had simple skillion roofs. Often
they were groups of single-room pavilions, separated for living,
sleeping and washing. The addition of a front verandah was commonly
expressed with a butterfly roof.
These humble
dwellings rarely approached the respectability of the traditional
Queensland timber and tin house, but they nevertheless created a
distinct identity of the community. Somehow the limited choice of
materials and colour added to the character and scale of the
dwellings within the coastal landscape. They became an intrinsic part
of our history and an expression of aspirations for a relaxed
lifestyle.
The fibro house was
such a common element on the Gold Coast that Victorian architect and
critic Robin Boyd, made the following observation about Surfers
Paradise in 1957:
Here is a fibro
cement paradise under a rainbow of plastic paint. It is any
Australian country town plus optimism. It is a Utopia of souvenir
shops, bamboo bridges spanning murky rock pools, night clubs,
‘fabulous floor shows’, ‘bikini bars’ selling floral wisps of
bathers and Hawaiian shirts through windows open to the footpath…beer
gardens in no hurry to close at 10, shops open as long as there are
customers awake, Sunday movies, signs, hoardings, posters, neons,
primary colours – purple, green, and orange straight from the
brimming pot.
The 'Beat Box.'
There are five Wallys to be found.
*
In Veridian
https://viewer.joomag.com/vision-issue-16/0576703001414045660?short&:
LC: Privacy is
difficult when you have this density. One reason the pavilion is
there is because to the south a neighbour had views into the
backyard. The pavilion increased their privacy and our client’s.
One might note the
irony of the granny flat now apearing to supervise other private backyards with their
ad hoc sundry shacks and sheds, supervising them, domineering awkwardly with stylish mass: ‘a large statement.’
The sectional sketch does not show the fibro cottage.
Adjacent sheds and houses are not illustrated in this elevation.
The plan does not show the adjacent structures.
The 'Beat Box' in context.
The 'Beat Box' becomes the backyard centrepiece.
MORE STREET VIEWS
The house to the east of the site.
The street looking west.
The houses on the east of the property.
The glimpse from the east.
The property to the east of the site.
The street to the south of the property.
The house at the rear of the site.
The house at the rear on the west.
The street looking towards the ocean.
The properties behind the site.
The street frontage of the Palm Beach site.
The neighbour.
The site opposite.
To equate the love of art with a love of fine sensations is to make of works of art a kind of aphrodisiac. The words “disinterested aesthetic contemplation” are a contradiction in terms and a pure non-sense.
“A Figure of Speech, or a Figure of Thought?”
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
19 MARCH 23
NOTE
Could it be that there is an ambition here to have the suburban boundaries changed, as the developer has requested in the attached link – just because it sounds better?
See: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-18/value-of-suburb-name-developer-parramatta-tower-harris-park/102109902
The small area that is currently labelled ‘Burleigh Heads’ already stretches somewhat awkwardly to the southern side of the M1.
