voussoirs: THE HA HA HAUS – PLACE & CONTEXT

It’s called the ‘Ha Ha Haus.’ Is it a joke? One knows what a ha-ha is, but where is it? The text gives us the suggestion without any clear direction: ‘Embedded into the landscape . . Set in and around this mound.’ Just how this has been achieved is not really made clear as the there are no drawings of this project, but it is noted: ‘Hence, the namesake, a landscaped mound beguiles and conceals not only the necessary visual bulk of a low-lying house . . .’ Is the architect confused?#

Ha-ha or berm?

The next question was: where is this place? The words of the architect sound idyllic, but how can one test these statements and intent in their particular context? So the search began.

No plan was provided, so one could only seek out clues in the words and the images. The text tells that it is Alphington, Victoria: ‘. . is located in a leafy pocket of Alphington (Wurundjeri Country) where front fences are a refreshingly rare sighting.’ The statement is almost poetic.

The photographs did not give much away. These typically ‘architectural’ images, though numerous, isolate the context, minimise it by framing it out wherever possible; but, as is usual, there are a couple of background clues that cannot easily be removed. In this set of 51 images – see: https://figr.com.au/HA-HA-HAUS – only 10 photographs gave glimpses of the neighbours. Of these, only two offered some distinctive identity that one could use in a Google Earth search; the others had only snippets of pieces that were already more complete in the two useful images. One neighbouring house had a corrugated iron gabled roof with a tall brick chimney at the intersection of the gables that had banded infills; the roof had solar panels that faced the street. The other neighbouring property was a brick house with a terracotta-coloured tiled roof and a distinctive black gridded side screen fence; behind this neighbour one could see a taller brick building with a blue-grey coloured tiled roof: so the search started.

The perimeter of the area referred to as Alphington was defined in Google Earth with a precise red line. One could see the pattern of development in this zone with schools, shops, parks, a rail line, and the Yarra River. Very few portions of the suburb could be described as ‘leafy, so one started searching the ‘greener’ streets, looking for the elements that had been identified in the neighbouring houses. One did not look for the Ha Ha Haus, because Google Earth images might have been taken before construction. The hope was that, once found, the Street View might be more up to date and show the new house – or should one call it ‘Haus’? This situation occurred with the search for the Hawthorn House: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-hawthorne-house-context-place-street.html.

Street after street was studied; nothing matching could be seen. There were not many solar panels parallel to the streets, so one concentrated on this more unique feature. Having no luck with the obviously treed areas, one began looking in other places that one might consider ‘leafy.’ At last the solar panels with the distinctive chimney were spied; and the tiled roof of the neighbours matched too. Street View was opened; yes, this was the site: 2a Constance Street, Alphington. The neighbouring gables, chimney and solar panels were there, and the tiled-roofed brick house with the higher blue-grey roof behind it: but the site between these in Street View revealed a small brick house with a tiled roof on it, approached along a quaintly twisting narrow path leading from a gate in the low brick fence. This place must have been demolished to make way for the new home. No mention of this was made in the architect’s blurb. Might the ‘Ha Ha’ refer to this surprise?

2a Constance Street in Street View:

showing solar panels, chimney, and gables.

2a Constance Street in Street View:

showing terracotta and blue-grey tiled roofs.

While this discovery was disappointing, one could look at the context for this Ha Ha Haus, which was, in any case, the initial aim of this exercise. Street View has the benefit of showing things as the passerby might see them, with a nonchalant eye free from preconception, rather than presenting a selected vista fabricated by a special ‘architectural’ lens. The Street View viewing point was taken back to one end of this short street and then moved along just to see the character of the area that is described as ‘leafy,’ a place that does not have many front fences – Wurundjeri Country:

Embedded into the landscape, ‘Ha Ha Haus’ is located in a leafy pocket of Alphington (Wurundjeri Country) where front fences are a refreshingly rare sighting.

2a Constance Street in Street View.

The naming of country is very woke and respectful, but how did the design respond to this? Is this identification really only a matter of self-conscious political correctness? How was this place used by the indigenous people? How was it seen by them?

The house opposite

The street.

The journey along the street was revealing: only three sites out of the twelve frontages did not have a fence. The street has about twenty street trees, making it a pleasant promenade backed by shrubs and bushes, but not the leafiest place in Alphington. Ironically, the only dead street tree just happened to be the one outside 2a. It seemed that the architects had gained a vision of this place that was more idyllic that it actually is.

'Leafy' streets in Alphington.

Constance Street, Alphington.

Constance Street, a short street between Como Street and Lucerne Crescent.

Constance Street fences and screens.

One is left wondering: has the architect also stretched the idealism of the visions for this project in the blurb about the design of the house and its ambitions? It is difficult to tell, as the majority of images are piecemeal details, the consequence of a carefully directed lens with a selective ‘arty’ intent that seems to want to embellish the preferred experience: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-architectural-image.html.

Just why do architects shy away from providing the location of their projects when houses are public places, a part of the public street? In this case, the design is said to have acknowledged and considered the street identity: ‘From the footpath, the project aims to give back to the streetscape and public realm into which it is sleeved and embedded’; but it is careful not to define the actual location. This particular street is really not unlike most in suburban Australia, with a selection of styles, ages, and materials that offer a hybrid shambles, a mix of differences that just happen to be there. It is difficult to understand what is being given back. The images suggest that it is offering a landscaped frontage as a buffer/screen for privacy – a separation from the street.

One can look at all of the fifty one images and still not know the house; and have many questions about matters that the blurb does not mention too; e.g. What are and why do we have the dramatic angular distortions? Why brickwork? What are the intentions here; and those involved in displaying the array of detailed images? One feels that there is a naive, enthusiastic exuberance for this project that stimulated an indulgent admiration prompting an excessive number of published images. These require review and editing to concentrate matters: less is sometimes more.

Generally, the project provides an attractive landscaped presence in the street that does embellish the existing green place. It is a shame it is so idealised. There really is no need to hide away behind a clever title, a tailored text, and a surplus of carefully selected, framed photos. The more ‘realistic’ one can be in everything, as we can appreciate in Street View, the more useful will the understanding of everyday values become. We need to avoid trying to be special, bespoke, and woke - artfully arty with a staccato array of 'akimbo' visual delights (see: https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/11/architectural-seeing.html) - when all that is needed is the desire for and the recognition of good work, as Schumacher noted: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2023/01/hadids-tents.html

THE TEXT

Ha Ha Haus / FIGR

From the architect:

Embedded into the landscape, ‘Ha Ha Haus’ is located in a leafy pocket of Alphington (Wurundjeri Country) where front fences are a refreshingly rare sighting.

Our client’s design brief was loose in that they were open to any ‘blue sky’ ideas and provided the design meets the core function of a close knit family home which caters for frequent visitors from overseas, intergenerational living and - at times - a transient occupancy.

Accordingly, iterative concept testing* and close collaboration with consultants and the client resulted in a sprawling single storey design that not only addresses the need for the long term notion of ageing-in-place but one that sensitively responds to the sloping site and the immediate adjoining context.

The floor plan itself can best be described as a donut surrounding and enveloping a central landscaped courtyard. This intentional and key design element is a direct response to fundamental passive solar principles of maximising opportunities of cross ventilation and north facing glazing to what most would deem a challenging site with its backyard facing south.

In addition to the sustainability and comfort factors, this internalised outdoor space is place of refuge and acts a mechanism by which the adjoining neighbouring homes overlooking the site are in effect masked out, thereby shifting the perception of the occupant more so towards the beautifully lush borrowed landscape, glimpsed just over the lip of the courtyard perimeter walls.

From the footpath, the project aims to give back to the streetscape and public realm into which it is sleeved and embedded. Hence, the namesake, a landscaped mound beguiles and conceals not only the necessary visual bulk of a low-lying house but a 20,000L rainwater harvesting tank, which with the advice of our repeat landscape collaborators Mud Office, serves to provide recycled water for irrigation and bathrooms ten times that which is required by local building regulations. A large single-storey roof catchment means that there is plenty of rainwater not going to waste.

Set in and around this mound is a charred Blackbutt timber-clad veil which in a way generates its own horizon line and acts as a heat trap. This native Australian timber cladding, like the other building materials, extends from outside into the internal parts of the home. The palette intentionally paired back to three main finishes which were locally sourced to limit embodied carbon emissions and selected for richness, robustness, longevity, and low maintenance characteristics.

https://figr.com.au/HA-HA-HAUS

iterative

/ˈɪt(ə)rətɪv/

adjective

relating to or involving iteration, especially of a mathematical or computational process.
- LINGUISTICS
  
  denoting a grammatical rule that can be applied repeatedly.
- GRAMMAR
  
  another term for frequentative.

https://www.google.com/search?q=iterative+meaning&oq=iterative+mean&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j0i512l2j0i67j0i512l5.4336j1j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

iteration

/ˌɪtəˈreɪʃn/

noun

the repetition of a process or utterance.

"what is the use of this constant iteration of the same things?"
- repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem.
  
  "the equation can only be solved through iteration"
- a new version of a piece of computer hardware or software.
  
  plural noun: iterations
  
  "the app is now in its tenth iteration"

A ha-ha (French: hâ-hâ or saut de loup), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond from the other side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha

A ha-ha maintains the view.

One has to ask: has the architect got things muddled? A ha-ha is a sunken ditch that allows an unobstructed vista, not a raised mound that ‘sinks’ the house. A ‘berm’ is a raised mound, but Berm Haus does not look or sound as good as the Ha Ha Haus which seems to use the German term for house merely for the visual and auditory repetition rather than for anything else meaningful – other than iteration.