Letterbox House by McBride Charles Ryan

Architects: McBride Charles Ryan
Location: Blairgowrie, Victoria, Australia
Year: 2009
Area: 3,121 sqft
Photo courtesy: John Gollings
Description:

It’s similar to a half space, half encased, half open. Neither in nor out – another form of the great old Aussie verandah. Its like a monster multi-tangible organ, the sun, the sky, the breeze and the sound and possess a scent reminiscent of the ocean – When you touch base here of a night and stand here and see the stars, regardless of how still it is, you notice the ocean – suck it in, it changes you, reminds you (of what makes a difference), it’s a sort of tonic.

We like the structures that make you grin (not giggle). It makes individuals grin, a building with the littlest façade on the promontory – the building starts as the letterbox and spreads out to wind up this sound scaled verandah, to some it is an upturned pontoon, to others it a wave a precipice. We like it being numerous things – individuals stop and ask us, we simply say it is the thing that it is to you.

We needed to show regard – the landmass needs it, and the scale here was humble shoreline rural –we needed to regard that scale – but as you stroll along the deck the scale sneaks up on you – before you know it your inundated and encompassed by the size of the house – a touch like life truly.

The landmass is the spot where you suspend custom and tradition for some time – we needed the building to do this and to help you to remember that – it moves too a long way from design tradition towards alternate controls – that was the goal. It gets to be equivocal – What is it? Where is the front entryway? You needn’t bother with a ‘front entryway’ in an occasion house – you simply discover your way in.

Late on a sunny evening, when you are all salty, it is an incredible spot to sit; the evening sun gives the divider a brilliant gleam, which is resounded by the brilliant lager in your grasp. You sit and watch the children do what children do – the things they neglect to do when you are in the city.

Within this brilliant divider is clear red; the bolster structure and the backing racks which in the reality of the situation will become obvious eventually stores of shoreline recollections, the highly leafed book, the photographs, the bric-a-brac of shoreline occasions and markers of the quintessential Australian family life – when that happens possibly that will become also my space.