Program
A simple but generous house, substantial in feeling, with outdoor swimming pool for a couple with 3 young children. Size and construction means to conform to a contemporary context of conventional speculatively built "sub-division" houses.

Site
A flat, irregularly shaped lot located in Rockland, an old neighborhood in central Victoria containing a great variety of houses ranging from turn-of-the-century mansions to post-war bungalows.

Design
To achieve a feeling of "substance" within conventional means, it was decided that planning and construction must be straight- forward and that the character of the house would have to be defined through large simple gestures. To this end, a single large volume in which all of the activities of the family as a whole would take place was located toward the south. Rooms for individual use: parents' bedroom and den on the main level, and children's bedrooms and play- room on the upper level, were then aligned along the northern edge of this volume. The large volume, almost a hall or great room in traditional terms, was then subtlely sub-divided by a single monumental column into living and dining areas - the singleness and overwhelming physical presence of the column complementing the scale of the volume. Four irregular brackets, which form an oversized capital for the the column, break through the roof of the house to create a fragmented skylight. Against this dynamic gesture, an archaically proportioned Rumford fireplace centers the living area and acts to ground the movement of the space.

Construction
Within the limits of the project, conventional wood frame construction is the only feasible building technology available in Victoria. Exterior walls are finished in a heavily textured stucco and interior walls and ceilings are painted gypsum board. Floors are oak, in living, dining, and kitchen areas, with carpet in the remainder of the house. Through the manipulation of scale and detail these materials are used to create an overall feeling of substance. Special elements such as the column, fireplace, and pivot doors, as well as the great room are oversized while everything else is reduced to the most con- ventional proportion. Special construction details are also used to give physical credibility to what in other contexts are the humblest of building materials: a combination parapet flashing/ plaster stop allows the stucco finish to end at the very top of the wall so that exterior stucco masses are defined abstractly against the sky: the house appearing carved from a solid monolith. Interior volumes are defined without recourse to conventional "edgings" so that the monolithic character implied on the exterior is maintained.

The energy systems of the house are a mixture of the "state-of-the-art" and the archaic rediscovered. As gas is not available in Victoria, the house is heated electrically by radiant panels of thin metallic foil located in ceilings. Fresh air is supplied via an air-to-air heat exchangerto all rooms. In the great room , which receives a full 50% of the fresh air of the house, the air is passed within the column to mix with the warm air which collects below the skylight, counteracting any stratification which might occur due to the height of the room. The fireplace design is based on the firebox developed by Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) in the eighteenth century. This design, in conjunction with some modern refinements, maximizes the distribution of heat from an open fire by direct and re-emitted radiation, rather than by (fan-driven) air circulation from a fully enclosed fire, as is the case with most "energy efficient" fireplaces today.