Far removed from coastal McMansions and inner-city apartment or terrace dwelling, residential sub-divisions represent a large and increasing quota of the way Australians live.
Elysium Noosa, a unique development in Queensland, explores this typology through the eyes of 12 significant Australian architects. With each firm designing a number of individual lots, this project offers an insight into the ways Australian designers respond to unique physical elements.
“We are now maturing as a culture that understands the significance of site, climate and location, as real influences in the built environment,” says Woods Bagot Senior Associate, Domenic Alvaro.
For Elysium Noosa, both variety and unity informed Woods Bagot’s designs. The elements of an idealised sub-tropical villa, such as the courtyard, overhang, landscape and pool, were interpreted as personality traits (overhang = umbrella, landscape = no house) and then scattered throughout their allotted division.
Cohesion comes into play in the reading and experience of the whole. Alvaro explains, “Our interest is not in the calibre of each individual house, but how they, in unison, combine to create a distinct residential experience not to be missed.”
Featured in Habitus 06 (out now), the Wonga Beach House also designed by Alvaro, shows a similar approach to site specificity and sensitivity to issues of light, airflow and site in tropical North Queensland.
Elysium Noosa features lots designed by:
Arkhefield
Bark Design
Bligh Voller Nield
Cottee Parker Architects
Cox Raynor Architects
Elizabeth Watson Brown
Fairweather Proberts
Gabrielle & Elizabeth Poole Design
Lahz Nimmo Architects
Richard Kirk Architects
Spence Pearson Architects
Woods Bagot
Photography: Thomas Bloch Photography
Elysium Noosa
elysiumnoosa.com.au
[email protected]
