Featherston House
| Featherston House | |
|---|---|
Panoramic view of the entire house
|
|
| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Architectural style | Australia’s domestic buildings (loft and warehouse style) |
| Address | 22 Boulevard Ivanhoe 3079 |
| Town or city | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Country | Australia |
| Current tenants | Featherston's family |
| Construction started | 1967 |
| Completed | 1968 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Robin Boyd |
| Architecture firm | Romberg & Boyd |
Featherston House is located at 22 The Boulevard, Ivanhoe, Victoria. It was designed by leading Australian architect Robin Boyd of Romberg & Boyd in 1967. The house was completed in 1969.
The Featherston House is designed like an artist studio, and combines inspiration from a warehouse and loft. The house is famed for the design of its interior. Its interior comprises an indoor garden, combined with the suspension of four ‘floating’ platforms above the garden. The architect introduces natural light into the space by the construction of a transparent roof and large full glassed windows on one side of the house. The concept was to relook at how spaces could unfold and prevent compartmentalisation of the spaces.
Boyd's home design was built for the couple Mary and Grant Featherston, who were industrial designers and a flat that was meant for the Featherston's parents. Boyd's works raised awareness for Australia's domestic buildings and suburbs in the 1960s and shows intentions of experimentation with ideas of affordable housing, raising the bar for aesthetics in suburbia housing for the general people.
His works are often seen as representational of International Modern Movement in Australia. Robin was an architect, teacher and writer and was well known in his field as an architect who pushes ideas and boundaries creatively.
The Featherston House sits on sloping ground, at the edge of a parkland in the suburbs. The Featherston, owners of the house were open to new ideas and Boyd had the creative freedom to design an alternative scheme, with the theme of living in a garden. The design approach was considered radical at that time with full glassed windows, overlooking the bush land, its garden at the ground floor and platforms that are placed strategically from the chimney, placed in the centre. The Featherston house took on the idea of a beautiful tree house. The owner describes her bedroom— “with its dizzying outlook from the highest of the four platforms — as a "nest.
The house brings in spaces from the outdoors and ‘responses’ to the natural environment. There is multi usage of a single space since the raised platform is used as a dancing area at parties. The raised platform also allows cool air in summer. The main exposition of this idea is a large 7.5m high space at the centre of the house. The idea of de compartmentalising is further developed by suspension of different living spaces on a series of four staggered, unframed platforms, forming the living, dining, study and master bedroom spaces.
...
Wikipedia