All photography: Alicia Taylor
Our brief was to design a small pavilion in a subtropical garden. We began thinking about a shack in the landscape. Shacks are often remote and small because they are inhabited occasionally. In the cold, a shack is to retain warmth and protect from the cold. In the tropics it may provide shelter from the rain and somewhere dry to cook.
The form usually expresses the use, a steep pitch to shed the snow or large overhangs to shade. They are generally modest and available to all demographics. They offer retreat from urban life and a simple relationship to nature.
In a suburban garden setting, perhaps the studio could be imagined as a shack. However, the purpose is no longer for shelter, but more ephemeral. Instead of using a defined brief, the design seeks non-standard archetypal experiences, such as an angled super skinny entry door, a building with no roof, windows with views when lying on the floor, walls and structure that are not straight. The studio offers unique, memorable experiences and is rich in spirit.
The pavilion offers a simple relationship to nature. It allows one to experience the sun and rain, shadows and breeze. It allows one to experience, rough and smooth, dark and light. These experiences bring one closer to nature and well -being
The zig-zag FC cladding is painted dark, merging with the shadows of the subtropical garden. The visitor is squeezed through a dark narrow doorway, making the interior feel more spacious. The interior is all white, like a studio, a blank canvas for display and testing. The space is deliberately tall, narrow and leaning, to be memorable. The zig-zag cladding is repeated internally, with a self-bracing zig-zag exposed frame. Windows are located high and low, framing specific landscape views. The patterned mosaic floor is ambiguous, lush and exotic within a forest floor.