BOX CLEVER.An almost industrial approach created the large volume of this studio-house elegantly and economically. A deceptively de·cep·tive·ly adv. In a deceptive or deceiving manner; so as to deceive. Usage Note: When deceptively is used to modify an adjective, the meaning is often unclear. simple building is set in a suburban Sydney street lined with terraced houses, flats and warehouses. It occupies the site of two terraced houses, and the local council planners demanded that the street side of the building should reflect the previous scale, rather than that of a warehouse, so that the two-storey street (east) elevation elevation, vertical distance from a datum plane, usually mean sea level to a point above the earth. Often used synonymously with altitude, elevation is the height on the earth's surface and altitude, the height in space above the surface. is divided in half, with the garage and front door of the house dominating the ground floor of each. Above is the sleeping balcony Balcony (from Italian balcone, scaffold; cf. High German balcho, beam, balk; probably cognate with Persian term بالكانه bālkāneh or its older variant , fronted on the street side by louvres which can be totally opened to light and breeze, or closed to give complete opacity Refers to being "opaque," which means to prevent light from shining through. For example, in an image editing program, the opacity level for some function might range from completely transparent (0) to completely opaque (100). . Economy was one of the main criteria; so was the need to make a big space for use as a photographic studio A photographic studio is both a workspace and a corporate body. As a workspace it is much like an artist’s studio, but providing space to take, develop, print and duplicate photographs. , which could double as a living area. The big volume, indeed the whole house, has been created in an almost industrial way with steel portal frames Portal frame construction is a method of building and designing simple structures, primarily using steel or steel-reinforced precast concrete although they can also be constructed using laminated timber such as glulam. 6m high and 7m wide, blockwork side walls and compressed fibre boards on front and back parapets. The whole shell is painted white. The most dramatic element of the house is the back (west) wall, made up of six 6m-high glass panels which can be slid and stacked so that the whole can be opened to the little white court and the sky. In summer, natural through ventilation can be achieved by opening the west wall and the louvres on the street side; the glass wall is shaded by a neighbour's huge eucalypt. Because the big space has to be rapidly converted from living room to studio, lightweight wheeled furniture was evolved (a new range by the architects). Because of the size of the volume, and the 5m-long kitchen bench, the horizontal scale of the elements is larger than normal, even if they are light. A triumph of light and simplicity, the house/studio impressed im·press 1 tr.v. im·pressed, im·press·ing, im·press·es 1. To affect strongly, often favorably: the whole jury, though it failed to receive the first prize because some of us were a bit worried about what would happen if the neighbour cut down the tree in his back garden. ARCHITECT ENGELEN MOORE |
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