Project: Lookout House
Architects: Room 11
Location: Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia
Photographs by: Ben Hosking
Lookout House by Room 11
The Lookout House by the Australian studio Room 11 is a successful meld of two home building typologies: the farmhouse and the courtyard house. It is characterized by the three immediately recognizable gabled metal roofs which are oriented towards a descending hill, the ocean to the south and the Tasman island respectively. The entry wall is clad in cedar planks while the sliding barn door is almost invisible in the facade. The two canopies contain the living areas wrapped in floor-to-ceiling glass panels that allow the spaces to open up to the outdoors. The smaller side of the structure situates the bedrooms.
From the architects: “Positioned on a previously cleared site with views towards Tasman Island and the Southern Ocean beyond, this project takes the farmhouse typology and transforms it into a hybrid courtyard house. Visitors enter through a covered threshold, experiencing views into the treed courtyard and the sea beyond, before venturing into the main living space where the full panorama unfolds. Three gable roof extrusions define particular functions within each with particular relationships to the courtyard and specific views to the surrounds. The extruded form pushes beyond the building envelope providing covered outdoor living spaces.”
