Tube House

It is often said that the finest architecture embraces constraints and makes opportunities of them. This is certainly true of the Tube House. While designed outside of the practice, the project is nevertheless similar to other projects by Denton Corker Marshall, of which the architect is a director, in that it’s design is guided by a strong single idea expressed in a contemporary language in form and detail; in this case, the idea of expressed tubes. An inner-city suburb, Carlton’s gunbarrel terrace housing is characterised by well-articulated and often beautiful front façades, but also by dimly lit and introverted interiors. The Tube House is an attempt to design contemporary, urban single housing on a 19th century grid; distilling the long thin plots of terrace houses to a simple and functional geometry. As an illustration of the challenges posed by the site, even achieving the very form of the building was a challenge given the requirement for level set-backs imposed by ResCode. By submitting a planning application with an adjoining house and creating a three storey common boundary wall, the architect was able to provide for the necessary set-backs on the other side.

The Tube House is conceptually clear enough to be explained in two elevations and a diagramatic plan. It is, essentially, a rectangular base holding up two smaller tubes of pre-coloured metal and postcoloured compressed/natural timber. The brightly coloured central tube cantilevers over the base to provide shelter for the carport, and front and rear entries. Its abstract and bold colouration is maintained across all surfaces, including the underside which is set into the base form and becomes part of the ceiling on the ground floor. Both tubes are largely enclosed on the sides to maintain the form of an extruded finger, and to maintain privacy and the necessary fire ratings. They are open at the ends, framing views of the neighb-ouring swimming pool or the street-scape. The open ends fill the extruded tubes with natural light, with the assistance of skylights, inverted lantern lights, and translucent internal doors.

The uppermost tube houses a play/multi-purpose area of 2.4 by 11 metres, and is sheltered by deeper balconies which leave the glazed ends of the extruded shape open but maintain some privacy for the interior. The brightly coloured first floor tube houses the bedrooms, and its ends are protected by external louvres. The first floor tube seems oriented more to the street, where it is again protected from onlookers by louvres, while the play area is oriented towards the courtyard and the neighbouring council pool.

Natural lighting is only one of what the architect describes as simply ‘sensible’ ESD provisions, which also include natural cross-ventilation to every space, double glazing and high spec insulation, continuous-flow water heating, and external awnings to take solar load off the glass. These and other details are carefully worked out so that as far as possible, they are made invisible. This together with a highly efficient use of space, careful consideration of borrowed views and of the interaction of light with the building envelope, and level changes, make the best use of very limited space on this inner city site.

For example, the house is constructed of single skin timber frame, which provided about ten per cent more floor area than otherwise available. Even the cantilevers of the tubes over the courtyard provide more space without dominating the courtyard. The rear side of the plot adjoining the council pool, too, is utilised, being a sheltered studio space separated from the rest of the house by thecourtyard. +

1 The tubes cantilever over the courtyard to provide shelter, secure more interior space, and to provide a better outlook; all without dominating the courtyard or becoming overbearing. 2 The project essentially consists of two expressed tube structures resting on a base; the brightly coloured first floor tube housing the bedrooms, and the uppermost tube consisting of a multi-purpose/play room. 3 As far as possible, the detailing is designed so that it melts away. 4 The central tube is clearly expressed even in the ground floor interior, where it forms part of the ceiling. 5 Due to fire codes and privacy concerns, the tubes are necessarily mostly closed on the sides, but the treatment of the end balconies on this floor is such that enough lit penetrates and fills the tube. Skylights also help to bring daylight into the space.

PHOTOGRAPHY by Tim Griffith, Nicholas K. M Lee