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Letterbox House

This is a project by McBride Charles Ryan and it is located at Blairgowrie, Australia. Project's program: Single family house. There are eleven images for Letterbox House.

: © John Gollings / GollingsPidgeon

Project details

Project name: Letterbox House
Location: Blairgowrie, Australia
Program: Single family house
Area: Project Size: 290 m2
Year: Project Year: 2009
Project by: McBride Charles Ryan
Team: Principal Designers: Rob McBride, Debbie-Lyn Ryan • Project Team: Adam Pustola, Meredith Dufour, Michael McManus, Angela Woda, Matthew Borg, Fang Cheah, Flynn Lewer

Project images

Designer's statement

It’s like a half space, half enclosed, half open. Neither in nor out — a new version of the good old Aussie verandah.

Its like a giant multi-sensory organ, the sun, the sky, the breeze and the sound and smell of the sea — When you arrive here of an evening and stand here and see the stars, no matter how still it is, you smell the sea — suck it in, it transforms you, reminds you (of what matters), it’s a kind of tonic.

We like the buildings that make you smile (not laugh). It makes people smile, a building with the smallest façade on the peninsula — the building begins as the letterbox and unfurls to become this healthy scaled verandah, to some it is an upturned boat, to others it a wave a cliff. We like it being many things — people stop and ask us, we just say it is what it is to you.

We wanted to show respect — the peninsula needs it, and the scale here was modest beach suburban — we wanted to respect that scale — and yet as you walk along the deck the scale sneaks up on you — before you know it your immersed and surrounded by the scale of the house — a bit like life really.

The peninsula is the place where you suspend formality and convention for a while — we wanted the building to do this and to remind you of that — it moves too far from architectural convention towards the other disciplines — that was the intention. It becomes ambiguous — What is it? Where is the front door? You don’t need a ‘front door’ in a holiday house — you just find your way in.

Late on a sunny afternoon, when you are all salty, it is a great place to sit; the afternoon sun gives the wall a golden glow, which is echoed by the golden beer in your hand. You sit and watch the kids do what kids do — the things they forget to do when you are in the city.

The inside of this golden wall is vivid red; the support structure and the support shelves which in time will become deposits of beach memories, the much leafed book, the photos, the bric-a-brac of beach holidays and markers of the quintessential Australian family life — when that happens maybe that will then become ‘my space’ also.