Page Turner - Out Of Town

The Age

Wednesday June 28, 2006

MIRANDA TAY

BOOK REVIEW: Out of Town, The Country House, Published by Images Publishing

Edited by Peter Hyatt, hardcover, RRP $75

IT'S an alarming global trend: a desire to get maximum house for the buck on an allotment that's too small. The race for bulk and "pre-eminence" is winning, especially in new suburban housing estates, where scant regard is given to environmental or aesthetic concerns. Inland, however, the picture is more promising.

In a succinct introduction, editor Peter Hyatt, with Jennifer Hyatt, sums up the premise of this book: out-of-town houses are often outstripping their urban counterparts in inventing a better housing typology. They are effective solutions that remain mindful of delicate eco-systems.

"Out-of-town houses are spare in form, often constructed from prefabricated components, and reflect the shrewd transfer of an industrial or rural vocabulary . . . They are much less concerned with fashion than utility and flexibility."

The authors have selected 37 projects, mainly from the Americas, Australia and Japan. Three were designed by Victorian architects. In Yea, Col Bandy's Kerrisdale Farmhouse is based on a tent fly; highly adaptable, it is a house that harmonises with its surrounds. The Lookout House at Red Hill, designed by David Luck, is a minimalist form, its black steel sheet walls opening and closing to the landscape through sliding doors; within, there are moveable walls. The curves of Jesse Judd's Wheatsheaf House, realised largely in corrugated steel and plywood lining, draw from an Airstream caravan and the house is at once embraced by yet separate from its environment.