Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography, BrickBellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Table, Chair, BeamBellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Bathroom, BathtubBellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior PhotographyBellows House / Albert Mo Architects - More Images+ 58

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Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography
© Derek Swalwell

Text description provided by the architects. A single row of mature poplar trees, along the side unsealed road, forms a soft foreground to what we considered as the "main" façade of the house. Shadows of the trees cast onto the white concrete masonry blocks in the morning, animate the long articulated façade. The articulations, through the masonry and concrete detailing, together with the frustum roofs and layering of spaces, evoke street engagements and curiosities. These pose a polemic to the long façade which is essentially a defense mechanism to provide and suggest domestic privacy.

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography, Brick
© Derek Swalwell

The formal entry sequence starts from entering the pedestrian gate on the main street: the dusty pink brick pavers provide the conduit between the native garden and the building structure. Through the gap between the long façade and the garage, an outdoor shower is provided for washing down the wet gears from the sea, before space opens up to the inner outdoor sanctum. Internal living spaces look into this north-facing courtyard garden where the family gathers and entertains.

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Table, Chair, Beam
© Derek Swalwell
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Image 58 of 63
Plan
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Table, Chair, Beam
© Derek Swalwell

Once inside the house, the 2 largest of the frustum roofs reveal their internal structure: reverse step concrete pyramids. The skylight in the center of them provides all-day illumination to the living and dining areas. The heaviness of the structure makes the external masonry feel like eggshells, with complex engineering and detailing make the exteriors all the more minimal.

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Living Room, Windows, Beam
© Derek Swalwell
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Image 61 of 63
Section Detail
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Image 60 of 63
Section
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Facade
© Derek Swalwell
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Interior Photography, Kitchen, Countertop, Beam
© Derek Swalwell

It is perhaps because this is a second home that the client has given us more latitude to "experiment". We want a house that offers them a different experience than their city abode, a house that provides a sense of escape, a world away from their city existence; a house that their kids can reminisce their summer holidays when they grow up, a house that is memorable, under the concrete pyramids, their giant tents.

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography, Brick
© Derek Swalwell

The notion of a beach house, or a second home, it's often the place to get away with the family or it's about getting together with a lot of people. Many of the spaces that are conceived in this house are to facilitate these collective experiences: kids bunkering together, an open washroom that doubles as a mudroom, multiple entry points into the house, different indoor and outdoor living areas; these areas converge when you eat, you only eat together in the one spot.

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography, Facade
© Derek Swalwell
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Image 62 of 63
Elevation
Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography, Brick
© Derek Swalwell

It is at the onset of the project to design a house that is permanent, anchoring the house in the sands, as opposed to the lightweight beach vernacular, it is more of a bunker than a shack. While this house doesn't have spectacular clifftop views of the ocean, its flat inland village location prompted a response of a place marker, which the locals now affectionately refer to as the "Pyramids of Flinders".

Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects - Exterior Photography
© Derek Swalwell

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Cite: "Bellows House / Albert Mo Architects" 23 Jul 2021. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/965528/bellows-house-architects-eat> ISSN 0719-8884

© Derek Swalwell

锥形屋顶内的阶梯,波纹住宅 / Albert Mo Architects

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