: : Cullen-Aalhuizen House

Glenn Murcutt designed the Cullen House and won an award for it around the time I was born.

When our client bought the house in 2001, he asked me to design an extension on the land adjacent. I approached Glenn Murcutt, the original architect of Cullen House, at the time, who helped and encouraged the design throughout.

Andrew Johnson of Arup helped with the concrete roof and forms that are heavy at the top and carry down to touch the ground so lightly.

The plan for the work creates a new sliver, taken from Kahn’s ideas at the Kimbell - a new pavilion here is next to an old however never higher, never longer, than the original - just a sliver of built form and light in this “wharf-like” urban landscape.

Sunlight from the east and west is controlled through operable devices. Cross ventilation passes through the centre breezeway between the old and new pavilions, and soft natural lighting lands in all rooms mostly reflected off a concrete or timber surface. The silver light absorbed by the concrete delivers a surreal effect. So too does the living room wall which opens to the harbour: the ultimate and essential room of the house.

: : Cullen-Aalhuizen House

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