Brise Soleil House, Port Moresby Home, Real Estate Project, Property, Architecture Image
Brise Soleil House in Papua New Guinea
Residential Development in Papua New Guinea, southeast Asia design by Studio Workshop
23 Apr 2019
Brise Soleil House
Architecture: Studio Workshop
Location: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
The Brise Soleil House is a compact 2-bedroom, 173SQM dwelling situated at the top of a steep, west-facing block near Port Moresby Harbour overlooking a former cargo terminal.
The house is a cast-in-situ concrete building partially clad in an undulating wave-like timber wrapper which provides shading, privacy, and ventilation to the master suite. The wrapper flattens as it continues around the building to become a full-height operable screen for the upper level gallery to control the western sun and capture views to the Coral Sea beyond.
From a design perspective, the wrapper pays homage to local traditions of timber craftsmanship seen in the lowland stilt houses and intricately carved canoes (lakatoi), utilizing a system of complex joints and a high degree of surface articulation.
But it does so though a digital lens; updated to address the capabilities of contemporary software and hardware tools and their ability to manage complex systems and to mass-customize intricate geometries with embedded assembly logics. Furthermore, the design of the wrapper engages a broader discussion of screens and veils in equatorial architecture found in the canon of Modern and 20th century works by Ossipoff, Ferrie, Rudolf, and others.
The wrapper and doors are constructed from 50×50 mm rough-sawn acetylated pine timber which is glued and doweled at digitally-executed complex half-lap joints.
The wrapper and doors, with a total area of over 80 square meters, contain over 2200 pieces in total and over 700 unique pieces with CNC milled half-lap joints, often on both ends. All milling, joining, finishing, and assembly into panels took place at the designers’ workshop on the Gold Coast of Australia, and was shipped via container to Papua New Guinea for installation.
The entire assembly has been organized as a system of seamless 1200mm panels and doors which serves not only to aid in transportation and erection, but also to minimize the need for skilled labor on-site.
Though each panel was unique the installation method was identical, which took approximately 2 days for a crew of 3 laborers working exclusively by hand on scaffolding. The 8 door panels were similarly installed in one day.
Brise Soleil House, Papua New Guinea – Building Information
Architect’s Firm: Studio Workshop
Project location: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Completion Year: 2017
Gross Built Area: 173 sqm
Lead Architects: Rory Spence, Jonathan Nelson
Other participants
Builder: Cyril Duffy
Engineer: Stocks And Partners
Green Roof: Balance Enviro Solutions
Joiner: LNA Joinery + Studio Workshop
Concreting: Conform Civil
Brands / Products
Accoya Timber – 50 x 50 Rough sawn acetylated pine (Main Screen)
Astra Walker – Icon Range Tapware
Wood Melbourne – Maddie Concrete Vanity Basin
Miele – Kitchen appliances
Fienza – COCO Toilet Suite
Photo credits: Peter Bennetts
Brise Soleil House in Papua New Guinea images / information received 230419
Location: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Architecture in Southeastern Asia
Kokopo House
Design: Enter Architecture
image courtesy of architects
Kokopo House
The Independent State of Papua New Guinea is a country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. PNG is located in Oceania, north of Australia and east of Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean.
Comments / photos for the Brise Soleil House in Papua New Guinea – New Residence page welcome
Website: Papua New Guinea
