The Marika-Alderton House
Architect: Glenn Murcutt
Arguably the Marika-Alderton house would offer the highest point of development in Glenn Murcutts style, ideals and repertoire as an architect to this point in his career. What some may refer to as experimental in its nature, the Marika-Alderton house stands alone in addressing the three architectural theories, “a house is an environmental filter,” a house is a container of human activities” and “a house is a delightful experience.”
The house at first is difficult to comprehend for its simplicity. Attributes that seem essential to the common living environment are obviously made redundant here, and it is at this point I believe where the concept of the house is realised to be something more complex.
My final introductory note to appreciate is the following: “This house is not in a public street but an aboriginal settlement; one needs permission to enter it precisely because of the violations of the non aboriginal gaze…with regard to the photographs they are highly controlled representations of the building.” (Dovey, K 2000) In my research I found that Murcutt still owns copyright to the photographs available, (and there are not many,) and never show the full site or the complete house in frame, which therefore suggests he “controls the critique of his work.” (Dovey, K 2000) Little site information could be sourced other than that derived from text so the site plan produced may appear vague. Yet all this distortion over the sites’ physical elements (even when site plays such a crucial role in Murcutt’s designs) I believe does not undermine the fact that this is a great building that deserves recognition. (Dovey, K 2000)
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