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Summer House and Cliff House
25 and 3/2 Swinton Avenue and Hodgson Street KEW, BOROONDARA CITY
Summer House and Cliff House
25 and 3/2 Swinton Avenue and Hodgson Street KEW, BOROONDARA CITY
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Statement of Significance
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Summer House and Cliff House - Physical Description 1
Summer House and Cliff House are perched higher on the same overall site as the River
House, overlooking Birrarung/Yarra River from more expansive positions. Both are
multilevel, timber clad buildings which are entered at grade from a driveway at the
highest level, with levels descending over and down the site toward the river, an
arrangement that is particularly distinctive across the three-storey equivalent of the aptlynamed
Cliff House. Both Summer House and Cliff House include two levels of main
residence and a further, self-contained space (in the Summer House this is dubbed the
‘Tea House’, a pavilion adjoining main residence by walkway, and in the Cliff House, it is
the undercroft bedroom and kitchenette). In plan, both houses show adaptations in
response to the unique topography—like River House, too steep for conventional
suburban residential building techniques and economies to apply—but also the natural
environment. Sited to take full advantage of the established vegetation, the southern
elevation of the Cliff House is shaped to accommodate a large cypress tree nearby, while
the Summer House sits above a stone pine and large and very old oak which frame its
views along the river corridor. Both houses employ extensive cantilevered timber
balconies with light balustrading and glazing, further providing opportunities to sit and live
among the natural environment. The timber cladding is coloured similarly to the River
House’s current shade of Brunswick Green tinted with creosote, making the buildings
deliberately recessive in relation to the landscape.
From the exterior, both houses more closely resemble McIntyre’s alpine architecture than
the structural geometries of the River House. Notably, they reverse the approach to site,
beginning high on the site and tumbling down into ever small living spaces rather than, as
at the River House, beginning at the foot of an incline and spreading high above.
However geometry remains a concern; there are few if any right angles at play both in
exterior and internally. Unlike the River House, both buildings used conventional
construction techniques for their era: Summer House being a conventional timber frame
on a concrete portal, although like the River House, not using a crane but rather
constructed largely by hand; Cliff House used reinforced concrete with timber cladding,
across a site that incorporates three stories of height difference.
In keeping with McIntyre’s stated design philosophy for this later stage of his career, both
buildings are best appreciated as they relate to their internal occupants, and in particular,
how they provide opportunities to appreciate the river corridor landscape in foreground
and middle-distance, and its views and flora and fauna, via placement of large,
retractable single pane windows that transform living rooms into balcony-like spaces.
These transition to an internal orientation for the spaces further away from the river,
reflecting a ‘zoning’ approach that provides for spaces for retreat from the elements
according to season and time of day. The spaces appear to reflect a lifetime of lived
experience of the site, its particular orientation and needs, bookending a relationship to
the site that began with radical youthful experimentation and ultimately a return to
incorporate all that was learned subsequently on that site and far beyond.
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FORMER BRIDGE HOTELVictorian Heritage Register H0449
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THE HAWTHORNSVictorian Heritage Register H0457
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ALLOARMOVictorian Heritage Register H0552
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