Armstrong House, Terrey Hills (1967)

摘要

While the architecture of Bruce Rickard is acquiring cult status - refer to the most recent of the Institute's houses tours, the AAA exhibition - it seems that this will not preserve such projects as the Armstrong House at Cooyong Road, Terrey Hills. Designed in 1967, this understated house is about to be demolished to make way for a new and grossly overstated two-storey, six-bedroom project home. Tragically, and without any apparent appreciation of the architectural value of this house, the current owner has acquired the Terrey Hills property for a new mansion that makes no attempt to blend with the Rickard house. And so another architectural gem that recognises how to live sympathetically with our landscape will soon disappear. The Armstrong House offers a clear analogy to Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses: the interconnection of alcove living spaces grouped around a fireplace, separate bedrooms grouped off a narrow corridor and low-slung roof lines extending out over terraces. But far more important is an understanding of how this building 'works' within the larger scale of the Terrey Hills bushland plateau; for this house demonstrates Rickard's particular talent for carefully siting and fusing his buildings with their terrain. When we experience the Armstrong House, we know that the landscape has been 'read'.