Rebecca Lewis

Project Summary

The unexpected - a solid brick transforms into an ephemeral mass. A new sensation of lightness within heaviness is discovered.

Located along the coast of the transient suburb of Burns Beach, this multi-function pavilion is a celebration of ephemera. There is a rareness and beauty in capturing a moment, in between its coming and going. This is achieved by the enduring quality of brick.

Quality

Ground into the limestone hills, the limestone bricks belong to the eroded striata. One can visualise the brick within its origin and recall its use in ancient times. It borrows, and gives back to the landscape. Modules are assembled, broken down and built up to express the block. The use of stretcher bond, with slimline, double height, and maxi-brick provides subtle shifts of atmosphere. Using thin, recessed joints, each brick is distinguishable through differences in tone, crease and fold.

Poetic

The architecture realises the poetic potential of the ordinary, to become extra-ordinary. The pavilion is a procession, wrapping around the picnic shelter to create a sacred space. The pure triangular form does not close but instead diminishes and extends to the intangible horizon. Twice a year the solstice will set through the westward axis, connecting the entrance through to the pool. This is a controlled space, with moments of delight along the way. Experience resonates with brick surface and light.

Venture

The outside reacts to the transitory whilst the inside becomes a point of still within the ephemeral. A new sense of lightness is found within the solid brick as it moves through the landscape.

On approach, one ceremoniously disengages from the time of the path and fence. On the north the templar form binds to the caravan fence, to the south it sheers into the hills. It appears half hidden and half sunken with time. Entering through the westward axis, there is a fleeting moment where the horizon appears.

Descending through the wall, the stretcher bond draws the individual into the sublime. The exterior brick skin intrudes upon the interior space, and one realizes a tension between out and in. Moving light delicately shards through brick joins, reflected by memorabilia which illuminates the sacred space.

Within the public room, quietness is distilled and light seeps in through the tunnels above. The surface of each brick becomes taller and monumental. Here the balancing, tapering brickwork suspends a heaviness of space and a fragility of light. Into the gym, the release of exertion manifests as an open carving of brick mass.

Moving into the beauty chamber, one is submerged into stillness where light and water seep in through fractures between stone walls. Here, the brick is experienced as a smooth stone surface. The two ramps become an experience within themselves; the person is submerged, and revealed to horizon, site and stone.

The courtyard ramp connects three exterior surfaces; stepping towards the horizon view; a sheer surface embedded in hill; bleeding into the public space. Here the view is pushed out as the brick corbels back, the horizon intangible and unattainable.

The brick massing, or carving, addresses both thermal and functional requirements of each ritual. The people and their belongings find their place within the inhabitable brick walls; with the ephemera, the architecture is complete.