Huski was designed by Elenberg Fraser Architecture, is an apartment building, produce store and day spa complex located at Falls Creek in the Victorian highlands. The pure yet complex patterns combined with the influence of Australian timber, alpine huts and the alpine resorts of Europe and the United States provided the basis for the resulting architecture form.

In the temperate climate of the west rooms for different purposes in the home are linked and sheltered under one roof, whether in an apartment or bungalow, a maisonette, a terraced house or a detached dwelling. In the mainly hot sunny climate of southern Africa peasant families dwell largely in the open air with perhaps a tree for shade and there are many separate huts for sleeping, cooking or storage irregularly scattered around the outdoor living space.

The family unit is more likely to be extended to include grandparents and the families of several brothers. The home of a Mashona family in the rural areas in Zimbabwe consists of a large, central space outdoors perhaps sheltered by a tree. This is adequate for most domestic activities – relaxing, socializing, playing, washing up, making baskets or preparing food. Shelter, warmth at night, propriety, security and practicality determine that sleeping space and the areas for cooking, food storage and hygiene should be inside buildings.

Each is housed in its own relatively small circular space or hut with thatch roof. There are separate, segregated communal single-cell sleeping huts for girls and boys, a single-cell sleeping hut for each married couple and storage huts subdivided with partitions for keeping different kinds of grain. Instead ot one kitchen there might be several, one for each married couple. Inside the circular space of the kitchen, an area is also set aside for religious ritual and for sleeping babies.

At some distance from the homestead separate unroofed, grass-walled enclosures are used for toilet and washing facilities and there may even be a small enclosure for chickens or a goat. Visitors to the homestead have no door to knock upon but will recognize they are entering a home either because there is a fence or because the space around is well swept, and they can announce their presence by calling.

The concave and convex window penetrations of the north facade emphasis the dynamic quality of the building both in plan and elevation, manipulating ones perspective as the lodge is observed from east to west. In contrast, the subtlety of the worn timber materials is calming and suggests an affinity with local building typologies. Comprised of boutique accommodation, day and wellness spa and a gourmet produce store with cafe, Huski Apartments is accessible throughout the summer and winter months and provides an alternate recreational holiday to the standard alpine resort.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 11:55 pm and is filed under Architecture Design. Tags: Africa, apartment, architect, buildings, design, Europe, Facilities, Falls Creek, food, food storage, Home, House, interior, kitchen, Other Design, United States, Zimbabwe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.