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=Athan House=



Athan House was designed by the Melbourne based architectural firm of Edmond and Corrigan PTY LTD. The site of the project is in Monbulk, an orchard satellite town located in the outer Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. The project team consisted of Peter Corrigan, Adrian Page and Chris Wood. The house was designed and constructed between the years of 1986-1988.

Physical Description
Built within the typical Australian bush setting of Melbourne’s outer east, sits the unique Athan House. The owners, Louis and Sophie Athan, commissioned Peter Corrigan to design the house on the site that had previously been used by the family for camping holidays. It was to be large enough to accommodate an extended family of up to eight people. The house was built on the northern incline of a heavily vegetated gully, with access onto the site from the south. Architecturally the house consists of two angled structures overlooking a triangular courtyard. Both “wings” comprise of a ground and upper floor. Entry to the house is via a sloped driveway along a brick wall to a castle-like closed facade. The northern aspect of the house, by contrast, overlooks bushland via a series of unique balconies on the upper level bedrooms of what appears to be three completely different buildings attached to one another. The apex of the triangle created by the two arms of the building consists of a section housing the library and study, with large picture windows overlooking the valley. There is extensive use of different materials such as face-brick, glass and wood, as well as bright painted finishes on the exterior of the building.



Influences and Design Approach
One of the major influences in the design of the house was to express diversity of family, being that each member is unique, diversity of culture of the broader community, and even diversity of landscape. There is also an attempt to combine many of the current and former architectural styles of Australia. The sense of one’s home being a castle is represented by the design of the entrance of the house, and the theatrical aspect is represented by the stage-like balconies overlooking the bush on the northern side of the house. The nod to theatre is also evident in the colours used in the bedroom wing, as well as the assortment of different brick fences and angled sunscreens. The house generally seems to be made up of different buildings attached to one another. This is very clear in the case of the kitchen and living areas which are separated by an aviary and have juxtaposed windows. The decking of each area of this wing of the house further enhances the theatrical nature of the house as they are so vastly different in shape. There is great movement in the design of the house, with the jutting decks, smaller bedroom balconies and particularly within the two arms of the house forming a sharply-pointed apex of a triangle. The owners of Athan house were relying on Peter Corrigan’s interpretation of Post-Modernist Architecture to produce a unique contemporary home. A sense of mystery is evident here, just as the Castlecrag Development on Sydney’s North Shore (1921-23) by Walter Burley Griffin achieved. There is a parallel with Griffins project as well in the way both show great respect for the landscape they are situated in.



Awards and Acknowledgments
RAIA awards: Outstanding Architecture, New Residential Category 1989. [Edmond and Corrigan also won the Outstanding Institutional Category in the same year for the Dandenong TAFE design.]

Athan House included in David Dunster’s “Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century vol 2: Houses 1945-89” published in 1990