Avery Green: A House-Person

BACKGROUND: This project develops an architectural approach to 'vital materialism', as described by Jane Bennett in Vibrant Matter. Located within contemporary speculative thought referred to as 'new materialism', Bennett's propositions are explored in philosophy, theory and art. Related work in architectural practice has been limited to new approaches to matter/materials and technology, rather than more expanded design configurations. This project addresses the unexplored architectural potential of a vital materialist approach. CONTRIBUTION: The project draws on Bennett's call for a careful exploration of anthropomorphism: Can a building be a person? What might constitute personhood in architecture? These questions were explored through a house extension, where the house was named Avery Green and qualitative and historical aspects of her character/personhood employed as design drivers. In a critical review, the character-based emphasis of the project was situated alongside Archigram's Walking City (1964) and the Graz Art Museum by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, coined the Friendly Alien. A parallel was drawn with Grayson Perry's A House for Essex and Studiobird's Theodore's Treehouse or the Anthropological Apartment. Avery Green took character-based personification further than these examples, attributing new social/relational value to the built environment. SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to Watson's review in Architecture Australia (September 2017), two scholarly book chapters were written by Ednie-Brown about the project: 'A Vital, Architectural Materialism; a house-person's escape from the anthropocentric,' Architectural Materialisms, Maria Vogiatski (ed), Edinburgh University Press, 2017; and 'Architectural Immediations', Immediations. Art, Media, Event, Erin Manning, Anna Munster and Bodil-Marie Stavning Thomsen (eds), Open Humanities Press, 2017. An exhibition both in and about the house, 'Vernissage for a House-Person,' was staged in 2016 in Thornbury, Victoria.