Rose House 2

BACKGROUND: Rose House 2 is a residential project by Baracco and Wright, where Mauro Baracco is a Director. The house is located on a triangular-shaped site, and combines two residences in one volume. The west facade is 'solid', punctuated through few windows, presenting a 'hard' confident mass to the street. This condition disintegrates as the building moves around to its more intimate relationship with the reserve and busy street level (bike and pedestrian path) on the 'softer' east façade, where the materiality is a play of negative space, transparent mesh, pergola frames, reflection of trees in large windows and planting. The architects negotiate the complex site to create an enduring building with civic presence, extending the urban form of the historic Alfred crescent and the typology of the wedge-shaped buildings on similar sites throughout the inner suburbs of Melbourne. CONTRIBUTION: Rose House 2 exemplifies the architects' exploration of simple geometries and restrained material palettes that prioritise the spatial condition and rely on their relationship with landscape. It extends their research practice in creating built environments that are sensitive and connected to both the physical and non-physical conditions of the local context, aiming to propose a wider role for architectural thinking beyond the individual building. SIGNIFICANCE: Forty houses were submitted for the Residential Architecture - Houses (New) category at the 2017 Victorian Architecture Awards with Rose House 2 winning the Harold Desbrowe-Annear Award, which is for the best residential project of the year in Victoria - the highest honour in the state for Residential Architecture. The jury stated that 'this bold work balances its residential program with a responsive civic presence' and is a 'valuable demonstration of design flexibility for inner-urban density.' In this same category, the project also received Commendation at the national level (2017 AIA National Architecture Awards).