VISION 50 — UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Any other influences?
There is a focus on water life and the lake, so there’s a
focus on the biology of the natural. The other
consideration was that it’s like a big holiday house. The
school needed space for waders, nets, gum boots and
even a boat, so the lab adopted the role of looking like a
holiday house with the storage underneath. You go to the
beach, or natural environment, with your equipment and
then come home to the deck, the back veranda, wash it
out in the troughs and then study it in the lab.
The lab touches the ground on the north side and floats
above the site to the south where the sight-lines are very
firmly directed towards the tree-tops.
That beach house feel is there, it definitely avoids any
monumentality. The building as a scientific device
appears as separate top and bottom components joined
by a continuous ribbon of glass framing views of the
landscape in all directions from inside and views of
activities within from outside.
That cylindrical entrance makes this quite a processional
experience to transition into and out of the building.
It’s a small building with quite a large entry area that
connects through to the reserve. You can walk through
the eyepiece tube into the building, turn right at the
laboratories or keep going and just a slight right turn out
onto the deck. It’s actually a route through to the park as
well as a laboratory entrance.
“The building as a scientific
device appears as separate
top and bottom components
joined by a continuous ribbon
of glass framing views of the
landscape in all directions...”
PHILIP HARMER, ARCHITECT