House for a Grounded Sailor

Abstract

The ‘detail’ in contemporary architectural practice is associated with construction processes via working drawings which aim to specify, prescript and direct the building. The ‘detail’ is, in this sense, a visual representation which describes the assembly of the building and serves to strengthen communications between the architect and the builder. The implementation of detail in this context, however, has resulted in the disengagement of detailing as a design practice as is cemented by the placement of ‘Detailed Design’ at the culmination of the widely accepted established design methodology, the typical ‘Design Process.’ In this process ‘Detailed Design’ does not commence until the actual designing, the creative decision making, is completed resulting in a disengagement from the detail as a design tool and channel of communication between architect and building occupant.

This research is an advocacy for the equality of the detail in design practice. It advocates for an extension of its capabilities beyond that of representations of construction to establish meaningful active dialogues between the architect and building occupant. The world of boats are referred to throughout for they are seen as typology in which the connection between detail, designer, occupant and built entity has never been lost. In the world of boats to ‘detail’ is to do – to clean, repair, replace, maintain and polish the vessel. To detail is to actively engage with the architecture.

In response to this, the proposed design (sited in St Marys Bay, Auckland) presents a highly individualised dwelling which replicates aquatic conditions and supports the ingrained maritime routines of a retired sailor not dissimilar to Johnny Wray, the author and main character of South Sea Vagabonds. In the proposed conceit, the House for a Grounded Sailor, the detail is employed as a device for storytelling by communicating nostalgic stories of life as a vagabond of the sea through co-ordinated tactile interactions and visual associations.

The methodological process undertaken to reach the design outcome serves as a critique of the typical ‘Design Process.’ As a result of this, it begins at the scale of the detail with a series of detail-led experiments focussing on narrative, movement, body and space. These are assembled to form the building edifice and later extended outwards to consider both the physical and sociological context of the site; of wider issues surrounding non-conformity, place, placeless-ness, morality and instability. The outcome is a creative meditation on the place of the detail, and the detail in our places.