Finn House \ WoodWoodWard Architecture

Finn House, image courtesy WoodWoodWard Architecture | Photo by John Gollings

Nestled in amongst the banksia trees and coastal scrub on the Silverleaves foreshore is a pair of glistening red fins – a bold response to the client’s brief for a “grand gesture on limited means.”

Finn House - Conceptual diagram, image courtesy WoodWoodWard Architecture

Reminiscent of a Richard Serra sculpture, the two striking red glazed-brick blade walls slice through the site, organising program into linear bands. The colour of the glazed bricks varies slightly as they are mostly seconds – a ‘defect’ that has been celebrated in this project by interspersing the colours to create a mottled, reflective sheen.

Finn House, image courtesy WoodWoodWard Architecture | Photo by John Gollings

Wedged between the fins are the discreet private spaces. Beside this to the east, a generous lighting-filled glass box clings to the luminescent bricks and contains the more public program. Cleverly located between the two blade walls, a corkscrew staircase guides the visitor between the three distinct programmatic zones through thresholds in the brickwork, emphasizing the red walls as the separator and mediator.

Finn House, image courtesy WoodWoodWard Architecture | Photo by John Gollings

The Finn house achieves a maximum effect through an economy of means by employing glazed bricks throughout the interior of house – amplified in the double height living space – and as an almost civic gesture that projects out towards the street, offering striking colour to an otherwise muted neighbourhood.

+ Project facts

Project: Finn House
Year: 2011
Location: Silverleaves, Victoria, Australia

Architecture studio: WoodWoodWard Architecture
Architects: Monique Brady-Ward, Scott Woodward & Jen Wood
Photography: John Gollings
Words: Jacqui Alexander

+ All images and drawings courtesy WoodWoodWard Architecture