Troppo Architects

Natural disasters, perversely, have their silver linings. Like Hurricane Katrina in our times, Cyclone Tracy’s razing of Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974 combined catastrophe with unexpected opportunity. Tracy destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin’s buildings, left most of its population homeless, and continues to haunt the inhabitants of Australia’s Top End. Architects and builders who flocked to the devastated city in the years after the cyclone were required to build a new cyclone-proof city from scratch. It required the kind of resourcefulness – speed, flexibility, ingenuity and technological innovation – that the building industry is rarely called upon to exercise. When Phil Harris and Adrian Welke migrated north from Adelaide at the end of the 1970s, the building frenzy was still going strong, but the buildings that were being produced were disappointing. Concrete and conservative, they took a literal-minded approach to the strict new anti-cyclone building regulations. Harris and Welke, under the auspices of their newly formed Troppo Architects, took an innovative approach, working with the climate and its risks and drawing on the Top End’s design heritage. Despite initial controversy, their buildings have become immensely influential, touted as triumphantly economical, liveable responses to the specific demands of a tropical climate. Their first house – called the Green Can after a popular nickname for VB beer – was a response to a low-cost housing competition in 1983. It combined lightweight materials, large verandahs and extensive cross-ventilation to produce a house designed specifically for tropical climates, with the same laidback Territorian feel as a can of VB. The house spawned dozens of replicas throughout Darwin. Now, twenty-five years later, Troppo Architects have returned to their original Green Can design, adding a study retreat extension in the same style as the original building. In two and a half decades, the 730sqm site has grown a rich tropical cover of cooling, shady trees. A creek runs along the back boundary. The new building aimed to preserve these existing features, along with the relaxed verandah lifestyle that they encourage. Accordingly, the Study Retreat has been situated on the far southern corner of the block, where it doesn’t interfere with existing greenery or block breezes to the house. The study retreat combines a desk alcove, bathroom, kitchenette and a dreaming loft. The new building embraces the design principles for which Troppo have become famous. Recognising that extraordinary, sticky heat is both the great boon and the great challenge of a tropical climate, Troppo’s designs are typically open to the exterior, allowing for through-breezes and cross-ventilation. The study retreat is no exception. Its walls are punctuated by many sets of louvres, which can be opened to catch the breeze, to remove heat at the building’s highest points, and to capture the sound of the nearby creek. The house sits on a 4.8 x 5.9 metre platform, raised off the ground to allow for better ventilation as in the iconic Queenslanders of the Australian vernacular. This tribute to the vernacular persists in the pervasive use of corrugated steel and fibre cement sheeting. Economical and lightweight, these materials evoke an influential moment in Australian design history (and perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Glenn Murcutt is himself a fan of Troppo’s work), a response to the climate and the landscape that is probably as close as we get to an authentic national architecture. The building’s high roof rises to 6.5 metres at its peak. It allows space for the loft, which looks out over the surrounding treetops, connects the retreat to the house by a bridge, and catches the trickling sounds of the creek. Inside, the high roof and open design encourage convection, moving air through the house and extracting heat through high louvres. Shaded by trees, cooled by air movement, the Study Retreat answers the specificity of Darwin’s climate with the specificity of responsive tropical design. It reflects Troppo’s claim that they are “passionate about experience of place”, and particularly this place, heavy, warm, sleepy and relaxed. Their buildings fit in around that, working with rather than against the quirks of the Top End climate and landscape, and capturing an experience of place as vital, responsive and wonderfully liveable design. + 1 The study retreat uses corrugated steel and fibre cement sheeting to reference the Australian vernacular. Their lightweight construction also ensures they are economical and have low embodied energy. 2 The desk alcove looks out on a large fiscus. Louvres are used throughout the building to give inhabitants control over the ventilation of the building. 3 Stairs leading to the loft. The high-roofed, open design promotes convection and eliminates the need for air conditioning. 4 House and Retreat are both surrounded by tropical vegetation, cooling the buildings and encouraging breezes and shade. The creek in the foreground is situated at the back of the site and gives the inhabitants the sense of being connected to nature. 5 The entry deck, seen from the Green Can house. The new Study Retreat is secluded and separate, but still connected to the main house by a bridge from the loft. 6 A single skin of corrugated perforated steel leaves the bathroom open to the creek, creating a sense of communion with nature. PHOTOGRAPHY by Mark Marcelis