Designed by Studio Workshop, The Brise Soleil House is a compact 2-bedroom, 173SQM dwelling situated at the top of a steep, west-facing block near Port Moresby Harbour overlooking a former cargo terminal. The house is a cast-in-situ concrete building partially clad in an undulating wave-like timber wrapper which provides shading, privacy, and ventilation to the master suite. The wrapper flattens as it continues around the building to become a full-height operable screen for the upper-level gallery to control the western sun and capture views of the Coral Sea beyond.
Photography: Peter Bennetts
From a design perspective, the wrapper pays homage to local traditions of timber craftsmanship seen in the lowland stilt houses and intricately carved canoes (lakatoi), utilizing a system of complex joints and a high degree of surface articulation.  But it does so through a digital lens; updated to address the capabilities of contemporary software and hardware tools and their ability to manage complex systems and to mass-customize intricate geometries with embedded assembly logic. Furthermore, the design of the wrapper engages a broader discussion of screens and veils in equatorial architecture found in the canon of Modern and 20th century works by Ossipoff, Ferrie, Rudolf, and others. Photography: Peter Bennetts
The wrapper and doors are constructed from 50×50 mm rough-sawn acetylated pine timber which is glued and doweled at digitally-executed complex half-lap joints.  The ...