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Archicentre and the Royal Australian Institute of Architecture create
a dream home for rock musicians Dave Graney and Clare Moore. Archicentre's
Shane Moritz tracks the project.
Thinking about what form their fantasy home would take, Melbourne's rock
and roll couple Dave Graney and Clare Moore adopt a characteristically
off-beat stand: ``We like the look of the petrochemical plants from the
1970s.''
The response would not surprise anyone who has followed the duo's career
over the past three decades of Australian music. They have a rich history
of defying convention, from their band, the Moodists in the early 1980s
to the cosmic yacht rock they make now as the Lurid Yellow Mist.
In 1995, Graney and his band the Coral Snakes hit the heights in 1995
when he won the ARIA Best Male Vocalist award. He declared himself King
of Pop, the previous title for best male vocalist.
Graney says he feels cheated by modern housing's return to Naturalism.
He wants the 21st century to follow through with the type of housing promised
in 1950s science-fiction movies.
``We want a house in the shape of a spaceship.''
Archicentre architect Terence Nott asks ``Do you know what type of spaceship
you want?''
``One of those flattish dome-type saucers,'' replies Graney.
Nott is no stranger to the idiosyncrasies of rock and roll musicians.
He once played drums in an early incarnation of Melbourne 1960s group,
The Loved Ones.
These days, Nott operates a private architectural practice in Fitzroy
specialising in inner-city homes and renovations.
Clare wants the house to revolve like a novelty restaurant.
``I like the idea of the inside following the sun around and having a
different aspect when you look out the window.''
``Clare wants to live like Warren Beatty did in the 1970s at the Chateau
Marmont in Los Angeles,'' says Graney.
``The Windsor in Melbourne would be good too,'' Moore says.
``Living in one of the suites — I really don't like cleaning at all.''
``What about a kitchen, is that necessary?'' Nott asks.
``No, it's a low priority, along with cleaning. We need a self-cleaning
house. We need a robot,'' Moore replies.
Next they discuss locations. Despite's Nott's work in the inner-city,
Graney and Moore see their dream home set in the outer suburbs.
``We don't want to be too close to the Docklands,'' says Dave.
They decide on Ferntree Gully's Caribbean Gardens as the dream site for
the spaceship house.
``Caribbean Gardens is an appropriate place is it?'' Nott wonders.
``It's in context,'' replies Graney, who tells the tale of AW Spooner,
a wealthy man who bought 120ha in Scoresby in 1945 as a country estate,
Dalmore Park, and built a French Provincial mansion.
In 1958, while overseas, he came across a new building material, fibreglass,
which could be applied to the boat-building industry.
He came home and set up the Caribbean Boat Factory.
A lake was built to test the boats in the early 1960s which was later
opened to the public as Lake Caribean.
Spooner's son Rod Spooner later developed the estate into a theme park
as Caribbean Gardens.
``At one point it was an adventure land with train rides and a fake river
with hippos and zebras out in the middle of it,'' Graney says.
``Gradually it's become an industrial estate, but the market and the grounds
with the man-made lake and chairlift are still operating. The market sells
Wu-Tang Clan bootleg clothes on Wednesdays.''
They decide on one big open plan with the upper level a circular space
surrounded in books.
``Tonnes of books. All literature. No TV,'' Graney says.
Moore screams in horror at the potential lack of facilities in her dream
home, but it turns out Graney is only joking.
``What colours would you like it to be?'' Nott asks.
``I think we need an orange wall. Frank Sinatra liked orange. Orange always
looks modern,'' Graney says.
``Orange is supposed to make you hungry. No good in a house without a
kitchen,'' Moore counters.
``What about a name? What are you going to call this thing?'' asks the
architect.
Graney thinks for a moment: ``The EndeavourTron,'' he says.
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A few weeks and several episodes of Futurama later, Nott completes his
design for Dave and Clare's EndeavourTron using the Archicentre design
concept format.
According to Nott's plan, guests enter via an air-locked passage with
doors that open automatically (and make that swishing sound like the doors
in Star Trek).
Inside and to the left of the entry, down wide circular steps, is
a sunken lounge for space-age entertainment.
``The ground floor is a big, round dome with four modules or pods that
you can slot right in,'' says the architect.
``There's the entry, the bathpod and two sound-proofed sleeping pods,
which we call the Double-Zed Zone (ZZ-Zone).
``Each bedroom contains a large wardrobe and an oval-shaped bed that allows
you to sleep in any direction you like. Bathpods include shower, toilet
and a basin all made in a futuristic fibreglass.''
``The central core elevator goes up to The Galactic Information Centre
(GIC), or what will commonly be known as Dave's Library,'' says Nott.
``On each level the floor plate will open up like a stage.''
Nott proposes openings in the bookshelves to provide a mezzanine view
down to ground level, while the lift-accessed roof over the library will
retract and open up into a rooftop setting.
``The exterior roof shape mirrors that of these nice little umbrella/mushroom-like
curvy structures at Caribbean Gardens, perhaps the only decent bit of
architectural detail we found there,'' Nott says.
``The rest of the building has a saucer shape.''
Thanks to solar collectors on roofs, the house will generate its
own power and eliminate the need for air conditioning.
The low-ceilinged, internal perimeter will be occupied by plants —
a miniature greenhouse.
Between the elevator and the dining room, the architect has installed
a kitchen with a difference, dispensing provisions through a series of
interconnected tubes.
``Maybe Vic Market sends cabbages through it or they get deliveries from
the local pizzeria,'' the architect says.
Dave Graney, architect Terence Nott and Clare Moore on the command Bridge
back at the Mothership. Cape Kennedy.
### Clare did ask for a "force field" as she was aware we were
to be in a public place, among a mob. She wanted to be admired but also
wanted to be packing some protection. This did not make the final article |
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