Jiri Lev is an architect practicing in Tasmania, Australia as Atelier Jiri Lev, designing “buildings that are contextual and regionally appropriate, climate responsive and health promoting, highly functional, durable and inherently sustainable.” He tells Treehugger about The Tasmanian House- Phase 1:
Photos of the area show a vernacular of wood and corrugated steel, so this building fits right in. Lev says it “represents a contemporary interpretation of what the architect believes to be the most beautiful and appropriate of Tasmanian precedents: the Georgian period vernacular.” That’s defined by Heritage Tasmania:
Treehugger has often discussed how building materials should be almost edible, and certainly biodegradable and compostable. And that is apparently the case here, with the exception of the galvanized steel. Lev tells Treehugger:
Lev notes that “this small cabin represents the first phase of a larger pavilion house,” and it might end up as a studio or as a separate residential unit. This is a strategy that is often used, where one starts with a tiny house until they have the resources or approvals to do a larger one. Indeed, his website has an astonishing collection of large houses and schools, and it is sometimes hard to tell which is which.
This one is more modest and less expensive: “The project was built commercially at cost equivalent to a budget off-the-shelf house, reflecting typical Tasmanian inventiveness and ability to make the most out of quite little,” says Lev.
He adds: “The building demonstrates the ability of the island state to be wholly self-sufficient in bulk construction materials and it serves as an easily replicable prototype of an affordable, debt-free, locally sourced and delivered housing model.”
A professor of mine in architecture school used to tell us to design for “an economy of means, a generosity of ends.” Lev has accomplished that with the Tasmanian House- Phase 1. We can’t wait to see Phase 2.
