Urban box

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Urban Box was one of 4 projects by Iredale Pedersen Hook (IPH) selected for exhibition in the reciprocal international Seoul/Melbourne exhibition, 'Architectural Urbanism' (the others were Sheep House, Grace Park House and Innocent Bystander winery). IPH was one of 10 firms (5 from Melbourne, 5 from Seoul) who participated. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Urban Box is a solid little building in Port Melbourne, an inner-city Melbourne suburb of single-fronted timber Victorian workers cottages, high-rise apartments, public housing and light industry. It is the prototype of a collection of small houses by IPH that uses the insulated concrete sandwich precast panel system, Thermomass. The site is 99m2; the subdivision of an already small piece of land. The house shifts the typology of infill housing towards a responsive and sustainable approach with a sense of material quality. Programmed 'upside-down', the bedrooms and bathrooms are on the ground floor and the living spaces and primary outdoor space upstairs. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Urban Box was published in Australian Home Beautiful in Feb 2012. Its selection for inclusion in this international event inserts the project into broader intercultural conversation. The exhibition was funded by RMIT and the Korean National University. The project received external support from the Australian Government through the Australian International Cultural Council: an initiative of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A reciprocal exhibition, co-curated by Jong-kyu Kim, was subsequently held at RMIT's Design Hub.