Fantastical fictional architecture from Melbourne visionary

In talking about the idiosyncratic design oeuvre he has been developing for three decades, Simon Thornton offers the following:

“It’s a very unusual direction” says the Alphington-based practitioner, whose wife Freda is also an architect. “I have a lot of trouble finding other architects (in Australia or around the globe) who are interested in the particular concept of beginning from make believe”.

Thornton’s individual brand of “fictional architecture”, which approaches a form of visually literal residential scenic art, has resulted in some extraordinary homes in Melbourne and near regions.

The latest, and the second fictional commission from “supportive clients Bruce and Alison Dudon”, is shaped as a crashed rocket. “It was my idea,” he says, smiling.

The Macedon house, which has fins and a nose cone as well as three bedrooms and a study, does appear to have cannoned into the earth. “But very gently”.

Rocket House was entered into the 2015 AIA Victorian Architecture Awards. It didn’t win any prizes but must have presented a paradigm-busting puzzle to the jurors.

Yet, as unorthodox as the external form might seem, it does embody all the right stuff for a comfortable lifestyle. “It’s terribly important that the owners get what they want,” he says, “so that I can then ask permission to add the make-believe element.

“The Rocket House succeeded well in the idea of low-maintenance. The materials used (externally); the silver metal roof, aluminium windows and minimal rendered walls …That’s it! All very low maintenance.

“Internally it’s very strong. The outside shapes I have used to create interesting [room] shapes. That just happens. I love the way things align themselves as a consequence of the different approach of fictional architecture.”

Thornton reckons that if the nose cone, fins and booster rocket forms weren’t giving such readable clues “it could be seen from afar as a fairly interesting piece of contemporary architecture”.

Doubtless, Rocket House is interesting architecture. Look at the flamboyantly frilled entry portal. Regard how on the north side the projecting fins form a low sun shade, and on the south, a high point into which a skylight has been inserted.

Having been inside other examples of Thornton’s fantastical architecture I can attest his buildings are brave and credible projects on the part of both the designer and his clients.

The first house Thornton did for his Rocket House clients was sited further up the Mount Macedon slopes. The Lighthouse was built in 1992. “The very steep block had set off that line of thought,” he explains.

The very first house he ever did in his opus of whimsical oddity was in 1983 in Eltham when he was inspired by photographs prospective clients had on their walls showing the time-evolved streetscapes of Greek villages. “Externally it just looks like a mud brick house. But internally, it’s a Greek Street.”

As an extension on the back of a Rechabite​ hall in Northcote, and for two musicians who obviously shared his sense of naughty irony, Thornton raised a double level addition themed as a wine bottle and cocktail glass.

For a Brunswick couple “who gave me a list of rooms for an upstairs studio and downstairs toilet and bathroom”, he crafted a milk carton. “I’d had for a long time the idea of a house based on packaging. A milk carton even has a little roof, so I realised it was just right.

“The couple agreed and they took charge of the graphics and got sign writers in to paint it.”

For owners who wanted “a fantasy element in the design of their extension, and who wanted a bird-like creature coming over their original roof, we created the Gryphon Extension.”

For an imaginative Westgarth client redeveloping a long, narrow block, he designed the Tent and Aqueduct House, which has the appearance of a series of striped medieval tents set up against an aqueduct made of wood. The voyage through the interiors is a lovely experience.

“Architects often embark of narratives in their work”, Thornton says. “And I’m not saying that what I do is so different. But I’m saying that where they draw on non-fiction, I’m drawing on fictional narratives. I’m having a lot of fun doing it”.

That being said, he “also has a lot of sleepless nights when projects are going through town planning”.

thorntonarch.com