Geoffrey Edwin Summerhayes

Geoffrey Edwin Summerhayes (born 1928), is an Australian architect, who was based in Perth, Western Australia. Summerhayes studied architecture at Princeton and whilst there he was taught by a Professor named Jean Labatut, a great teacher who bought out the best in students.^[1] Summerhayes has been in the architecture industry for over 55 years, and in that time he has mostly worked on residential properties such as the Cliff House, Coombe House and even his own house, known as the Summerhayes House. During 1967-1968 Summerhayes was the President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (Western Australia).^[2]

Notable Projects

Coombe house

The Coombe house which was designed by Geoffrey Edwin Summerhayes is located at 3 The Coombe, Mosman Park, the house is also named the Cliff House due to its clifftop location where it is situated above Freshwater Bay with views to the Swan River. There are two distinctive features that characterise this house, which are the flat roof, which was very modern and odd at the time, the interior planning was also another feature which distinguished the Coombe house from other residential properties. The interior of the house was designed based on functionality and of course living styles. Since the owners had children the interior was designed in such a way that there were specific rooms that catered to the children and other rooms that were better suited for adults. This was very strange at the time as the normal layout of a house was not designed in such a way that a room would only be suitable for a specific age group.

Wallace House

The Wallace house was designed in the 1990s by Summerhayes and completed in April 1995. The Wallace house, which is located at 16 The Esplanade, Peppermint Grove was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. I. Wallace, these private clients wanted a Tuscan influence, and with the help of Jeff Meyers, Summerhayes produced the Wallace House. The design of this house is influenced by the streets of Paris and also took inspiration from Tuscan villas, from the plan you can see that the house was designed around a central courtyard, which was very prominent in structures such as villas.

Summerhayes House:

The house was in danger of being demolished in the 60s and 70s, this was due to the fact that the house was not considered a heritage site and thus was not worthy of preservation. The area was an ideal place to build a mansion and thus the council wanted to demolish the Summerhayes house. However, a housewife by the name of Andrea, who bought the structure, ultimately saved it from its demise by bulldozers.

The residential property is still in its original condition due to the owner's significant attention to keep the place as it was. Every door of this house has full height from floor to ceiling which gives extraordinary spatial sense. The Eaves extend out from the windows which make the interior space cool in Summer as the eaves block sunlight from entering, in addition to manipulation of light, the house has a round skylight above the toilet and shower room which is half exposed to the outdoors so that the residents can simultaneously experience the indoor and outdoor together. This experience allows the natural light to enter the space but at the same time give an outdoor atmosphere.

Summary

In Conclusion, even though Geoffery Summerhayes was not as much of a famous architect in the 19th century, his designs contributed a lot to Australian architecture at that time, by introducing an international style to Australia. That is why Summerhayes‘ designs are still stunning and notable nowadays, especially the Summerhayes’ house, Cliff house and Wallace house. Different people have different ideas and opinions because some people thought his designs were not suitable for the 19th century, because he tried to bring an international modernism to a much conservative Australia.^[3] Therefore, most of his projects described symmetry, spatial, delicate and innovation architectural style.

References

The Architect, Vol 38-40, No 3, Summer 1998-2000 The Architect, Vol 38-40, No 3, Summer 1998-2000 pp20 Architecture Australia, Vol 77,1988 pp60–61