page_title: McCraith House
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: McCraith House / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: McCraith House Floor Plan
context_page_description: The McCraith House is a modernist house located in Dromana, Victoria, Australia positioned atop a stone walled plinth over-looking Port Phillip Bay. Due to its unique geometric shape, this building is commonly referred to as the Butterfly House or Larrakeyah. In 1954, Gerald and Ellen McCraith commissioned emerging Melbourne-based architect partnership Chancellor and Patrick to design the beachside weekender, which was completed in 1956.
  Exemplary of structurally inspired modernist architecture in Australia, The McCraith house is national heritage listed and remains astonishingly close to its original state including "exterior and interior wall colours, furniture, crockery, even the bed linen".
context_section_description: The layout of the Butterfly house set a new standard for holiday houses in Australia. A stone plinth holds the main living and private spaces to emphasize the view of the bay. The Children Bedroom and laundry are located on the ground floor, allowing the main active spaces such as the lounge room to have priority access to the views. The connection to the exterior was strengthened through the open plan living, removing the strict separation of the traditional dining area, lounge and exterior lounge. This provides a more relaxed and free flowing movement within the house, complementing the associated lifestyle of beach-side living. Owing to the increased availability of family cars, a sheltered parking space is included underneath the cantilevered floor resulting in ease of access for residents.
caption: McCraith House Floor Plans
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:18 18:23:45", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6245", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3508", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4961"}