page_title: Chancellor and Patrick
section_title: McCraith House
hierarchical_section_title: Chancellor and Patrick / Notable projects / McCraith House
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of the butterfly house in Dromana
context_page_description: Chancellor and Patrick was a Melbourne based architecture firm, formed in 1953 and dissolved in 1981, is best known for their numerous houses from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s, designed in their signature dynamic, expressive take on 'organic' architecture.
context_section_description: The McCraith House, commonly known as the Butterfly House, was built on the sleepy bush blackboards of the Mornington Peninsula for Ellen and Gerald McCraith in 1954 by Chancellor and Patrick.  The McCraith House is an example of structural inspired modernism in Victoria in the 1950s with its cutting-edge design and ground-breaking structural engineering, of triangular tubular steel framing system and butterfly roof. Positioned strategically on a stone-walled plinth overlooking Port Philip Bay, the house remains in the same family, complete with original interiors, furniture and even crockery all of which was donated to RMIT in 2013, and the house now houses their writers in residence program.
caption: McCraith House
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