noosa-heads

                                                                                                                                 11
6.4                GLOSTER HOUSE
LOCATION                  26 Kareela Avenue, Noosa Heads

TENURE                    Freehold. 13N21830

DATES                     1984

DESCRIPTION               A two-storey steel quadropod family residence.
                          The architect Gabriel Poole’s intention with the construction method was to minimise
                          disturbance to the ground and to incorporate the old Queenslander tradition of raising the
                          building high off the ground. His solution was the unique steel quadropod system, which
                          consisted of any number of towers each of four steel pods anchored into the ground and
                          braced together. Each pod branched out with four arms (like the branches of a tree),
                          which supported the floor frame and the super-structure.27
                          The steel framework was prefabricated and then erected on the site. The walls were
                          made in panels from western red cedar planking and were fastened to the framework as a
                          single skin.
                          The upper floor of the house contains the master bedroom and the remainder of this level
                          is living space. Access is by an external spiral staircase. Decks protrude from both sides
                          with one forming a porch for the entrance to the building. Ground level provides study
                          areas and a sub-level on the down slope of the hill contains another bedroom.




6.4.1    BRIEF HISTORY
The house was designed for a non-practising architect on a block of land abutting the National Park, by Noosa architect
Gabriel Poole, and was built in 1984. Poole is an internationally respected architect and a winner of the Queensland
Robin Dods Award in 1991, the National Robin Boyd Award in 1991 and the National Gold Medal Award ‘for his lifetime
contribution to Australian architecture’ in 1998. The idea for the design came from an earlier Poole designed house on a
block of land nearby. The house is supported on four steel towers of identical form and size.
6.4.2     HISTORICAL THEMES
This place illustrates the following historical themes in the Noosa Shire based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s,
Guidelines for Historical and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management, dated 2001
4(f) Establishing and developing towns – developing a regional style of architecture: residence (house)
6.4.3    POTENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE
The building is a place of cultural heritage significance because of its association with the domestic building industry in
Noosa and the development of the regional ‘Sunshine Coast’ School of Architecture. The building is a unique structure in
the Shire.

27
  For a complete description of the system see Bruce Walker, Gabriel Poole Space in which the Soul can Play, Noosa, Visionary Press,
1998, pp. 19-20.