Rice House, Eltham

The Rice House is a residence located at 69 Ryans Road, Eltham, Victoria, Australia, built from 1952-53.

[1] Designed by Melbourne architect Kevin Borland for a young couple, whose open mindedness and excitement for progressive/alternative ways of living allowed quite a different archetype for housing,[2] the house is notable for its unusual construction technique and use of materials.

The invention of these structural moves were developed by Borland using metal columns for the front porch will later failed and buckled due to the expansion of the material and the movement of the form work.

[2] Borland turned to a method that had been used by the Italian Air Force during World War 2 for its hangar construction in North Africa.

The other buildings include the Wood House and Supermarket designed by Robin Boyd in 1952, and Bellfield Community Centre designed by Kevin Borland and Peter McIntyre in 1953 all in which directly reference the Rice House.