The premise was an interpretation of an Australian Federation Farmhouse, sited on a hilltop in Carrickalinga.

With extreme winds, we manipulated the traditional farmhouse, stretching the perimeter to a square, whilst removing the center for the courtyard. With the verandah on the ‘wrong’ side we inverted the roof. This creates a low eave to the protected garden allowing solar gain and solar access.

The apertures were aligned, framing the views of the landscape. Industrial shutters filter the amount of light desired, tuning the house to the seasons. All rooms have dual aspect to both sea and the garden.

Exterior walls and shutters are clad in heritage galvanized corrugated iron, folding over the ridge, and lining the internal valleyed roof. Structural columns were used as downpipes harvesting rainwater.

The dwelling is true to ‘place’, minimising its impact to its landscape and carbon footprint.

La entrada Carrickalinga Shed se publicó primero en Global Spaces.

The Title deed that we now possess would have originally been given for little or no cost on the basis that the holder demonstrated “improvement” of the land that it described. Here that meant removing the trees and “improving” the pastures, erecting fences and excluding those who had, in ways that remain obvious today, dwelt on this land from the beginning.

If we acknowledge that a building has been built on contested land, this project for a new house perhaps should have been the subject of a disciplinary hearing by the Institute of Architects according to their Charter, and we would wish to make this case: This is not an extension, which would mean that we have sought to maintain or continue the current situation of dispossession of illegal occupation. It may be an alteration, as we have sought to remove fences, to stop grazing the land and to remove improvements from the land. We might think about this as unsettling.

La entrada Spring Creek Road Farm House se publicó primero en Global Spaces.