Off Grid House
By Archier
Off Grid House is a celebration of family, and timber.
Following the sale of a farm that existed within their family for multiple generations, our clients had been disunited from the place they had long called home. When a neighbouring property later came up for sale, they seized the opportunity to reconnect their family to a cherished and untamed landscape. These events underpinned the brief: the off-grid house must celebrate the landscape and nurture an extended family.
Traditionally, families from this area gathered at the church, so the structure relates to the volumes of a civic meeting place. The gables on each side ensure the views from the house capture the full aspect of the landscape, from the creek at the bottom of the valley to the ridgeline of the surrounding mountains.
The large vertical expanse of the gables creates an open connection between the upstairs rumpus room and the downstairs living area.
The bunk area connected to the rumpus serves to create a quasi-public sleeping area – supporting the requirement for the house to sleep 12, and providing childlike fun, event for adults. The downstairs bedrooms support the functions of the immediate family, the bathrooms are tucked away for privacy and on the upper floor, a bath is positioned by a large window to create an intimate space to contemplate the landscape and life.
The origami roofline seeks to reflect the topography of the surrounding environment; its colour mimicking the tones of the mountain rocks and the creek.
This project champions Australian hardwood. Exposed rafters create a rich ornamentation, and textural use of timber achieves a rich aesthetic experience despite a restrained palette. The glue-laminated timber, sustainably produced from the same species of trees found on the land, connects the internal with the external and enhances the dwelling’s overall efficiency.
The building was engineered and designed to be structurally restrained to use the smallest amount of material. The design process relied on all parties being aligned and focused. The builder was particularly dedicated, sleeping onsite in a swag and forming a relationship with the land that inspired some niche features.
The clients were heavily collaborative, personally making many of the house’ details including ceramic basins, wall lights and kitchen tiles by her; the external cladding and a custom flue for the chimney by he, a dormant electrical engineer who also ensured the house exists off-grid via a solar array connecting to a 40KW battery. Water is sourced through rain water tanks and a natural spring. Their involvement in the process has yielded significant value: practically through reducing cost, but more so by bestowing a familial storyline to many moments within the home, to be upheld by subsequent generations.
Location: Regional VIC
Builder: Bushblend Homes
Construction: Glued Laminated Timber
Size: 349m2
Completed: 2022
Photography: Thurston Empson
Professionals used in
Off Grid House
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About the
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Archier creates engaging architectural spaces and bespoke products, with an emphasis on honest, responsive design and efficient construction.
ARCHIER is an architectural practice with studios in Hobart and Melbourne. We work across residential and commercial sectors and have a particular interest in the relationship between architecture and landscape. We are a privately owned company and have four principals. One of our four directors is also Landscape Architect and this gives us a unique skill-set to work seamlessly across the two domains of Architecture and Landscape.
We work across a range of scales; for a range of clients. Our work encompasses residential, commercial and government architecture; public and private landscape projects; as well as the design and manufacture of furniture and lighting products
Our innovative designs are focused on material honesty, thermal performance and constructability, as we strive for affordable and responsive architecture that contributes to the public domain.
We are interested in projects that span architecture, urban design and landscape and embrace the mantra that design is delivery. Our practice utilises BIM extensively to automate and streamline our design work-flow and we are increasingly leveraging BIM to not only aid and support the delivery and construction of our work; we are also using it directly with Off Site Manufacturers to automate the production of timber based floor, wall and roof elements directly from the coordinated design model.
Our directors have over 25 years of combined industry experience and were drawn together to create an inclusive practice that is truly outcome orientated. We have won awards across a range of disciplines connected to the built environment that recognise our design excellence and innovation, along with our commitment to sustainable buildings and the environment.
As a practice, we have worked on large scale commercial projects with a construction value in excess of $100M through Joint Venture arrangements with Hayball Architects and we have lead multidisciplinary teams for complex commercial projects over $5M in value.
We relish the opportunity to work collaboratively with clients and large project teams to incorporate specialist knowledge and expertise into our work. We are data driven and focused on quality project outcomes. We have proven project experience leading complex projects in sensitive environments and have been recognised for our contextual approach to design.
We have also been awarded for our approach to sustainability and always seek not only to optimise the thermal performance of our buildings, but also to consider the life cycle cost of our material choices.
- ArchiPro Member since2023
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