Water Chapel
The Tropics
Amongst the Eucalypts
Our clients sought a home of both refuge and connection—a space that might evoke the immersive experiences of camping in natures vastness that allowed for moments of solitude and communal gathering, where family and friends too could find their own space within nature’s embrace.
Steeply sloped and dense with eucalypts and casuarinas, the site is home to an abundance of native flora and fauna. Surrounded by native forest perched above a lake, the very real risk of fire define the architectural resolution.
This home is grounded, removing understory threats and fostering seamless flow paths and access to its surrounds. A permeable apron of pebbles and swales channels water and often waterfalls, around the house undeterred.
The plan breaks and twists along natures contours, creating courtyards, and outdoor pockets offering moments of solitude —to bathe in the forest or pause in shifting shade. Orientation adhering to passive solar principles, and offered protection from prevailing southerly winds.
Operable facade panels pivot and lock, unfolding the house from its protective enclosure. Floor to ceiling metal screens emerge from wall pockets as barrier to embers and fauna to create a meditative mood, while breezes and outlook are maintained ensuring seamless engagement with nature.
Sculpted by the forces of its environment, More than a place of shelter, the house is an instrument of contemplation with a profound connection to place that is not an imposition on the land, but an extension of it that invites you to experience the vastness of its landscape and sky. Its modest scale evokes a sense not of inside/outside rooms but of being elevated and belonging to a larger landscape.
A home to endure, balancing openness and refuge, lightness and permanence tells us we do not have to compromise when choosing to live amongst the eucalypts.
Barossa Hills
Perched House
Laneway House
A series of lean-tos were removed from the rear of the house, and a new living pavilion inserted across the full site width, opening generously to the terraced rear garden. The pavilion anchors a first floor addition of bedrooms, master suite and balcony, while downstairs, the original front rooms are reconfigured as a teenager’s domain with bedroom, bathroom and study huddled together.
Unlocking valuable extra space, the entry was reoriented onto the side laneway and the long corridor dissolved to expand existing rooms and curate an arrival experience via a steel-framed portal that marks the juncture between old and new.
The pavilion is camouflaged into the fence line at street level with a slim clerestory window peaking above, while the first floor addition reads as two distinct objects, fringed with tiny roof gardens. Peeled back around the entry courtyard, the new bedrooms under gabled roofs are conceived as timber lanterns, drawing in daylight and at night, emitting a warm glow through their charred cedar screens.
Inside, concrete floors are warmed with LVL pine beams and a velvety finish on brickwork and walls. External timber is durable Accoya wood, while the entry portal, its mesh screen door and all guttering is custom made in galvanised steel.
Strategic design has added less than 100 square metres of space, yet completely transformed the experience of living here, bringing sun, sky and garden outlooks inside for the first time. Robust materials will ensure its longevity, while its harnessing of natural light and ventilation helps heat and cool the house year-round without the need for air-conditioning.
Highlands House
Hills Residence
Victorian Terrace
A Victorian Terrace house with poorly organised rooms over five levels was re-imagined to become a home of reception and containment, comfort and serenity, sanctuary and a deep connection with nature.
Vertical circulation was reworked to direct entry towards an arrival respite, a place to pause, sit and welcome guests. From the street entry the home’s levels are simplified into 2 zones; downstairs to kitchen, dining and lounge areas with access to the rear courtyard and pool; up takes you to the more private quarters, an intimate second lounge come study, and the bedroom levels.
Kitchen and dining connect directly with the rear courtyard via a sundeck overlooking the pool, which flows to a second terrace lounge built on the garage roof.
Natural lime plaster, soft textured granite, and oak boards, and are woven into the inner fabric of the home. Raw steel, and further use of oak are worked and crafted into objects, furnishings, fixtures and fittings. Each space is designed to nourish the soul, with consideration to light, shade, proportion and materiality.
F E I T Handmade Shoes
JGDW employed traditional building methods and raw materials to create an environment that speaks to the core philosophy of FEIT.
Our approach to designing this intimate space was that of restraint and celebration. Thus ensuring the simply crafted items within to hold centre stage.
Birch plywood benches and platforms; sometimes seat, sometimes display, rest on an exposed concrete floor. Unadorned walls are skimmed with a traditional natural lime plaster, a soft muted texture in reference to the raw leather goods inside.
All storage is incorporated within the space of this small store. The rear walls of the upper level house a grid of raw metal pigeon holes, accommodating a variety of boxed and unboxed items.
Lighting is functional and understated. Unobtrusive cylinder lights peek below the ceiling line to direct the focus, whilst a Japanese washi paper lamp by Isamu Noguchi provides a warm lantern glow in the corner.