On the dramatic western foothills of the UNESCO World Heritage Blue Mountains, lies a unified, elongated, pitched form. It is the country escape for a Sydney-based family, for whom an existing, much-loved, station masters cottage, had grown too small for their growing family’s holiday stays.
Integrating the siting of the existing cottage, the new house draws on Australian Shed vernacular and typology to address the clients’ brief for “country honesty and earthiness”. The language of hardwood timber and metal sheet roofing on a podium of local stone, as well as, the resolute linear form, embeds the house across the breadth of the river valley panorama.
Flexible planning, use of robust materials, and design for thermal comfort, means that this home will continue a legacy of family memories amongst the backdrop of the rural Australian bush. This project is in progress.
