A House On Two Stones

He was surprised to see that most of the local houses had little relationship to the hills or greater site context so exploiting those visual connections was a must in the new build. The client’s brief was simple: a three-bedroom home. Early conversations about single or double storey led to concepts taking advantage of the two-metre slope. Three iterations were developed exploring the idea of two large ‘stone’ volumes placed on the site, linked at ground level and topped by a second storey of bedrooms.

The rear volume, housing a cellar, was nudged into the rise. ‘It’s a big house at around 400 square metres, so it was a good idea to leave space for a north-facing garden and build upward,’ says Rowlands.
The volumes created a rigid overall geometry, albeit buried into the eastern slope and angled to capture northern sun. Utilities were located to the south and social spaces were prioritized to the north with views to the garden and trees beyond. Private spaces were suspended across the top of the grounded stones, shaded by suspended aluminium battens.

Externally, the form was intended to be smoothed, even smothered, by vegetation with garden plants beginning to overtake edges at the base and sides. Ornamental grasses froth against the base of a wall and Rowlands hopes the client will come around to the idea of a roof garden someday. The design plays with building materials and texture in a greyed monochromatic palette. ‘The advantage of that approach was to draw on the hills beyond so when it’s green it’s complementary and when it’s dry and dusty there is still a relationship,’ says Rowlands. ‘It’s not competing or working with only a particular time of year.’

A carefully considered use of brick on the ground floor was crucial to creating distinctive, naturalised textures. A variety of bricks from the San Selmo Smoked range were chosen to achieve a mottled appearance. In fact, the mix of grey-blue, rather than typical red-pink, bricks resembles variations found in local stone cuttings in the landscape. ‘We spent some time on site with brickies looking at how much of each type was mixed where,’ recalls Rowlands of achieving the hit-and-miss patterning. Internally, brick also provides drama, capturing the changing light on a north-facing wall. The internal-external brick piers line up with the external white splayed columns on concrete plinths, and the fireplace hearth is slotted between piers with a brick surround. ‘The aim of the play of sunlight and texture is to make it feel light – you don’t read it as monolithic.’

In addition to variations of material, texture and colour, a feature side wall directing views to the hills was patterned by extruding chosen bricks. Those in the soldier courses of Flemish bond protruded by around 30 mm. The effect resulted in a combination of colour variations and also shadow-lines created as bricks were pulled away. Rowlands believes it works well as background to the garden that grows through and beyond the side path, and envisages climbers growing up it, too, like natural stone.

The qualities of these big vertical planes is a perfect foil for shadows. The existing eucalypts on the street cast shifting patterns on the patterned brick, which read so well because of their simple breadth. Shadows are cast too from an overhang of vertical aluminium battens – a standard product used in a customized installation. In places where the striped shadows overlay the brick, a trick of the light makes stretcher bond seem Flemish. At night, internal lights inversely cast the batten shadows back across the garden. The atmospheres generated by such detailed, changeable light make the idea of smothering the bold form of the house in vegetation seem a far too simple vision.

The client is one of few words, but Rowland has been pleased to get feedback, in particular on thermal performance as the design employed strong passive thermal techniques. ‘It’s good for us to hear how they are finding it in cooler and hotter months, and see that our overhangs are doing what they should do.’ Solar heat gain from winter sun and efficient slow burning from a combustion fire heats the whole place, aided by a central void for passive ventilation. ‘From all accounts it’s working well,’ says Rowland with a grin.

Beyond the admirable and comfortable application of passive design, this house has provided living spaces enlivened by material detailing that draws in the landscape and hills beyond. The experiences to be had in this spacious home reference a seasonal delight in the colours and light of a bigger place.