Kangaroo Valley House by Turner + Associates Architects
Kangaroo Valley House, New South Wales, is a retreat designed as a family of containers, both roofed and open set within the Australian bush. The house is sited near an escarpment and surrounded by rugged bushland. A meandering approach road allows a gradual revealing of the house that appears defensive and deceptive in scale. The house is a family of containers, roofed and open.
The simplicity of the spatial configurations belie the ability to offer different living patterns responding to seasonal and diurnal changes. Outside the winter months, the terrace, living volume and courtyard form an extended living space, orientated north/south, whilst in colder months, living is internalised in an east/west direction with the open fireplace as the focus.
Concrete is used as a robust material where connections to the ground are made echoing the massive organic rock shelf formations. Copper is used as a crafted and patinaed surface the colour of which makes a connection the hues of the surrounding tall Bloodwood’s and Stringybark’s. Timber is used on the external living surfaces as a rich but domestic contrast to the cladding and structural materials.
Architect: Turner + Associates Architects
Location: Kangaroo Valley, nr Sydney
Style: Millennium Minimalist Modernism
Construction: Concrete, copper cladding
Site Area: 100 hectares
Gross Floor Area: 325 sqm
Date: 2006
Photographs © Brett Boardman
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