Mother of Invention–Simple & Economical Regional Home

Five years ago, Bonnie and Remy, the entrepreneurial couple behind Coolstore café in Victoria’s Harcourt, were living in nearby Woodend when Bonnie spied a sloping, 1340-square-metre creek-side block with a long granite outcrop. It charmed and intrigued her, and its idiosyncrasies meant an affordable asking price.

“It was on the market for a very long time,” Bonnie recalls. “You just couldn’t tell if you could build on it. We had some drilling done. He said, ‘You’ve got 30 centimetres till you hit stone in some spots, and three metres in others’. They came back with ‘P for problematic’. I was like, ‘P for possible’,” she adds with a laugh.

and Design in Gisborne had also had his eye on the place. Hearing about that on the grapevine, the can-do couple reached out to see if designing a home for their young family of five on the block they all loved might appeal to him as a Plan B. Anthony agreed and set to work with co-director Silas Gibson.

“We wanted something that would really suit our family, and we felt the only way to do that was to build,” Bonnie explains. “A lot of houses these days have all this excess room people don’t use. We wanted something where we would use all the space, and only build what we needed.” And in this, they found kindred spirits in Silas and Anthony. “The brief was for something contemporary, cost effective, and with a strong focus on sustainability and thermal performance,” Silas says.

Keen cooks with a big brood, their spatial priorities included a generous kitchen, a large dining table, a sunken living room (both grew up in Canberra where this evocative, cocooning feature is commonplace), and plenty of nooks and zones inside and out for relaxed flexibility.

The tricky site, and what Silas describes as “a fairly ambitious” budget, inspired a design of simple forms and robust, economical materials that embraces the elephant in the room by propping the house on stumps atop the granite outcrop. Why not? It would have been an expensive nightmare to build around.

The long, cross-shaped form clad in dark Colourbond is striking but largely inscrutable from the southfacing street, with a small row of high-level windows ensuring privacy for bedrooms within. With warmly textural ceder shingles, a distinctive gabled entry with lovely indigenous planting, and an open carport framing views into the rear garden and creek, it conveys a strong, distinctive aesthetic and a deft touch with everyday materials.

“A parallel chord truss gives us a cathedral ceiling… and a deep enough roof cavity for lots of insulation, but still using prefab methods of building with trusses rather than expensive carpentry.”

Inside, this house soars. A voluminous, timer-clad cathedral ceiling and large windows framing views to the glorious garden-in-progress and ephemeral creek create an uplifting, light-filled core. There’s a kitchen with coffee station, a dining space with in-built seating that helps delineate the sunken loungeroom, an elevated deck and, off to one side, a bedroom wing offering so much more than sleep.

The design draws on Passive House principles but “it’s not about zero air changes,” Silas says, “it’s about not being leaky, and being able to control ventilation.” Meticulously airtight construction enables a heat transfer system that keeps bedrooms cosy throughout Harcourt winters and adds to the home’s pin-drop quiet and calm.

Like everything here, the soaring roof is both beautifully realised and highly functional. “The gabled roof form creates some hierarchy within the spaces,” Silas says. “A parallel chord truss gives us a cathedral ceiling…and a deep enough roof cavity for lots of insulation, but still using prefab methods of building with trusses rather than expensive carpentry.”

The bedroom wing off the kitchen adds zoning and flexible functionality. A flat ceiling is economical and adds visual compression. A wide circulation space running the length of the northern boundary brings in light and long garden views. Cleverly morphing joinery starts at the sitting room with a study nook, transitions into storage cupboards and becomes daybeds opposite the kids’ adjoining bedrooms for spill-out play space or moments of pause. In the master bedroom they become a generous robe.

Out on the deck, the refined, thoughtful detailing of builder Brad Lawlor of The Sustainable Building Co is especially evident. Smart timber-edged window shrouds and elegant stand-off brackets fixing the pergola to the house show the craftsmanship and initiative both clients and architect agree are central to this project’s success. “A lot of this (Brad) was suggesting,” Silas says. “And going that extra mile (to execute). There’s care and quality in it, along with simple materials. I think that’s what it takes to elevate things like Colourbond cladding. It’s cheap and low-maintenance, but it can still be beautiful.”

The result is a comforting and surprising home that delights its residents afresh every time they return to it. “I am always amazed that I’ll sit in a new spot and have a completely different perspective of outside and inside,” says Remy. “Three years we’ve been here, and still I’m finding new little nooks to enjoy the space from. I always look forward to coming home. Full credit to Silas and Anthony. They really listened to the brief, and then nailed it.”

Inside issue 101 — Grab the issue here.