48 Devonvale

The primary design intentions are a poetic relationship with the landscape, an immersive experience of the site and a complex, ever-changing architectural environment that speaks not only to domesticity, but to the mysteries of being in the world. The feeling of endlessness but also containment, human interest but also dissolution into the natural, are some of the oppositions that drove the design response.

The house form was visualized through a series of abstract drawings of landscape as an array of masses similar to the surrounding hills, piling up in the middle and stepping down on the edges. The edges are irregular and dissipate into the landscape by including voids within them and forming courtyards. Unlike the vernacular-inspired architecture that pervades the region, the house is intended to make specific reference to a perceived character of landscape. The house platform was dug substantially into the slope to avoid presenting a disruptive silhouette, improve wind protection and give it a sense of rootedness in a vast landscape. The excess soil was used to enhance privacy by creating berms at the bottom of the site.

Photography:

Paris Brummer ©

Video:

Paris Brummer ©