Residential

wELSHPOOL house

Welshpool is a small inland town in South Gippsland, located 195km south east of Melbourne.  This is an area of great convergence; pockets of lush cold climate rainforest are scattered across and beside dairy and beef cattle farms, with seaside fishing ports minutes away where views across to the ever-present natural grandeur of Wilson’s Promontory always inspire.

The site is approximately one acre in size, and presents as a remnant piece of land positioned between the natural boundaries of Shady Creek and a quiet local roadway. Nestled amongst heavy vegetation, the land was always deemed too crowded, small and disconnected to be productive farming land and was historically used as a residence for farmers living in an 80 year old off-grid timber cottage. This existing building is an illegal structure having never received the required permits, so while it can be used it cannot be repaired or renovated.

The new design proposes two off-grid buildings sitting in juxtaposition with contrasting purpose, unfurling towards the boundary with the creek yet fortified from that with the roadway by a robust masonry materiality. 

The first building is an artist’s workshop. The simple skillion roof form presents its largest area towards northern sun to allow maximum roof-top solar access. High level clerestory windows along the full width of the southern elevation of the building ensures soft southern light flows unimpeded into the large single volume space, along with long range canopy views.

The second building is the modestly proportioned off-grid residence.  In traditional Japanese architecture, the engawa or ‘en’ meaning edge, is a transitional zone resembling a porch or sunroom that runs around or along an interior space. The engawa allows flexibility, either opening-up or providing enclosure to the interior.  There are similar spatial devices evident in traditional Portuguese and Spanish buildings, in modern Spanish the terms used are baranda or barandilla. And in the Australian vernacular the importance of this interstitial zone is also understood though the term used to describe it, ‘verandah’ originated in India.  The flexible space that is at once external but internal, that does not need to be of huge proportion to offer great functional use to a building’s inhabitants seems universally recognised.

At Welshpool there is an operable screen wrapped around a full perimeter verandah space that offers a pragmatic operable means by which to balance those intangible tensions of prospect and refuge.  There is the option of functional expansion when the internal programme requires it, and conversely the ability to close up and hide away in introspective seclusion should that be more desirable.

The single level 2 bedroom building is lifted up off the ground by lithe steel columns, more in number to keep the cross-section slender and allows the building to perch quietly over Shady Creek.  

Images: AAO