Korinda House by BENT Architecture is a quirky, peaceful retreat, on the outskirts of Melbourne. The home, which rests gently on six acres of sloping rural landscape, was designed as an environmentally responsive and deeply personal home for a family of five..
Korinda House is the home of a couple and their three children, who had fallen in love with the rural landscape as they sought to escape the encroaching urban infrastructure. Their original home was located closer to the front of the property, and was heavily impacted by scheduled works to the Yan Yean Road. Not wanting to sacrifice their slice of rugged, rural property but eager to escape the increasing urbanisation of infrastructure in the area, the family opted to relocate to another part of the property.
BENT Architecture were tasked with creating a home that was unique, innovative, and responsive to its stunning setting. The site of the build was initially heavily populated by pine trees, which after careful clearance, revealed dormant native vegetation. The new build is positioned around what remains of the vegetation an existing native trees, who have now rightfully reclaimed the landscape.
Korinda House adopts a unique typology, depicted as a series of masonry blocks distributed across the site. These blocks are individually oriented to maximise topography, solar orientation and privacy, protecting the private functions of the home inside, such as a master bedroom suite, children's bedrooms, and a painting studio. These masonic volumes serve to not only literally define the home through architectural and form, but spatially, creating moments of quite retreat amongst a hive of family activities.
Externally, the blocks adopt a rugged materialism. Clad entirely in timbercrete, a sustainable building material made from timber waste, sand and cement, unstruck mortar has been allowed to ooze and flow freely, creating a textural finish that serves as a nod to the raw Australian bush. The timbercrete finish is expressed both inside and outside the volumes, creating a robust, earth-tones quality in the interior, offering continuity between inside and out.
Inside the home, textural and rugged materials continue to ground the home in its environment, but lean towards more delicate finishes and tones. The interior walls are finished in v-groove lining boards, with expressive wallpaper inserts and recycled hardwood flooring integrated into intimate spaces of the home to add warmth.
Between the key protective forms, the home makes space for the moments of shared family life, such as cooking, dining, playing and gathering. These spaces are defined by transparency, openness and movement, engaging an interior materiality that includes exposed brickwork and recycled, rough-sewn hardwood lining boards. Polished concrete floors and dark brick pavers blur the divides between interior and exterior, moving in and out of the home and forming steps between levels and the fireplace plinth. Courtyards and terraces have been integrated int the transient spaces between masonic blocks, allowing the family to occupy the space in its entirety, with fluidity and spontaneity.
The living spaces graduate with the terrain, forming a gradient of communal engagement, as the layout moves from the kitchen and main living area, to a pool terrace, to a quieter den for guests and adult children. In the heart of the home is the central courtyard, acting as a secluded oasis, framed by the surrounding architecture and landscape. The courtyard features a corridor that leads to the studio and doubles as a gallery wall, finished in rough-sawn hardwood and serving as a rotating showcase of the homeowners favourite artworks and personal works. Soaring above it all is the library, which captures distant views across the treetops, contained beneath a folded roofline.
Given its rural setting, Korinda House has been designed to meet strict BAL-ratings, with durable, fire-resistant materials and passive solar design. The house is also equipped with a large solar array of batteries, watertanks, heat pumps, and a carefully considered floorplan that maximises orientation for thermal comfort year round.
Korinda House is a home that responds to its environment, allowing the rugged Australian landscape to rule supreme on this rural property. With a floorplan that creates both moments of connection and privacy, the home has been designed with careful consideration of the homeowner's lifestyle, and the gentle progression of the space upon the environment.
PROJECT DETAILS
Location: Victoria
Architecture: Bent Architecture
Interiors: Bent Architecture
Builder: Contour Constructions P/L
Photographer: Tatjana Plitt
