External View

KANGAROO VALLEY RETREAT

Location

Kangaroo Valley, NSW

Status

Work in progress

Photographer

Grove Architects

This property is located in a spectacularly beautiful, secluded valley about 150 kms south of Sydney. It is about 2 hectares (5 acres) comprising about 50% native vegetation and 50% cleared paddock with an old stable, and a magnificent grove of mature turpentine trees.

Two new rough timber ancillary buildings have been added to the now renovated stable, and two new principal buildings have been developed from crushed sandstone using stabilised/rammed earth technology.

With the majority of the material coming directly from the site itself and the local area, the buildings are detailed to be rough and raw. With a simple palette of rammed earth, locally milled rough sawn timber, Australian plywood and form-ply, raw mild steel, and glass, the houses are architecturally grounded in response to the spectacular sandstone cliff faces and the huge turpentine trees. They are intended to weather over time, with timber left raw to silver, and steel to rust.

Simple and bold, the houses are designed to be part of, and engage with their environment. They are breezy and cool in summer and intimate and cosy in winter. They are intended to settle into, and grow with the landscape over time