Verandah House

NSW

 

The site is on the south facing edge of a water valley boarded by eucalypt forest, in winter the ground is damp and shaded, in summer the only cooling breeze is found up in the trees.

 

Verandah House is a response to conditions. The building is lifted off the ground to an upper level platform, to avoid damp, gather sun and continue an uninterrupted ground plane below. This single decision alone has given this building a freedom to float both physically and architecturally beyond its verandah counterparts.

 

The person is taken up into the tree canopy free of the ground plane, relaxation accompanies this elevation, living finds its place free of the shackles of the past. Sun and light are pulled and reflected into the building through a ‘corridor wall’ which collects and bounces light selectively into adjacent spaces, using big plywood blades, the corridor brings a lifeblood existence to the house managing the most difficult climatic circumstance.

 

Central to the house is the ‘covered room’ which is open to the outside, and opens to the main living areas, making the core of the house ‘verandah’. Exquisite detailing and innovative structural moves only reveal themselves on closer scrutiny.