Buln Buln House by Chamberlain Architecture & Interiors

Surrounded by rolling hills and verdant valleys, a family home by Chamberlain Architecture & Interiors celebrates the abundant and breathtaking Victorian landscape.

Imagined as a series of pavilions set within a brick-walled enclosure, Buln Buln House is the culmination of a collaborative vision between client and architect. As a building of relative isolation, the dwelling leans on a design narrative underpinned by the critical importance of the natural context. “The clients were keen to capture a range of focal points in the landscape, including the hills to the north, the valley to the south and a large significant gum tree,” says Glen Chamberlain, architect and director of Chamberlain Architecture & Interiors.

Although the land appears to expand endlessly towards the horizon, the building is located with intent, positioned on the natural rise of a small hill from which it is possible to engage with a 360-degree outlook.

Although the land appears to expand endlessly towards the horizon, the building is located with intent, positioned on the natural rise of a small hill from which it is possible to engage with a 360-degree outlook. Here, the distant vistas of Mount Baw Baw and the Great Dividing Range are dramatically present, while in the foreground, set between the rolling hills, lush vegetation is juxtaposed by a patchwork of farmland.

On approach, a long winding driveway exaggerates the experience of discovering the building by way of a protracted journey through the landscape. Chamberlain describes the house, oriented on an east-west axis, as striking a formal tone in active contrast to the gentle rise and fall of the ridgeline position. “View lines towards the house demanded something formally clear,” he says. The confident forms of Buln Buln House are further defined with understated, monolithic materials – predominantly brick – and afford the home with a sense of quiet permanence, allowing nature to take precedence above all else. In respect to the landscape, the volumes of the building follow the topography of the land with a series of stepped planes leveraged to delineate spaces and functional zones within.

Chamberlain describes the house, oriented on an east-west axis, as striking a formal tone in active contrast to the gentle rise and fall of the ridgeline position.

The exterior form of the building draws strength from the robust interior. The spatial planning was guided by a defined structure prescribed from the outset by the future occupants; a close family accustomed to the frequent and often overnight visits of siblings, children and grandchildren. “The house demanded three distinct bedroom zones requiring substantial privacy buffers in between,” says Chamberlain. The outcome is permanent resident suites at opposite ends of the building with guest accommodation in between. Generous living spaces perform as privacy buffers within remaining areas. With a design narrative inclusive of guest and resident accommodation, the house is a series of dispersed pavilions connected by walkways and interstitial spaces clustered together within a considered brick enclosure. Although this building manifests as a volume of two intersecting rectangles, the pavilions within are not constrained by the brick veil; rather, they are deftly oriented towards curated views and significant points in the landscape.

By virtue of its own solidity, brick – applied at Buln Buln House as the predominant material – anchors the building. “The brick wall grounds the kids’ bedroom wing and nestles it in the landscape,” says Chamberlain. However, at the opposite end of the dwelling, the primary bedroom wing takes advantage of the falling topography to hover slightly above the ground in a gesture Chamberlain references as “formally the inverse” of the adjacent, perpendicular bedroom wing. Further exaggerating the illusion of the floating brick volume, a slight cantilever over the pool adds a moment of paradoxical weightlessness with a floating roof appearing to be suspended above the brick boxes – an additional injection of drama to the living spaces.

With a design narrative inclusive of guest and resident accommodation, the house is a series of dispersed pavilions connected by walkways and interstitial spaces clustered together within a considered brick enclosure.

A warm material palette is applied liberally across the interior, comprising natural stone and timber finishes softened by furnishings and drapery of similar tones. The exterior brick is introduced to the floors in active circulation areas and is curated around hearths and fireplaces. The suggestion of the enclosure within the interior is further enhanced by the inwardslooking courtyards drawn into the floor plan, a methodology Chamberlain suggests is to enhance the experience of the landscape and support the unfurling of small vignettes of the hills and plains as one moves through the house. “The walled enclosure also helps create sheltered outdoor space between the pavilions,” says Chamberlain. Balancing moments of solidity with ones of permeability in the brick veil was as much a functional strategy as an aesthetic one, providing shelter from exposure and the often-high winds of the area.

In service to this family home and its position within a rich natural landscape, Chamberlain describes the outcome of the collaborative design process as manifest in the concept of exploration and discovery. “The experience of this project is a curated one, beginning on arrival at the property,” he says. “The views unfold as you move through the house and are augmented by the architecture as it pulls apart in places to reveal the building in the landscape.” Without compromising the formality of clean lines and structured forms, Buln Buln House finds anchorage in the land with a fluid movement across the gentle topography, the outcome of which is a dynamic celebration of and understated sympathy for the Australian countryside.

Architecture by Chamberlain Architecture & Interiors. Build by Dancon Developments. Engineering by Web Consult.