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Batesford Residence by Blair Smith Architecture
Near the banks of the Moorabool River in the rural north-east of Victoria’s Geelong, an unexpected collection of minimal volumes quietly hugs the land.
Sitting long and low against the topography, Batesford Residence by Blair Smith Architecture elegantly connects the valley landscape with a young family’s enthusiasm for living with the outdoors. “The land still felt agricultural,” says Blair Smith, director of the eponymous practice, when describing his initial visit to the site. Batesford Residence was one of the first to be constructed in this area, he explains, “so it was designed with very little built context.” The value of this isolation can be seen in the design resolution of the home, positioned without the constraints of neighbouring structures. The project brief was underpinned by a desire for a single-level family home structured around opportunities for time spent outside. The main body of the house – a long and linear volume – contains the primary living spaces and several bedrooms along an east-west axis, and perpendicular wings host the children’s playroom and main bedroom suite, anchored at each end respectively.
A slight rotation in the plan nestles the building into the existing contours of the site and opens the interior spaces to the sweeping northeast views of Moorabool Valley. Smith speaks poetically of this valley vista as a valuable point of interest beyond the river: “Immediately north, trains animate a distant ridge line tracking across the horizon during the day.” The simple manipulation of the site occupation strikes a line of privacy to the street and provides occupants with a sense of protection and enclosure, enhanced by the folded wings at the ends of the house.
The design strategy of the home is defined by the rich, natural amenity of several considered courtyards. The largest and most prominent of these courtyards is bound by the internal perimeter of the house; a narrow timber terrace extends along the length of the north elevation to connect the interior spaces to the garden. From within the home, there is almost no space disconnected from the green of the large courtyard, offering a limitless visual link to the landscape. Contained within the building volume, another courtyard is placed – a small jewellery box of greenery caught between the entry and the living spaces. Throughout the day, a maple tree casts dappled light across the interior, imbuing the spaces with a quiet calm.
The third courtyard is almost concealed within the first – an ‘inverted courtyard’ formed by the perimeter of the pool and outdoor living annex. As a volume within the negative space of the garden courtyard, the pool structure sits in a state of suspension separated from the building terrace with a densely planted trench. The effect of this pool courtyard creates a juxtaposing volume of texture within the larger void of the garden to afford varied opportunities for experiencing the outdoors.
For Batesford Residence, modest economics were as integral as a refined design intent. Smith describes a set of intelligent design principles established at the outset of the project to maintain this dual vision. “The plan is arranged according to a grid,” he says, explaining that this strict structural arrangement could accommodate glazing and concrete panels as modular units. “Bedrooms are two modules wide, and two modules make up a structural bay in the main living space.” The spatial benefits of this regimented set-up are clear in the proportions of the house from both the interior and exterior, promoting an underlying consistency in the massing of the building. The only break from this order occurs above the living spaces – a volume that manifests as a lantern perched above the parapet line of the rest of the house. From the street, this crystalline volume breaks the austerity and rhythm of the south facade and injects a curated moment of relief.
“I think the project is imbued with a lot of joy and a sense of warmth.”
A collaborative design process with the client, a commercial builder, was critical for achieving elegant solutions aligned with the design strategy. Owing to the grid, glazing and precast panels were able to be modulated, and a prefabricated roof structure contributed to what Smith describes as “an economic structural shell,” a starting point from which the rest of the home was able to be resolved, often with a high level of finishing. Such commercial construction methods had several unexpected results, says Smith: “The edges of the building and the sky bleed into one another.” The anomaly Smith alludes to occurs in the moments of low light across the landscape, which distils the south facade to the pure volumes of its composition; three large concrete blocks stand independently of one another, the windows in between melting away.
Batesford Residence is arguably a project defined by time spent living within the garden and the rolling landscape beyond. Courtyards, gardenscapes and strategically placed planting have culminated in a family home abundant with space and opportunity to occupy the outdoors. “I think the project is imbued with a lot of joy and a sense of warmth,” reflects Smith, adding that the commercial construction methodologies contributed to the project’s success rather than becoming a disadvantage. The result of such methodologies can be seen in the pure geometry and highly resolved detailing of Batesford Residence that stand as a testament to a robust process of collaboration, second only to the curated experiences of living within the surrounding Australian landscape.
Architecture and interior design by Blair Smith Architecture. Build by Ben Flanagan. Engineering by MTO Engineers. Joinery by SCLK.
