Refined Simplicity – Birregurra House by Rob Kennon Architects
Capturing the essence of its location, Birregurra House is founded on primal ideas of shelter and simplicity, borrowing influences from the traditional rural Australian vernacular. Rob Kennon Architects ensures reminders of the surrounds are present throughout, and with a pared-back restraint, the resulting form is elevated through a focus on detail and junction over superfluous ornamentation.
Located in its namesake, Birregurra House sits on a grassed and flattened plain in amongst an active agricultural landscape and mature plantings that stretch out into the distance. Given the relatively exposed site, the home needed to be internally protecting and sheltering for its owners, and through subtle shifts to the form, it is integrated into the overall. With a keen interest and passion for sustainable living, using the land and natural elements to enhance comfort, the owners wanted to integrate those principles into their new home. Rob Kennon Architects explored the rudimentary idea of what it is that makes a home, stripping back elements deemed unnecessary and trend-driven to ensure a familiar warmth remains.
By extending the eaves out and pulling the enclosed form inward from the roofline, a dedicated relief space is created as a modern interpretation of the verandah. An iconic feature of many earlier Australian homes, the unique in-between verandah space allows for a primal control of solar gain, while also providing an outdoor room of sorts, softening the edge of the built form. Built by JMBush Construction, Birregurra House comes together in a modular way – breaking down the overall rectilinear form into a series of interlocking elements. By rationalising the form and allowing for arrangements to sit next to one another, there is a flexibility at play, allowing for changes that adjust to life over the years to come.
As an extrusion of the traditional silhouettes found within the rural landscape, the result stretches outward to align with the contours of the site, anchoring the building into the site. Engaged with the surrounds, mechanisms have been built into the home to capture and store energy to allow for off-grid living and a small carbon footprint. While the exterior is expressed as a bold and solid offering on the site, matching the scale of the property, the interior aims to break down that overall mass and create moments of encasing warmth that allow a nestling in place. Timber plays a large role both externally and internally as it wraps walls and the main ceiling, a low maintenance polished concrete floor underfoot ensures the practicalities of rural life have been accommodated for.
By balancing tactility with a more robust offering of features across the site, Birregurra House sits appropriately in its context. Rob Kennon Architects has taken the traditional vernacular and, through a crafted and contemporary lens, created a refreshing take on the typology.
