Under One Roof – Daylesford Long House by Partners Hill

Under one long enormous roof, lie the combined forces of a home, hospitality venture and agricultural efforts in The Daylesford Longhouse. Partners Hill carefully collaborated with their impassioned client to realise a greater-than-ordinary vision.

Located a popular hour’s drive from Melbourne, in Daylesford, the home references a Palladian tradition of combining elements of the everyday (living, working, storage and making) all under one roof. The roof itself is its own applaudable feat, spanning the length of the built form, and housing each of its functional components alongside one another. Essentially one long shed, the form and its metal clad veil is reflective of the project’s agricultural roots and the setting it finds itself in, with altering transparency and various punctuations depending on the internal functionality.

Looking out over paddocks to bushland, the form sits parallel to the horizon and on approach from a higher altitude appears as a metallic sliver cutting through its uninterrupted landscape. The project is the result of clients Ronnen Goren (co-founder of Studio Ongarato) and Trace Streeter combining forces to realise their greater-than-ordinary vision. Together with builder Nick Andrews Construction and the façade fabricator Ampelite, Partners Hill led the architecture, interiors and landscape design. The Long House is surrounded and softened by mounds and miniature hills that counteract the sharp rectilinear nature of the form. Adjacent are a number of orchards that further soften the site and supply fruit.

Key to the successful coexistence of each of these spaces is the inherent flexibility. The resulting lifestyle options then afforded to the clients as a result of this flexibility allow for them to live and work from home, in a space that can easily house guests, while at the same time operate their working farm, salon and cooking school. Internally, the spaces are divided based on a series of contrasts (large versus small, old versus new, agricultural versus refined etc) allowing for a full spectrum of tactile and experiential elements within the spaces.

The home references a Palladian tradition of combining elements of the everyday all under one roof.

The resulting materiality is derived from a robust and pragmatic background. Australian cypress pine was chosen for its resilience to rotting, clay bricks are slip glazed and laid with contrasting mortar, and the profile of the metal and clear sheeting reference the farm architectural vernacular. Colour is then used to demarcate the Lodge and Stableperson’s Quarters. Due to the climatic variation of the site, strong multi-directional winds, prevalence of local wildlife and water limitations, the built form needed to respond and also be accepting of these conditions.

The Daylesford Long House allows its occupants to live on, from and with the landscape. With the ingenious combining of all agricultural and hospitality activities under one roof, the resulting typology offers an option for alternate and fully immersed life off of the land. Partners Hill, through close consultation with their passionate client and collaborators, has given significant value to off-grid living, without the anticipated and expected compromise. Instead, through refined details and execution, the bespoke brief is fulfilled with a curious optimism.