Robust and Recessive – Federal House by Edition Office

Sitting in deliberate contrast to its surrounds, Federal House is an anchorage amongst the untouched landscape, recessive and respectful, as a robust place of retreat. Edition Office acknowledges the colonial vernacular and combines it with a modern refinement to propose a place of unwavering immersion, deeply connected to place while also being an escape of its own.

Located in its namesake of Federal, the sculptural form is a considered addition to the landscape, as both a piece of thoughtful composition and a unique space to convene for its owners. The linear and horizontal banding nature of the comprising materials ensures the overall form is broken down to feel less imposing, despite its darkened palette and dramatic simplicity. Emerging out from the sloping terrain, the multiple level home plays with expressive form and void to carve different areas to shelter while watching the surrounding nature and feeling immersed within it. Edition Office combines a respectful engagement with Indigenous heritage in the approach together with a mood-enticing series of spaces that open generously to the surrounds, while in other areas offer a sense of contraction and cocooning in place.

Atop a plinth of darkened masonry, the additional level is set back significantly from the building edge, to create a natural balcony space that is both occupiable and creates a series of shadows that animate the spaces.

Built by SJ Reynolds Constructions, surrounded by carefully curated landscape design by Florian Wild, Federal House is naturally ventilated with operable functionality that allows the spaces to breathe. Bringing references to nature into the heart of the home, an open void space creates the ideal placement of ferns to soften the otherwise rigid edges of the architecture. Referencing in gest the traditional colonial forms and the expressive extended verandah element, the overall form takes on a similar silhouette. The roof itself becomes a functional feature, blanketing and connecting the exterior walls through its ridged undulations, directing rainfall back to the earth. Atop a plinth of darkened masonry, the additional level is set back significantly from the building edge to create a natural balcony space that is both occupiable and creates a series of shadows that animate the spaces.

As a place of retreat, the interior features both expressed masonry and warming timber to both texture and a sense of the familiar into the home. Tonality is used to express transitions between inside and out and between the more social, open spaces and the more intimate. The sheer mass of the exterior walls provides a sense of protection from the elements within the Hinterlands, ensuring occupants remain as observers to the changing weather conditions and not necessarily participants. The internal pool also becomes a sensory enhancer, with its matched deep blue colouring reminiscent of a waterhole found within a similar cavernous setting.

Bringing the reference to nature into the heart of the home, an open void space creates the ideal placement of ferns to soften the otherwise rigid edges of the architecture.

In its firm placement and response to site, Federal House becomes a deeply corporeal yet modern interpretation of a rural retreat. Through creating a beautifully honed and crafted element of the unexpected, Edition Office has both embedded the proposed into the landscape and ensured a sense of flight from the everyday is created.