A Natural Restraint – Garden Estate by Robson Rak

Inspired by the idea of an innate connection between the natural and the built, deliberate axes and portal views connect the inner lived experience of Garden Estate with its curated landscaped elements. Robson Rak utilises long spans and a natural materiality to create a calming multigenerational home.

Marking a change in lifestyle and location for the clients as they transition into retirement, Garden Estate facilitates multi-generational living when the owners’ children and grandchildren come to stay. In its setting in Point Lonsdale in Victoria, the home immerses itself in its natural milieu and through curated master-planned landscapes by Eckersleys Garden Architecture, deliberate connections open the built to its natural elements. Through a restrained and measured approach, the resulting form comes together as a series of linear planes that are connected through seamless glazing elements between the heavy masonry. Robson Rak uses contrast to create a sense of harmonious balance between the open and closed, allowing the more voluminous and intimate gestures within the home to sit together with ease.

Robson Rak uses contrast to create a sense of harmonious balance between the open and closed, allowing the more voluminous and intimate gestures within the home to sit together with ease.

It is the considered interconnection between the built and the natural that ensures the narrative can unfold. The newly conceived home, built by David McDonald Builders Pty Ltd and with structural engineering by Meyer Consulting Engineers, the home emerges amongst its well-established garden setting, with introduced landscaped efforts to complete the story and inject moments of connection. Able to be broken down and opened up as needed, the home suitably takes on a pavilion-type arrangement, with three zoned areas that are connected through long corridor features. Each corridor is marked by its rammed earth wall structure, anchoring to its site and signalling circulation.

In plan, the home is linear and sits divided by its zoning, while in elevation, the roof line opens upward to engage with the tree canopies above and motion to encouraging natural light inward. The sense pf compression and release created offers a nod to the functionality of the space, while also helping define zones. The rammed earth walls and their natural and subtle texture acts as the foundation for the consequent material palette that develops around them. With an emphasis on both robust built elements and the natural landscape outside, timber, stone and extensive glazing result in a muted tonality used throughout the home, while structural framework juts out from the main form to encourage the growth of canopies and additional shelter.

With an emphasis on both robust built elements and the natural landscape outside, timber, stone and extensive glazing result in a muted tonality used throughout the home, while structural framework juts out from the main form to encourage the growth of canopies and additional shelter.

Through the use of uninterrupted lines and a modern linear approach, Garden Estate beautifully engages with its site. Robson Rak combines a passion for precision with a highly refined rigour to conjure this home where a protective calm openly welcomes and meets the natural.