Traditional Influences Reinterpreted – House 1 by The Artificial
Taking its name from its identity as a milestone project, House 1 navigates its context by drawing on traditional Queenslander influences and reinterpreting them with purpose through a slightly abstract lens. The Artificial utilises a natural warmth with a welcomed textural approach to propose a home for the contemporary residential condition.
Neatly located into the fabric of Tarragindi, Brisbane, House 1 is the result of a highly collaborative process and a close connection between site, client and architect. Aptly named as it was the first project for the studio, the resulting home is the converging of experimentation, curiosity and a contextual understanding and response. Taking influence from the traditional Queenslander-style home, elements of this familiar typology are reinterpreted and reimagined based on the site’s specific needs and the way in which the home engages with the land. The Artificial combines the warmth of timber with a contemporary and restrained palette to conjure a home that taps into a nostalgic vernacular, while ensuring the contemporary brief is clearly met.
Taking influence from the traditional Queenslander-style home, elements of this familiar typology are reinterpreted and reimagined based on the site’s specific needs and the way in which the home engages with the land.
Built by David Lodeiro Developments, House 1 sees a four-bedroom, four-bathroom home embrace the traditional building vernacular of its context and reinterpret it with an abstract approach. At just over 600sqm, the generous family home brings together both masonry and timber construction elements to reimagine the familiar residential Queensland home. Elevated and spread over two levels, the known and expected scale and volume is retained of said typology, but its comprising elements are altered. Exposed blockwork adds both a textural and industrial element, while the cleanly plastered and painted walls and expressed timber elements offer a balance of the familiar.
As an exercise in integrated passive design, the project’s heavily weighted lower floor provides an anchoring base, allowing for thermal comfort through increased thermal mass. Heat can then naturally rise upward into the tin and timber-clad upper level, where it is then released through carefully curated openings. Key to the success of this home is its sustainable offering both in form, materiality and its ongoing performance over time. Designed to endure and last, ensuring orientation and openings were carefully placed creates a natural ventilation system throughout. The integration of water collection systems, solar panels and operable façade elements then allow the home to react, collect and store from its environment as needed.
House 1 embraces its site and its natural elements. The Artificial has created a home that sensitively navigates both its context, its present and its projected future through its ability to respond and work with its surrounding environment.
