A Composed Response – Mt Coot-Tha House by Nielsen Jenkins

Conjured as a calming and still sanctuary amongst its untamed natural surrounds, Mt Coot-Tha House offers a conversation between building and site. Nielsen Jenkins responds to the undulations and slope of the terrain through internal and formal gestures of the home, while simultaneously inviting connections to the natural environment.

Mt Coot-Tha House is located near Brisbane, amongst an elevated setting of uninterrupted dense bushland. Key to the appropriate response to site was an integrated focus on bushfire attenuation and a considered approach to co-habiting in harmony with the landscape. In essence, our homes are places of refuge and recharge – and particularly in the non-urban areas they are a place of robust shelter and protection. Channelling this, while also ensuring an elevation of detail throughout, Mt Coot-Tha House is primarily responsive and enduring while also being layered through the addition of the warmth and familiar comforts of the contemporary home. Nielson Jenkins emphasises the building as a permanent structure in place, anchored to its site and resilient amongst its surrounds.

At its heart, Mt Coot-Tha House is about implanting itself as a low-maintenance and robust insertion of permanence amongst the landscape.

Built by Struss Constructions, Mr Coot-Tha House is conceived from a place of balance. The respect for the opportunity to inhabit such an undeveloped and rare site is evident in the resulting home. With the area being prone to bushfires, the ability to withstand such an event inspired both the formal and material response. A central stair connects the levels of the home, following the line of the slope and expressed formally at a civic scale through blockwork. This structural spine then allows the other associated rooms to sprawl from this middle section and allow less formal and softer circulation routes to emerge. While the structure sits hugging the 1:2 ratio slope and gives the impression of a multilevel home from approach, it sits only one level above the ground surface at any one time.

The liveability of the home was paramount. While the living and sleeping spaces sit separately, the more active areas for daily rituals are grouped around an open courtyard. The invitation of the natural, punctuated into the home, further increases a feeling of immersion that acts as a reminder of place. While openings allow curated snippets of the surrounds, their size has been carefully determined by not interfering with the durability of the structure as a whole. At its heart, Mt Coot-Tha House is about implanting itself as a low-maintenance and robust insertion of permanence amongst the landscape. Resultingly, the interior expresses the structural blockwork and exposed concrete floor as pillars of that permanence, while the timber joinery insertions are limited and deliberately restrained.

With the area being prone to bushfires, the ability to withstand such an event inspired both the formal and material response.

Mt Coot-Tha House allows a quiet place of protection and solitude amongst its unique and beautiful surrounds.  Nielson Jenkins has drawn from a place of strength to create an unlikely and welcomed insertion.