Reclusive and Immersive – Rain Curtain House by Room11

In its natural setting, Rain Curtain House is an embrace of its namesake, carving itself as a viewing box from which to view the changing climatic conditions of its context. Room11 proposes a deeply reclusive series of retreat spaces, which through a considered layering are enriched through details and craft.

Nestled into its lush natural setting in South Hobart, Rain Curtain House is a celebration of the natural environment it is situated within. Through a considered embrace of its location, openings connect the interior and protected home experience with framed views of the natural elements surrounding the home, from a safely insulated position within. An internal courtyard then provides an additional layer of protection and ensures the home as a genuine retreat space, protected from the elements, while still open to the air above. Creating and embedding a considered relationship to its setting, mechanisms open to provide viewing opportunities, then retract to provide a more cocooning affect. Room11 creates a celebratory engagement with its site, through both open and closed gestures that allow the rain to engage with the architecture.

As the literal and metaphoric centre of the ensuing design, the courtyard is the core around which the home is conceived.

Built by Elevate Building Tasmania, Rain Curtain House is imagined as a place that provides solace and shelter. The home’s location is known for its continued rainfall throughout the year, and the resulting form offers itself as an active participant in its milieu. It is a building that embraces the act of pausing, connecting and appreciating the natural world. Through a non-imposing approach, the home sits amongst a natural and endemic green landscape, whose encouraged sprawl is inspired by an organically occurring growth, softening the edges of the built form in the process.

As the literal and metaphoric centre of the ensuing design, the courtyard is the core around which the home is conceived. It embodies principles of protection and retreat, with its bounding walls encircling its visitors. The courtyard is its own moment, and through an introspective gesture, connects each of the surrounding rooms visually. The openness above allows the natural to enter, without views of surrounding dwellings, reinforcing a sense of remoteness. The resulting residence is one of experience and connection, and through darkened and textural finishes, the home takes tonal cues from the deeply green and grounded surrounds. In its light-footed approach, insulated sandwich panel concrete construction comes together with thermally broken double glazing and other elements that ensure the home relies very little on the surrounding elements.

The resulting residence is one of experience and connection, and through darkened and textural finishes, the home takes tonal cues from the deeply green and grounded surrounds.

Rain Curtain House purposely diffuses sightlines inward, providing a protective and disconnected place to recharge. Room11 has embodied an honest connection to place through an encouraged engagement.