A Natural Addition – The Earthen House by Thais Pupio
As a natural addition to the existing and lush landscape, The Earthen Retreat is a sustainable and sensitive insertion into its immersive site. Thais Pupio Design draws on musings of warmth and a textural approach to propose the warmly embracing space of calm.
Inspired by its siting in the enviably lush and natural surrounds of Byron Bay, The Earthen Retreat embodies the casual calm of its context, while integrating innovative sustainable systems into the everyday. Imagined as a supplementary residence for its owners, allowing visiting friends and family to stay and be immersed in place, the spaces all openly engage with the natural. Through comprising materiality that captures the essence of its connection to the earth and reinterpreting natural elements into bones of the home, a raw and honest sensibility is expressed throughout. A heightened engagement with the senses sees Thais Pupio Design propose a home that allows for the individual experience to flourish and unfold, further elevated through connections, expressed light, openness and curating views outward.
Inspired by its siting in the enviably lush and natural surrounds of Byron Bay, The Earthen Retreat embodies the casual calm of its context, while integrating innovative sustainable systems into the everyday.
Built by Heanes Built, The Earthen Retreat replaces an existing 1980s home that sat ill-fitting on site. Its proposal aims to be relatively light in place, while being grounded to site through a weighted use of rammed earth masonry, defining the extents of the home in its own sculptural way. The two-bedroom retreat brings an innate privacy together with a familiar comfort, as layered textures and textiles add warmth and moments of interest. That same warmth is then reinforced through the use of timber in both structural and façade features, and the internal selection of custom furniture pieces to engage with. In its site, the need for elements to be low maintenance while also having a reduced environmental factor was crucial to their selection and aided the direction of the resulting design.
Integrated throughout are passive mechanisms that allow for an adjustable climatic comfort, embracing natural features and optimising orientations and an openness. The existing and surrounding garden was the initial inspiration for the proposal, and ensuring the new sat in harmony with such a setting was key. While a raw and textural approach is used throughout, the natural patina of copper doors adds a layered expression of time, allowing the materials to engage with the environment as much as the guests can. Maximising thermal mass, the rammed earth and polished concrete flooring play a vital role in both retaining heat throughout the year and in cooling, while also offering a needed robustness.
