A Secluded Retreat – The Flinders House by Sally Draper Architects

Referencing the old dairy building vernacular, The Flinders House sits effortlessly in its rural context, overlooking rolling hills and steadfast in its nostalgic notes. Sally Draper Architects combine an appreciation for context and an understanding of materiality and restraint, to propose a secluded retreat.

Coming together as a collective of gabled forms in the landscape, The Flinders House references the nostalgic origins and takes heeded influence from the old dairy building typology. Located in Flinders, the program for the home is imagined allowing for multi-functional use and for a naturally occurring separation to occur internally. With adult children, the client wanted to be able to have various configurations available, while still maintaining the core gathering and social spaces around which everything else pivoted. Positioned toward its most favoured view, large framed openings direct sightlines to the enviable rural landscape it is abounded by. Sally Draper Architects combine a clear appreciation and understanding of context and combine this with a strong vision – to connect the past and present in a carefully curated retreat.

Built by Matt Johnson, and with styling by Pipkorn Kilpatrick, The Flinders House is draped in a darkened timber externally, while revealing a lighter and more inviting interior. As a nod to the old creosote stained farm buildings of the area’s past, the dark exterior palette allows the formal qualities of the home to be somewhat disguised in the landscape, and not become a distracting focus. The carefully articulated landscape by Emma Mantello softens the hardened building edge and tapers the imposed elements tenderly as it transforms into the more natural and untamed. Within its rural setting, the experience from within is quite different, where focus is on creating a calm and muted setting, with portal type framed views to the rolling hills and valley below.

Expressing as the same gabled form from inside as it appears upon approach, the interiors feature full height uninterrupted gable formed spaces. Natural white bagged brickwork comes together with neutral warming tones, wood-washed timber, stone and burnished concrete flooring to create a robust and enduring palette. The integrated joinery and storage throughout allowing for increased circulation and for the dynamism of functional use. Although all sitting under the same roof silhouette, there is an inherent hierarchy underpinning each of the spaces. The entry stands are the hinging point that the other wings are directed from, with more social and active spaces closest, and the more passive retreat bedrooms and service spaces on the outer edges.

The Flinders House brings a natural and considered composition of finishes together through nods to the rural familiar. Sally Draper Architects have combined a careful restraint, together with a clear understanding and appreciation of context to position an appropriate formal composition in its natural setting.