Person, Home and Place – Thinking Paddock House by Open Creative Studio
Born from a love of the Sandford scenery, Thinking Paddock House celebrates the long-standing relationship between its owner and rural setting. Open Creative Studio strikes a balance between grounding the house in its surroundings and reflecting the owner’s individuality, crafting a home that is sensitively designed for ageing in place.
Located 30 minutes from Hobart, Thinking Paddock House sits on the northern side of South Arm Peninsula, amongst the dirt roads, hobby farms and gable-roof houses. Inspired by the owner’s desire to live connectedly to the serene view of Mount Wellington, Open Creative Studio allows for layers of interaction between home and landscape, extending from the built form to the interior.
Externally, Thinking Paddock presents as a harmonious variant of the homes around it. Timber and brick veneer cladding offer a material reference to the neighbouring farmhouses whilst the gable roof allows the home to appear typical and innocuous from roadside. Cementing Thinking Paddock’s position within the Sandford area, Open Creative Studio bolsters the home’s internal environment with double glazing, 350-millimetre thick walls and a system of cross-flow ventilation, complemented seasonally with hydronic heating. Combined, the environmental features of the home give Thinking Paddock a sense of endurance and liveability in response to its cool-climate location and the strong winds that buffet the site.
Devotion to the home’s locality also informs more personal aspects of its design. Window seats framed in timber adorn the walls of the bedrooms and living space, speaking to the captivating effect of the view. Facing Mount Wellington is a timber deck that provides the ideal space for reflecting upon nature – just as the client’s grandmother, who formerly owned the land, used to do, coining it her ‘thinking paddock’. Appreciation of the scenery also extends to the kitchen space, where the position of the island bench intentionally keeps Ralph’s Bay within eyeshot.
The task of distinguishing Thinking Paddock as unique to its owner sees the connection to the outdoors reimagined. Veering from the design of other constructions in the area, Open Creative Studio combines gable roofing with two hyperbolic parabolas in a perspectival take on form: from roadside, the house visually joins to its neighbours whilst a frontal view proposes the home as a more contemporary dwelling, with a distinctive Japanese flair. Nestled into the decking are rocks – an ornamental nod to nature – which take on sentimental value in virtue of having been hand-dug by the owner’s sister. Finally, the inviting and functional interior of Thinking Paddock pulls its outward-focused features into balance. Guests are drawn into the heart of the home, while an oversized butler’s pantry and high breakfast bar cater to the owner’s love of cooking and hide mess.
Thinking Paddock House is firmly established within the environment that inspired its creation. Through a process of careful consideration, Open Creative Studio beautifully champions the long-standing connection between person, home and place.
