Amongst Foliage – Timbin House by Conrad Gargett

Immersed within its location, Timbin House ensures an openness between in and out, connecting the home’s interior to the surrounding natural elements. Conrad Gargett emphasises the outward direction of movement and flow, cloaking the exterior with operable façade features that encourage light and ventilation to actively engage with the architecture.

Spread over three levels, the elongated nature of the floor plan ensures an increased and optimised home poised to take advantage of its natural setting. Located in an elevated position above Stradbroke Island and Frenchmans Beach, the home becomes an idyllic hideaway that combines a densely vegetated encasing experience with an openness to the ocean. By working with the existing vegetation, Conrad Gargett carefully weaves the proposed new form into the site, focusing on creating a minimal environmental impact and consequential footprint in the process.

Located in an elevated position above Stradbroke Island and Frenchmans Beach, the home becomes an idyllic hideaway that combines a densely vegetated encasing experience with an openness to the ocean.

The open and shared living areas on the upper level are deliberately aligned to allow for a natural openness among the existing tree canopies. By ignoring more traditional planning approaches and concentrating on elevating the experience of the home, an engagement with the natural elements becomes prevalent. Timbin House comes together using concrete as a base, with timber and aluminium for lighter elements and brass for more crafted and detailed insertions. Culminating with the rooftop level, the full-floor open space sits lofted above the canopies and allows for 360-degree views out.

Despite its remote location, the home is a contemporary and well-resolved application of its time. The area called for the comprising elements of the home to comply with both energy efficiency and combustible rating requirements. Using these parameters as a challenge, the result combines an aesthetic resolve that is underpinned by performance and functional robustness. Although imagined as a vacation home to accommodate three couples at any one time, the planning allows for independent living with access that allows for uninterrupted movement throughout the home and out into the landscape.

By working with the existing vegetation, Conrad Gargett carefully weaves the proposed new form into the site, focusing on creating a minimal environmental impact and consequential footprint in the process.

Responding to context, both form and materiality are considered in Timbin House to ensure a unique experience is created. Conrad Gargett has recreated an experience akin to camping, allowing residents to live sensitively within the unique landscape.