An Outward Focus – Wakanui Trail House by Ben Callery Architects

Exploring the idea of how to live harmoniously and openly with the surrounding outdoors despite its residential setting, Wakanui Trail House draws from a love of being immersed within nature. Ben Callery Architects combines a familiar formal approach with a clear focus on textured and tactile elements as the connector between people and place, ensuring an ease of flow beyond the building edge.

Located in Northcote, in Melbourne’s inner-north, Wakanui Trail House is deliberately inwardly directed, creating a sense of retreat and disconnect from the surrounds. Loving their time in nature, the owners wanted to capture the feeling of being immersed in the outdoors in their own home, despite being in such a densely populated residential area. The overall form acknowledges the existing streetscape through matched proportions and volumes, a gable roof form echoing the homes that flank either side of the property. Inside, Ben Callery Architects opens the home to the elements and to a generous rear landscaped space – a secluded and private oasis.

Mechanisms that allow for energy capture and storage become key to the functioning of the home, with a focus on using recycled and low imbodied carbon materials throughout.

Built by Keenan Build with joinery by Vella’s Cabinets, Wakanui Trail House integrates natural and textured materiality throughout, adding warmth in various layers throughout the home. While glass allows for clear visual access between inside and out, its placement tempers the internal temperature of the home naturally, aligning with optimal orientation for passive thermal comfort. Additionally, mechanisms that allow for energy capture and storage are key to the functioning of the home, with a focus on using recycled and low imbodied carbon materials throughout.

A relatively restrained palette focuses on texture and the experience created within as core to the selections, while timber screens allow dappling of light throughout the day like sun streaming through a tree canopy. Fully recessive, elements of the façade open to heighten the experience of living with the natural, allowing the home to become naturally ventilated and cooled or closed off as needed. Opening onto the All Nations trail in Northcote, a respectful nod to place orients much of the outlook of the home toward the existing and surrounding landscape, animating the everyday experience of the home.

A relatively restrained palette focuses on texture and the experience created within as core to the selections, while timber screens allow dappling of light throughout the day.

With a focus on openness both internally and between inside and out, Wakanui Trail House integrates a biophilic approach into every resulting gesture. Ben Callery Architects integrates the past, the present and people into one, creating opportunities for harmonious and open coexistence.