Yarra Valley House by JAM Architects

Rising from the ashes of a fire-devastated site, Yarra Valley House is a robust dwelling that sensitively honours the site and its familial memories.

Surrounded by dense forest, a family’s former log cabin in Victoria’s Kinglake was long enjoyed as a special holiday destination, imbuing the site with sentiment. After the devastating Black Saturday bushfires swept through the region in 2009 claiming the property, the owners spent the next five years contemplating what would take this cherished dwelling’s place. Faced with the challenge of rebuilding on a site with a high BAL (Bushfire Attack Level) rating, the owners enlisted JAM Architects to guide a long consultative process to secure planning approval. “The real hurdle was convincing the Country Fire Authority that we could build there at all,” says Cameron Fry, director of JAM Architects. After much perseverance, the design team was given the green light to put pen to paper, conceiving Yarra Valley House as an ode to the former getaway.

JAM Architects divided the home into three structures: a central pavilion containing the main living spaces and bedroom suite, flanked by two self-contained guest pavilions connected via glazed walkways.

This project was laden with nostalgia from the start. The clients opted to position the new house on the original site, hidden 300 metres from the main road. They shared photos of the old house with the JAM Architects team, tasking them to reinterpret its character in the new design, articulated with a contemporary hand. “Form-wise, we created a nod to its low-slung pitched roof and log-cabin feel, but the clients’ preference for timber as a dominant architectural material was problematic on the fire-prone site,” says Fry. To address this, a resilient, non-combustible shell of standing seam black metal cladding and fibre cement sheets was utilised, with the interior softened by timber linings and complementary materials.

With the intention of making Yarra Valley House their primary residence, the clients sought a level of separation between themselves and guests. JAM Architects divided the home into three structures: a central pavilion containing the main living spaces and bedroom suite, flanked by two self-contained guest pavilions connected via glazed walkways. Designed for independence, these ancillary volumes each feature a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living area and study nook, offering comfortable guest accommodation. The three pavilions open onto expansive, north-facing decks – the central one featuring a pool and decks equipped with spas – capturing sweeping views to the site’s underground spring-fed pond.

Native planting complements the site’s densely forested and wildlife-rich surroundings while maintaining a natural feel that will continue to evolve over time.

Given the strict fire control mandates, the project required a ‘defendable area’ to be cleared around the home, with several established trees felled for this zone. “We had the trunks trucked to a mill in Ballarat to be cut and kiln dried, producing the messmate timber now lining the home’s floors, walls and ceilings,” says Fry. Displaying growth rings, gum veins and fire marks, the timber lends warmth and tactility while drawing the site’s trees into the home experience. The timber’s honey tones are harmoniously complemented by rammed-earth blade walls, which express the home’s divided floor plan externally and provide substantial thermal mass, passively warming the home when the integrated wood fires are lit. Formed using locally quarried materials, the soft, tactile appearance of the rammed earth “reflects the earthen hues exposed in and around the pond”. Inset strip lights accentuate the walls’ undulating texture, striations, formwork impressions and imperfections, “particularly at nighttime when the light gently washes its surface”.

In the main pavilion, the pitched roof is dramatically articulated with a timber batten ceiling that rises to an inset strip light along its ridge line. In the kitchen, modules from Italian brand Valcucine were combined with bespoke cabinetry, forming a striking hub and intuitive gathering place. The hybrid design demanded a meticulous replication of Valcucine’s precise detailing – concealed benchtop edges, integrated drawers and inset handles – within the new cabinetry to ensure seamless integration and a continuous expression across the space. A proprietary island is thoughtfully extended with a bespoke timber addition, sleeving over the cabinetry modules below to appear ‘grafted’ to its form, while minimalist, full-height doors conceal new bar elements and appliances, opening to reveal warm timber linings, “much like the house itself,” says Fry. The cooking zone’s charcoal tones are echoed in the bathrooms, where the clients sought an almost cavernous feel. Dark, textured wall tiles envelop each space, complemented by black tapware, stone baths and basins to create an immersive place of respite.

With its refined exterior and textural interior, Yarra Valley House inverts typical material hierarchies to craft a sensitive response to place.

Throughout, the living, bedroom and bathroom spaces are enhanced by serene views to the amphitheatre-like pond, excavated, deepened and revegetated in collaboration with Forge Landscape Studio. Native planting complements the site’s densely forested and wildlife-rich surroundings while maintaining a natural feel that will continue to evolve over time. Driven by the homeowners’ deep respect for the site, the house was designed to be entirely off-grid – a vision JAM Architects brought to life through a substantial PV system, additional solar panels on the shed, a worm farm septic system, 100,000 litres of water storage, three wood-burning fireplaces and the omission of gas infrastructure.

With its refined exterior and textural interior, Yarra Valley House inverts typical material hierarchies to craft a sensitive response to place. Its humble, contextual materials echo the landscape’s nuanced character, producing “a softened space that’s very comfortable to relax in,” says Fry. Defined by a quiet, understated presence, Yarra Valley House stands as a thoughtful reconciliation of memory and resilience – a tender reinterpretation of the beloved former holiday home, cementing the property as a cherished retreat to endure for generations to come.

Architecture and interior design JAM Architects. Build Vigor Homes. Landscape design Forge Landscape Studio.