Elemental Composition – The Point by Tanner Architects

Surrounded by windswept farmland, The Point is an exploration of materiality and a connection to nature. The southern Tasmanian home by Tanner Architects looks out to its wild and raw landscape beyond to inspire within.

“You can feel history here,” muses Stuart Tanner, Director at Tanner Architects. “As you drive up, you really have little comprehension – if you haven’t been here before – of what you are actually about to witness when you come over the crest of that hill.” Emerging is a glass encased structure that welcomes the views of its rural landscape. “The Point was placed very subtly in the contour of these rolling paddocks,” he says, “almost as one line simply underscoring the landscape.”

The raw internal forms are interrupted by injections of colour, contrasting against the darker hues of the naturally textured concrete.

The architecture of The Point is engulfed by the environment, crafted with intricate care to capitalise on natural sunlight. “In Queensland, for example, you need to really be out of the sun and in the breeze,” Stuart explains. “Whereas in Tasmania, the opposite is the case – you want to create pockets around the building where you’re out of the wind but in the sun.” Due to its poised position along the ocean, the site’s light is everchanging; in the glass building, natural light is able to reach deep down into the interior spaces and saturate the interior stone and concrete.

However, what shines the most within The Point is its textural material palette. “I think the thing that I’m most proud of in the house is the elemental composition and the clarity between the materials,” says Scott Cordwell, Director at Cordwell Built. The home explores five basic material elements of concrete, stone, steel, timber and glass; it was important that the materiality remained authentic in execution. “As the builder, you really want to try to express them as honestly as you can, to not confuse them with each other, to make the detail where they junction clean and deliberate.”

Emerging is a glass encased structure that welcomes the views of its rural landscape.

Instilled within the material interplay is a dynamic visual experience. “It’s this combination of compression and release, which gives drama to the experience,” says Stuart. “The materials chosen for this building are, in some way, for the building to feel almost immediately older and allow the building to settle more deeply into that history of where it sits.” The raw internal forms are interrupted by injections of colour, contrasting against the darker hues of the naturally textured concrete.

“To try to create a building that is quite open, transparent, you’re bound to try to minimise the amount of structural supports or conceal them as best you can,” Scott explains. “The idea with [The Point] was to use the five internal walls – the big concrete walls – as the support for the roof, and the roof cantilevers quite considerably as well.” Despite the structure appearing simple, it is anything but that; the design allows the roof to soar out, acting as the home’s defining feature and inserting the structure with a sharpness that cannot be ignored. “For me,” Stuart says, “it’s about constantly being taken aback by the magnitude of what I’m looking out to.”