Kangaroo Valley House by Siloboy
Kangaroo Valley House is design by Siloboy.
Information from architect :
For most people, a 40-hectare, virtually inaccessible escarpment in Kangaroo Valley might not seem an obvious choice as a location for a weekender. But it took Tony White and Alexander Michael just 20 minutes to snap it up. Neither White, a jeweller, or Michael, an interior designer, was daunted by the prospect of building a house on the steep mountainside, which could only be reached by a precipitous winding track. In fact, the couple were inspired by the challenge. “We set five criteria for our ideal property: 100 acres, views, privacy, rainforest and natural water,” says Michael. “This place has the lot.”
Twelve months and some innovative design ideas later, the result is Wombat Towers, a futuristic solar powered house named after the burrowing mammals it attracts. “this area is full of wombats,” says Michael. “Every time you drive up the road you have to be careful not to hit one.” Near to top of the escarpment, the property has expansive views over the rainforest and dense bushland of the upper Kangaroo River. But the most striking thing is the house itself, which appears to defy gravity as there’s only one fixed wall.
The soaring tent-like structure has irombark columns rising from a 27-meter long reflection pool to support a vast, butterfly-shaped roof made from galvanised steel. This acts as a sunshade and shelter (rather like the fly of a tent) for an enormous flat-roofed building with retractable glass on three sides. “With most houses, the walls support the roof, but this is different,” explains Michael. “The upper roof supports the building beneath.”
Michael designed the house as well as the interiors and much of the furniture.
A long timber walkway links the main building with a pair of freestanding cubes wrapped in timber louvers. Each cube houses a bedroom. I wanted this place to feel like a resort,” explains Michael. “The outdoor walkways create the atmsphere.” The house’s vast proportions – the main bbuilding measures 20 meters long and seven meters wide and has no internal walls – add to the effect. A huge rectangular fireplace divides the sitting and dining zones, while a freestanding “Utility Pod” separates the kitchen from the media room. One side has an orange door opening to the guest loo, while the side for the media room has recesses for books and entertainment equipment. Another side conceals the laundry. Evident throughout is Michael’s obsession with adapting commercial and industrial items for use in domestic settings. One ensuite has garden taps and a washbasin fashioned from a Dutch oven found in the local store. Toilet roll holders are made from chunky steel bolts. The kitchen has orange factory light switches, trolly wheels for door handles and catering style gas burners.
A South Coast builder took a year to complete Michael’s modernist masterpiece, which encountered few obstacles. “But there was a memorable hiccup when the driver of an articulated truck missed our turn and hit the skinny dead end,” he recalls. “A crane had to come from Nowra to turn it around.
The retreat is now the ideal escape from the couple’s Potts Point home, which is an elegant, four storey Victorian terrace. “Every Friday night we load up the car and head down here for a change of pace,” says White. During the cooler months, the house gives them a frosty reception. “It takes hours for the fire to warm the main living area, so we stick to the media room and flick on the gas heater.” Taking centre stage in this space is another of Michael’s designs – a grey sofa with an aluminium back. In contrast to pared-back functionality of the kitchen and dining space, Michael has given the chill-out zone a softer touch. Scattered across the polished concrete floor are sheepskins and floor cushions covered in thick brown felt.
Behind the sliding cupboard doors are 12 huge batteries storing the solar energy.
University of Southern California Extension by Christopher Megowan Design
This is the first project realized by 25 year old recent graduated Christopher L. Megowan. It is a modern 1200 square foot addition onto the rear of a hundred year old Victorian home a block away from the University of Southern California.
As the area surrounding the University becomes denser given the increase in demand for housing, many older homes are being demolished to make way for larger apartment blocks. In this scenario, this addition prevented the waste and demolition of the older house and reappropriated it’s use to accommodate the areas demand for higher occupancy. Ultimately, it is greener to find creative ways to upgrade and reuse existing structures than to demolish and build new.
The addition was designed as efficiently as possible in order to not complicate construction and reduce material waste. Designed on materials grid, the main volume of the addition was detailed from the exterior 4?x8? fiber cement panels and polycarbonate in. Given the “urban” nature of the property and context in the rear (the addition is adjacent to parking and an alley), light and air were prioritized over a view. The design provides more evenly filtered natural light at a fraction of the price of glass. Further, in a neighborhood with bars over the windows of most homes, the polycarbonate provides much more security than glass. Light and air are separated into two functions as ventilation flaps seamlessly clad in the fiber cement panel and two operable skylights allow for air to pass through and promote passive ventilation.
The polycarbonate walls are wired in between studs to accommodate lighting that would allow for the walls to glow (the initial intent was that color changing LEDs would be placed between the studs to allow the walls to change color, however this solution proved too costly). In using the fiber cement panel rainscreen, thermally stabilizing concrete floors on the lower unit,and the polycarbonate, this addition was able to be constructed at a price per square foot competitive with stucco and other less desirable finishes.
The interior volumes benefit from tall ceilings and open spatial flow between the existing house, the annex and the common rooms of the addition.The bedrooms each have a wall of sliding doors providing privacy between spaces and enclosing the closets that serve as a sound barrier to the common spaces.”
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