Fulton Trotter Architects apply concrete, timber and steel to the meet principles of passive design, simplicity and self-sustainability in this southwest Queensland riverside home. David Wheeldon reports.
Concrete provides more than the anchor material for this house; it literally provides the heart. The Balonne River House is a five bedroom home situated on a long, narrow five acre block fronting the Balonne River, near the town of St George. The structure is divided into three wings, braced at each end by solid concrete walls, and they all meet at the centre with a black concrete bench top, polished to reveal aggregate with flecks of local colour creating a focal heart linking all three wings and acting as a gathering space within the centre of the home.
The concrete applications and the rest of the design came out of a desire to create 'something different' in the local context. That also meant not merely building another two-storey block house facing the river at 90 degrees and that ignored the wide-open opportunity for a northerly orientation.
As architect Mark Trotter explains, the objective was to create a house with a very local feel, "something uniquely St George".
"We spent a lot of time talking to the clients, and it was interesting how their opinions differed," he says.
The architects had to reconcile what were some trickily opposed ideas requested by the clients, a couple: one wanted modern and sleek while the other wanted a more traditional Queenslander style, rich with timber.
The result includes modern polished concrete butted against mixed hardwood with various steel elements.
One of Trotter's favourite questions - 'what's your favourite colour?' - sealed the theme for what he calls a "very simple building".
Again, opposite ideas collided as the colour schemes were suggested, adding further to an already interesting contrast that was emerging.
"In the end we were able to make steel elements in black, so we could say 'here's the black bits for you', while the concrete was in red, 'so here are the red bits for you'," Trotter recalls.
The house is sited high on the rural block, ensuring the design captures the northern orientation, cool summer breezes, panoramic river views, while also avoiding recent flood levels.
To maximise access to natural daylight and cross ventilation, the massing of the house is divided into three elongated wings: master, living and bedroom wings; each is only a single room depth and allows the users to modify the amount of opening to both light and breeze.
The rooms face north with extensive glazing, at angle to the river. The house sits at almost 45 degrees to the river so that, while it still captures the views, it minimises solar heat gain during the hot summer by having the smallest faces of the building facing west.
The solid coloured concrete insitu walls to the east and west anchor the lightweight elements of the wings. The textured formwork mimics the surrounding red soil, while their solidity, as well as providing shelter from the extremes of the day, bring thermal massing qualities which helps delay heat from transferring into the house.
The forms of the building are kept low, the roof opening up towards the river with large overhangs all around. The large cantilevering roofs are constructed out of insulated composite roof panels.
The original concept included mounding of the earth surrounding the house, the intention being to recreate the subtle rise and fall of the surrounding landscape with the house acting as the distant hills. This mounding would also act as a barrier (to noise and viewing) from the nearby highway and create a more interesting approach for arrival to the house.
Additionally, the architects clad breezeways in polycarbonate sheeting to create an interesting transitional link between each wing.
Meanwhile, on the question of self-sufficiency, the homes rural locality, off the grid for many services, made this a necessity. The task is carried out by harvesting all of its own water and processing of waste.
This was achieved through the inclusion of four 20,000 litre rainwater tanks complete with filter system and its own on site waste water treatment system which reticulates into the property's garden. The home is also designed to maximise the effectiveness of solar panels, which will be fitted in the future.
