Architect Matt Riley wanted to design a sustainable ‘off the grid’ home for his growing family of six on a 25-acre property at Cedar Creek in the picturesque Samford Valley west of Brisbane.
Wanting the house to be as sustainable and open as possible while blending into the landscape, they designed the building to be long and low, orientated to the North/North West, so that it would sit into the sloping site to maximise the all-encompassing views and engagement with the surrounding environment.
“We took mid-century modern inspirations to design courtyards, decks and other hard landscape spaces that blended the inside and outside spaces,” Riley explained.
“We needed to meet the requirements of BAL (bushfire safety) while minimising the damage to the surrounding bush environment during the build process. Given the general isolation of the project, we also needed a prefinished panel system that minimised delivery time on site to lock up and enabled hand-based construction rather than machine assisted.”
A range of Bondor products including LuxeWall, InsulWall, SolarSpan and BondorPanel insulated panel and roofing systems enabled Riley to make his ‘off grid’ vision a reality.
The end result is a stunning mid-century modern-inspired four-bedroom, three-bathroom home with a guest studio, home office, media room and a double garage/carport.
The home is separated into a living area pavilion and sleeping area pavilion, both connected by a breezeway space centred on a converted precast water tank swimming pool surrounded by a timber deck.
The home is completely off-grid and self-sufficient for power, waste and water, with a solar system, an Ozzi Kleen waste treatment system and 45,000-litre rainwater tanks.
The house was masterfully constructed by Aaron Griggs and the team from Lions Pride Building, who have had experience using some of the Bondor products previously.
“We used SolarSpan roofing – the Trimdek profile colour COLORBOND Basalt and simple skillion pitch roof allowed the roofline to follow and blend in with the natural sloping contour of the site,” Riley said.
“It provided insulation and enabled clear simple spans without structure to improve construction time. The underside profile's elegance allowed for the mid-century (country style) theme to be introduced to the home offering texture and light.
“InsulWall for the walls allowed for a unified structural insulated panel system, which with the COLORBOND steel Surfmist Matt finish, enabled a durable and prefinished wall. Great with kids in mind.
“LuxeWall was used to finish and insulate the recycled shipping containers we used in the project for service/wet areas and the guest studio."
Bondor panels were also used for window hoods and awnings, providing shade and weather protection for the windows on the flat façade in a simple way while creating 3D effects on the façade.
Check out this stunning project, as featured on Open Homes Australia here.
