Architecture Wednesday: River Shack

After that reviled barn conversion of a couple of weeks back—Maddie and I may or may not be making plans to drive to Connecticut and burn it down—this week’s entry is simple, and spare and minimalist; and I’m here for it.

The shack/eco-home is constructed from a mix of cement fiber, plasterboard, ironbark, spotted gum, and recycled timbers, including 200-year-old electricity poles from the early colonial settlement of Marramarra Creek. The design revolves around its remarkable setting, with the centerpiece of the open-plan layout being a single 6-metre-high window overlooking the creek. Facing north, this window opens fully onto an outdoor deck, dissolving the boundary between indoors and outdoors.

While its boxy form references traditional shack architecture, the off-grid house doesn’t skimp on comforts. A floating steel fireplace heats the living room and creates a dramatic focal point, while the interior celebrates craftsmanship with exposed wood throughout. The elevated kitchen has a custom steel sink and cooktop installed and is furnished with bespoke timber furniture. Solar energy and water are harvested on the cabin’s flat roof and stored on-site, making the home fully self-sustainable.

Two bedrooms and a bathroom are tucked at the rear of the cabin, making it suitable as either a full-time residence or a holiday home for those seeking seclusion. I might use it as a second home because it seems very secluded and I need a little something more, but I do love that, for me, it has an Asian feel with the wood and windows and the simplicity of it all.

Plus, if I wanted even more privacy than a tiny river shack, I could purchase the adjacent lot as well …

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Architecture Wednesday: Hollander House, The Organic Wave House

Architect David Hollander designed this home, the Hollander House, between 1969 and 1971 using hand-formed ferro cement to mimic the contours of a wave. It’s lauded as a prime example of Australian organic architecture—it was even voted one of the country’s top five houses in 1973—with living spaces ‘cascading’ over three levels and curvilinear interior spaces.

Rooms inside the three-bedroom home have elliptical, white-plastered walls and furniture and cabinetry created specifically for the home. The main space is the dramatic double-height living room, set around a sunken conversation pit with a curvy banquette, a colossal fireplace with a concrete hearth, and an original 1971 Curtis Jeré wall installation.

Hollander installed ‘light folds’ and ‘sky domes’ to draw light into the deepest recesses of the home, and sliding glass doors further amplify light flow across the home, which sits within bushland, surrounded by gum trees a short walk from Newport Beach.

A previous owner added the decking to the outside space, and the property has been upgraded with a whole-house water filtration system, electric vehicle charger and an ozone purifier.

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Architecture Wednesday: The Bakery in Sydney

I love when a new house is created out of an entirely different space, and this house in Sydney, Australia, is exactly what I’m talking about.

The Newtown property is made up of two adjoined early 20th-century buildings; it was originally a commercial bakery and a corner store—and even later, a garment factory—before it was reimagined as a five-bedroom home. But while the interior has become new and modern, yet still retains some of the original floors and spaces of the bakery and shop, its façade—which still reads W Dribble 1922 and 1909, respectively—is an assortment of original brick, steel and chimneys.

Inside, however, the building has been reconfigured over 8,000 square feet light-drenched living spaces spread across two floors that retain their soaring volumes and industrial feel—albeit softened by polished concrete floors with underfloor heating and a soothing monochrome color scheme. Wooden rafters and painted metal trusses are reminders of the building’s storied past though a more modern free-flowing floorplan is now reconfigured for domestic use.

The large kitchen is outfitted with customized, hand-painted cabinetry and a giant island that merges with the living room; black metal-framed windows and doors have been custom-made, while demolished brick walls were hand-scraped and reused for new walls; there is also original timbers and exposed brick and layers of patinated paint throughout the home.

One space that I would die for is that library, with floor-to-ceiling shelving stacked with 30,000 books. There’s also a moody office, several bedrooms, his and hers dressing rooms and bathrooms—which could easily be reimagined as his and his. The home also includes a music room, an artist's studio, an entrance atrium  and, outside, an internal garden with a heated saltwater pool, lush greenery, including plantings for bees and birds as well as a vegetable garden and gravel pathways.

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