Fernhills House

Taungurung Country
 

Fernhills House is nested in the rocky Strathbogie Ranges on Taungurung Country overlooking the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria. We study the site through a 36 points digital scan of the land covering over a hectare to examine its contour, vegetation, colour and distribution of granite rocks scattered across the landscape. The house is sited on a large bedrock overlooking an existing gulley. Suppressed into the ground, the house is an industrial galvanised steel barn-like structure with a butterfly roof that provides shelter to a series of timber cabins nested within a utilitarian structural grid. Rocks excavated from the cut and fill process are crushed to form gabion walls that frame views of the valley. Here, the material of the landscape becomes the dwelling, quite literally living inside the landscape. Fernhills House received planning consent and commenced on-site in 2023.