The area we’re in is just south of Newcastle. It’s the Awabakal people’s place and in the late 1800’s. There was an incredible botanic garden here that inspired the idea of a landscape-based project, where we had the ability to grow the landscape up around the house.

We’ve called it the Bunkeren, which is a name the owners came up with because it’s Danish for bunker.

It’s an experiment in looking closely at all of the important things houses need to do and trying to make them exciting, and make them adventurous. It’s on this rocky edge of Australia and the idea was that the building platforms will float amongst enclosures that are hard to tell where they start and stop.

These hanging gardens if you like, and then the house can have all of the freedoms that that gives it underneath, in terms of not very many columns and no supporting walls.

We didn’t want to obsess about the views and we didn’t want to obsess about being devoted to that.

We’re more keen on family and landscape, so the house is designed for quite a lot of family to gather and have quality in things that are important, cooking, gardening, raising young children, swimming and being in nature plus an appreciation for local artists and furniture that the family  has inherited, so it was about making a home.

And that’s something I learned from the Danes, in this project really was the value of being able to bring an architecture down to human scale through fittings and fixtures and lighting and furniture.

Whilst the house goes along the contour and there’s different parts of it and it can look quite big at times, the rooms are quite intimate and it’s really set up just to do as little as possible and allow the family to then inhabit with their things and their way of life.

The intent with the approach to the house  was that you didn’t arrive at a house, so much as a landscape, with a small part that pops up and says “okay, here’s the entrance”.  

The roofs are all planted and there will be a good time probably in 10 or 20 years when that jungle has grown up and you’ll be unclear whether there’s a building there or not.

We all got very excited about bunkers because we love them but then we realized, well, why do we like bunkers and is it even a good idea to do a house like a bunker?

And the list of things that the idea of an earth integrated building gave us advantages for was quite extensive.
So it’s bush fiery here, it’s in the middle of the forest, and not having the risk of burning down is  a pretty big relief for families.

Then they have huge storms here just south of Newcastle, so there’s that quality.
Plus, by doing a robust house you can allow the landscape to come up and over and you don’t worry about cleaning gutters and you don’t worry about mold and you don’t worry about termites, no painting ever.

There’s a whole list of things that are simplified despite it being more difficult to build a concrete house. For our purposes that meant that we could support the ecosystems and the microclimates and the birds and the natural species and support this beautiful garden environment that we’d inherited.

Bringing natural light into the house
however, the challenge of bringing light and ventilation in was one that we were aware of and so by making these platforms of concrete that floated, also pulling some light in from above through slots of skylight.

Although you’re in the ground, half buried, you also have this feeling of elevation. I’ve brought gardens into bathrooms that are lit from above and that light and planting in a place that you think you’re underground is a surprise.

Then we had this idea in the brief: the owners wanted a room that was a bit less used and a bit more interesting. We realized that the ideal levels for the house permitted us to make a hole in the rock. We could reveal that and make the building seem like it’s grown out of it and then shape it a little bit for a cellar.

The idea of taking the external material internally and then warming it with timber and furniture and the beautiful Danish light fittings, meant that there’s then a very sparing quality, a very mute, stand back, not really draw attention to itself quality to enable the intimacy of space making that the Danes bring to these domestic spaces.

There really is just growing landscape and concrete and then brass and wood.

And because the architecture is similar material externally to internally, when the doors and windows are open you’re not really sure where the building begins and ends.

Such a magical climate and so we wanted to really enjoy the morning sun and the afternoon sun in different ways, in different parts of the house, as well as being aware of wind direction.

You can open the house in different directions at different times.
The house is set up to not be the thing, the thing is the landscape.

There’s something comforting about solidity and permanence and there’s also something magical about seeing the landscape growing up around it.

It brings a sense of appreciation of the quality of the land, to do something high quality in it and then enable that landscape to thrive.

My favorite part of the house for sure is the part that’s half rock and a half house. It’s just a nice reminder that we share this place with nature, we don’t control it all.

We’re only part of the equation and there’s a lot to enjoy in the longevity of it.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_UHTgGFTX8)