Skip To Main Content
Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

A Product of

Bark Design Architects Make Life A Breeze
HomesRebecca Gross

Bark Design Architects Make Life A Breeze

Australia

Designed by Bark Design Architects, this single-level house cantilevers over a steep slope to embrace the view, breeze and indoor-outdoor living.


Living is easy for a young family who calls Two Tree House home. Designed for the steep site and subtropical climate, Two Tree House cantilevers over the northern escarpment of Buderim mountain on the Sunshine Coast. The single-level platform offers views over the treetops, and verandas and breezeways capture prevailing winds and connect indoor and outdoor spaces. “We wanted our clients to love and feel inspired living in their house and feel connected to nature and the Sunshine Coast climate,” says Steve Guthrie, director of Bark Design Architects.

The clients wanted a contemporary house for their growing family, taking full advantage of the aspect of the site and coastal climate. Repairing and utilising a large earthworks scar left by the previous site owners, Bark designed a modular structure on a single-level, lightweight timber platform, preserving and celebrating two ancient flooded gum trees.

Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones

“The graphic shadows and sunlight tracking through the spaces register time and season, and the moonlight through the house is magic.”

 

The house is configured so that the bedrooms are on one side and living areas are on the other, with a breezeway timber-batten ceiling cutting through the centre of the house channelling coastal winds. “A changing filigree of light and shade filters through the breezeway ceiling,” Steve describes. “The graphic shadows and sunlight tracking through the spaces register time and season, and the moonlight through the house is magic.”

Sliding glass doors open the interior of the house to the breezeway and the covered veranda, blending indoor and outdoor spaces. Stretching across the front of the house, the veranda hovers over the rocky terrain and provides a close-up view of the eucalypt trunks and an outlook into and over the tree canopies.

Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones

A raked ceiling with high-level windows and louvres bring sunlight, views and ventilation inside the house, and two layers of eaves block high-summer sun over the interior and exterior living spaces. Glass doors at the rear of the kitchen create an easy connection to the plunge pool, allowing for views and breeze through the house.

Working to a modest budget, Bark used simple, economical and robust materials, such as galvanised steel, polycarbonate and fibre cement sheet cladding, as well as natural materials, including hardwood timber and plywood, to embed the house in the landscape. “It is a breathable and porous house to suit a benign subtropical climate and an inextricable connection to its coastal place,” says Steve.

Bark Design Architects
barkdesign.com.au

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

Dissection Information
Plywood flooring 19mm from Big River Timbers
Plywood cladding 12mm with natural texture from Carter Holt Harvey
Spotted Gum Plywood sheet flooring from Big River Timbers
Spotted gum hardwood decking boards from Gowan Lea Timbers
Spotted Gum hardwood ceiling battens from Gowan Lea Timbers
Melt copper light pendants from Tom Dixon
Concrete benchtop from Alternative Kitchens
Casement Fins 18mm Hardiepanel from James Hardie
Lexan thermoclear 10mm polycarbonate sheet from Ampelite

Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones
Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones
Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones
Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones
Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones
Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones
Two Tree House Bark Design Architects CC Christopher Frederick Jones

We think you might also like Sunshine Beach House by Bark Design Architects


About the Author

Rebecca Gross

Tags

Alternative KitchensAmpeliteArchitectureBark Design ArchitectsBig River TimbersCarter Holt HarveyChristopher Frederick JonesClimatedesignGowan Lea Timbers


Related Projects
Issue 59 - The Life Outside Issue

Issue 59

The Life Outside Issue

Introducing the Life Outside issue of Habitus magazine. With life increasingly being absorbed into a digital space, there is never a more important moment to hold something tangible. In this context, the power of nature to have a physiological impact on our sense of wellbeing has never been more important. So how can we cultivate the benefits of the our natural environment in the most intimate of places – our homes? This was the question that helped to bring this issue of Habitus to life.

Order Issue