Residence near Melbourne by Architect Brew Koch

Peter Brew and Simone Koch have reduced Spring Creek Road Farm, which is located in the Australian state of Victoria, to its essentials. The couple round out their work as architects by working 100 ha here. The house for two stands on the grounds of a former sheep farm on the volcanic plains west of Melbourne. The two architects cultivate part of the area, while part has been left fallow. 

Brew and Koch write about their design: "The house is a cottage, a filled-in verandah, a throw-back, possibly a renovation of some strange yet familiar relic. Its strange details and near misses are where the architecture lives. The eaves that were too heavy to hold themselves, the gutters that fly away at the ends. Elevated, floating above its site as though contemplating a move."

A protective metal skin

Much of the building seems temporary and somehow unfinished; this has been done deliberately. The facades are clad with vertical metal siding except for the areas beneath the windows, where flat sheeting has been screwed to the subconstruction and left exposed. In warm weather, the cladding bulges irregularly, only to tighten once more when temperatures fall. In the window cut-outs, the wood subconstruction peeks out from behind the sheeting. 

Minimalist living

The interiors are even more minimalist than the outside of the house: cement-bound building slabs, like those usually used as facade subconstructions, form the visible surface of the walls and ceilings. On the faces of the walls, the load-bearing wood construction can be seen. The house has only a single interior door – to the bathroom. The areas all around it act as both space and corridor.

Minimal use of resources

"Our favourite space is the store room which is also an office, drying room and extra bedroom. It has the form of a corridor without the function", reports Simone Koch. The rest of the furnishings are just as minimal: a wood-burning oven and a stove, furniture without fittings, bespoke metal cupboards and shelves. The client-architects’ aspiration to care for the surrounding landscape and nature continues with their minimal consumption of resources.