Modern Farm House

The site was chosen from an elevated section of an existing 100+ acre working farm near Cooroy in the Noosa Hinterland. The exact location for the site was quite far removed from an existing house, requiring extensive preliminary planning approvals from the local council due to a new road access being required. The brief was for a modern country house with ‘pitched rooves’ that best captured the aspect over the property and beyond to Cooroy Mountain. The program was to be contained on a single storey and the plan was quite spread out along the contours, with a large central living / kitchen area in the middle and 2 ‘wings’ at each side or end - the main bedroom & bathroom quarters at one end, and secondary bedrooms and rumpus space at the other.

The plan shape was a kind of cruciform, a long rectangular plan intersected in the middle with a tall pitched gable roof with expressed timber rafters over the central dining space, and secondary gable roof forms on the ends or ‘wings’. Dark colours were chosen to nestle more harmoniously into the hillside setting and minimise visual glare. Large sandstone blocks were used for external retaining walls and to create a large levelled yard area for play and family gatherings, and to reinforce natural warmth of materials in the exterior palette.