For Bijl Architecture’s city-based clients escaping to the bush of Tasmania each summer, Blackwood Rest is a glorious place to drop out.
Twelve-plus years after their original design was realised, Bijl Architecture returned to reimagine their timeless hideaway.
Envisaged in 2003 as a modest summer sanctuary, Blackwood Rest would be less a holiday house for entertaining, and more a remote refuge from busy city life.
Bijl Architecture’s brief was for a simple cottage in the woods, nestled above a creek.
Though they agreed this would not be the typical Aussie shack, they argued for a more modern interpretation of “cottage”.
In strong gabled gestures, ridge beams rise to meet large format windows, and clerestory openings capture treetops and sky.
Working with a local builder and stonemason, the owner made the plans his own to deliver a faithful interpretation of Bijl Architecture’s one bedroom, one bathroom, plus mezzanine scheme.
The building is a nod to the site’s surrounding forest with locally obtained and milled wattle (ceiling) and macrocarpa (floors).
Blade walls anchor the timber, the stone sourced from the back paddock of a nearby farm.
The exquisitely crafted chimney alone took three months to complete.
Although the cottage had weathered a once-in-a-hundred-year storm since being built, a freak flooding of the creek in 2016 severely tested the dwelling.
Its structural integrity remained, but interiors were damaged.
When Bijl Architecture was invited back to restore the cottage, they found it sitting beside a picturesque new dam installed by the owner.
This new outlook provided an opportunity to rethink the internal layout to make the most of the water views, while shoring up the home against any future, if unlikely, flooding.
Wet areas were relocated to make way for a larger bedroom.
The entry was reconfigured to take up less area so the living area could be enlarged for fire-side dining.
Robust new external-grade render was applied to the internal walls, too.
And additional windows expand the views over the water.
After dark, the cottage glows like a lantern by the water.
Project Details
Completion date – 2019
Building levels – 1
Project Team
Architecture
Bijl Architecture
Bijl Architecture is an ambitious Sydney practice seeking to challenge the status quo. They believe that our homes, schools, and places of gathering are an expression of our communities’ collective values and hopes, for now and for the future.
Photography
Adam Gibson
Adam combines careful composition with light-footed spontaneity to uncover the human truth. With an eye for dramatic tension, his work reflects a life spent roaming within and beyond the wild Tasmanian landscape, responding to diverse creative briefs. He instinctively turns the abstract into the iconic, making rare moments accessible to a new audience.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2020 Bijl Architecture. All Rights Reserved.| Image © 2020 Adam Gibson. All Rights Reserved.
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