Brown Hill House / Eldridge Anderson Architects

Brown Hill House has been envisaged as a simple, robust form that reflects the natural fall of its site. Accommodating stepped floor plates delineating family zones, the design shapes a generous central courtyard cut from the form to allow natural light to penetrate. The central open space was designed around the tall gum trees scattered across the site, allowing the built environment to integrate with the existing natural one. A curved roofline is a further mediation, bending graciously around the treed landscape and inclining in sync with the slope of the site. Bunkering farther into the landscape as it falls from back to front, Brown Hill House is composed of a robust material selection arranged in clean volumes, leavening the elemental qualities of the surrounding landscape while finding an accord with them through a complimentary palette of soft greys and warm browns. Concrete brick walls provide weight and clarity, defining the perimeter of the building and allowing the roofline to extend gracefully above. The courtyard, which has been designed as a visual extension of the house, is constantly present through generous glazing and ensures a further sense of visual connection between rooms.