Stunning Edgar’s Creek House is a rammed earth pavilion home

Edgar’s Creek House, by Breathe Architecture, is a rammed earth pavilion home compromised of 3 connected pavilions – one for sleeping, one for bathing, one for living – framing a central courtyard and the view of the bush and creek beyond.

The home connects to the sloping site by it’s response to the planning of the three pavilions and through the use of materials. Instead of stepping the house down the site towards the creek each pavilion is placed down the site. The materials selected reflect the colours and textures of the surrounding landscape, allowing the house to feel a part of the landscape, rather than imposing itself on it’s surroundings.

Sustainability specs:
– The rammed earth pavilion home was orientated solar passive heating and cooling. It captures the sun for light and heating, shades from the western sun and utilises the breezes for ventilation
– Rammed earth wall used as protection from the elements along the southern wall of the house
– Double glazed tilt and turn windows and lift and slide doors were used to efficiently seal the house
– 5,000 litre underground rainwater tank
– Electric pump for hot water
– Provision for hydronic heating
– Rooftop solar panels and battery storage
– Considered effort to use only recycled, recyclable locally sourced materials
– Flooring is reclaimed Tasmanian Oak
– Decking and battens are made from Australian Grey Ironbark and Spotted Gum
– Recycled Messmate timber kitchen benchtop

The materiality of the house responds to its bushland context. A rammed earth wall shields the south of the house, and talks to the sandstone cliffs of the creek below. The pavilions sit among the Ironbark trees and are clad in raw Ironbark themselves.

Edgars Creek House is all about a connection to nature. This home is about the country and the landscape in which it exists, and offers a way to live as part of the system rather than trying to preside over it.