Nannup Holiday house

Completed by Iredale Pedersen Hook architects, the Nannup Holiday house forms part of a wandering path from Perth to Nannup. While the exterior dialogues with the numerous fallen trees, the interior is revealed through a sequence of “growth rings” coded and extruded in relation to the building program.

Nannup Holiday house
The Nannup Holiday house forms part of a wandering path through the landscape from Perth to Nannup.
This path dialogues with the landscape of intense forest, meandering river and rolling hills, each experience is carefully choreographed to enrich the occupancy of the house. A Jeykll and Hyde experience of the landscape is carefully controlled through oscillating vertical (forest) and horizontal (horizon) openings and the contrast of grounded and floating experiences.
Nannunp Holiday house, Nannunp, Australia
Iredale Pedersen Hook architects, Nannunp Holiday house, Nannunp, Australia

This is a holiday house, a place of temporary inhabitation that offers a variety of experiences and relationship to the native landscape. Spaces are strung in a line, an open-ended line that allows one to enter, exist and then leave and continue.

Spaces are organised to provide a sense of seclusion and retreat, guests view the forest from a distance through vertical windows, the boys view the horizon and rolling hills through shared horizontal openings and the parents almost touch the natural landscape. These areas are collected by a dark, twisting and cranking space clad in recycled jarrah wood that oscillates between interior and exterior creating a sense of ambiguity and wondering through a forest in and out of darkness and openness.

Iredale Pedersen Hook architects, Nannunp Holiday house, Nannunp, Australia
Iredale Pedersen Hook architects, Nannunp Holiday house, Nannunp, Australia
The plan twists in relationship to program requirements and variety of views. The section undulates in direct dialogue to the backdrop forest enriching the spatial experience with variety and complexity; spatial proportion varies between rooms capturing the verticality of the forest and the horizontality of the horizon.
The ground level is dominated by roaming wild pigs (the size of humans), tiger snakes, dugites and other less threatening native fauna including emus and kangaroos. The elevated house with access via the steel grate ramps creates a safe retreat to observe nature.
This project offers a holistic approach to environmental sustainability commencing with design and placement of access paths. The house was sited and designed to minimise clearing of bush and removal of trees. The area under the house is then free for re-introducing local species and will be fed by the grey water recycling. Materials were selected based on a life cycle analysis of embodied energy, Colorbond cladding provides a durable exterior core and inhabited areas include recycled Jarrah and recycled WA Blackbutt. Timber off cuts was re-used for storeroom linings.
The long roof form increases the capacity to capture rainwater, this is re-used in the house and the Photo Voltaic cells balanced over the year easily cover consumption requirements.

Nannunp Holiday house, Nannunp, Australia
Program: holiday house
Architects: Iredale Pedersen Hook architects
Team: Adrian Iredale, Finn Pedersen, Martyn Hook, Drew Penhale, Caroline Di Costa, Jason Lenard, Matthew Fletcher, Tyrone Cobcroft
Structural Engineer: Terpkos Engineering
Builder: Brolga Developments and Construction
Completion: 2013

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