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A story of contrasts, this house was designed with a black timber exterior and living spaces with glazed walls that bring a lush landscape inside the home.
Named House in a Garden, this project by Edition Office explores the idea of a dwelling not as a shelter separate from the surrounding landscape, but as a home deeply connected to nature. Located in the Kew suburb of Melbourne, Australia, the building sits above a flood plain where lush trees grow, enveloping the volume in greenery. Two wings provide different living experiences; while one has a more closed and private layout, the other opens up to the site’s beauty via expansive glazing. Black timber covers the exterior, accentuating the simplicity of the clean, minimalist house.
Rounded volumes create the base of the building while establishing pathways through the garden, down to the nearby Birrarung river.While some of them reach for the sky, opening up to house existing trees, others have well-defined borders to create moody nooks among the lush landscape.
Modern, stylish and minimalist, the interiors don’t compete with the beauty of nature. Rounded glass and timber volumes give a nod to the organic forms of the dense forest, while materials like polished concrete add a sleek counterpoint to the warmth of wood. Color comes almost exclusively from the landscape, with the generous glazing allowing the residents to observe the passage of time softly, through changes in the foliage as one season flows into another. Photography by Maxime Delvaux.
