Northern Rivers’ ‘outsider’ hinterland home gains major design accolade

A Northern Rivers home that plays with its “ancient landscape” and features a very unusual pool has been crowned one of Australia’s best homes of 2021. Take a peek inside.

The sheltered black-concrete subterranean pool, linked to a planted void at the heart of the home. Picture: Ben Hosking.

An incredible Northern Rivers’ home has been plucked out from a pool of hundreds of Aussie homes to a win prestigious architecture award.

Federal House by Edition Office was awarded joint winner at the 2021 Houses Awards for best new home over 200m2.

It shared the prize with an inner city Melbourne home by Studio Bright.

The home overlooks the luscious Federal hinterland. Photo: Ben Hosking.

The judging panel of architects and designers praised the abode as having a “highly experiential relationship with its surroundings” while remaining aware of its “outsider” status.

“Located on a sloping remote landscape, Federal House is both hard and soft,” they stated.
“The existential experience of inhabiting this ancient landscape is acknowledged through the confidence of the building as a discrete object, announcing ‘I am here.’

“However, the quiet and elegant form is the first mediation between inside and outside: the apparent solidity of the object is deconstructed by fine-grain timber battens.”

From the entry above, this void allows glimpses through ferns to the still body of water beneath. Photo: Ben Hosking

The interior established a layered connection to place, according to jurors.

“This is achieved using a deep veranda-like space that converts the hallway into a covered outdoor room, a type used similarly in colonial homestead buildings and, more acutely, in Asian architectures as layered and sheltering threshold spaces,” they said.

“Literally grounding the project is a sheltered black-concrete subterranean pool, linked to a planted void at the heart of the home.

The sheltered black-concrete subterranean pool, linked to a planted void at the heart of the home. Picture: Ben Hosking.

“From the entry above, this void allows glimpses through ferns to the still body of water beneath.

“Federal House recovers the calmness of shade and shadow where only certain textures become available, such as the silver patina of the crown of wood grain.”