Green Magazine #80 July-August 2021

Going bush has always been the perfect antidote to our busy modern lives. But right now, many of us have a particularly deep yearning to get out of the city and escape the claustrophobic nature this pandemic has brought. The homes in this issue respond to that need in modest ways. They are not simply well-designed houses, they pay great respect to the places they inhabit and disrupt as little of the surrounding vegetation as possible. Architect Lara Maeseele fell deeply for a bush block on Tasmania’s Bruny Island and welcomed the restraints placed by a conservation overlay, to build a house fitting of the precious site. On North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) in Queensland, three families engaged REFRESH*DESIGN to consider the traditional campground in designing their shared holiday house. They were after simplicity,…

Mod The “Desert Chair” has a modernist look with a futuristic edge. The former is expressed through graceful lines and the latter in its materials – its woven textile seat is made from no fewer than 53 plastic bottles. ingoodcompany.com.au Heart We love the work of second-generation cabinet maker, Martin Johnston not just for its beauty, but for its meaning. Handmade in his Billinudgel workshop on Bundjalung Country, NSW, Martin uses local and sustainably-sourced materials. The “Custom Drawers” are part of the collection and were notably included in a raffle to raise funds for Motor Neurone Disease. martinjohnston.com.au Lost and Found Recycling is always on the mind of Melbourne-based ceramicist, Kristin Burgham. “My work is based on discovering discarded objects that I use to create a mould. When my mould is finished, I clean and…

Nice and fluid: what started as a clear-minded and driven young practice, Bush Projects has taken cues from its namesake and adapted and evolved the business to include work past the front (or back) fence and out into the world. Working alongside our best architects, Bush Projects is well-known for wild private gardens. Focusing on dynamic materials that nurture little ecosystems, their designs are always site-specific and aim to foster and support wildlife and plants that are native to the surroundings. There are always lots of bees and birds and insects visiting or living in-between their carefully-placed local rocks and waving grasses. Although their gardens could seem a tiny bit haphazard – the truth is far from that. The practice owes their success to thorough research; truly considered design incorporating good…

The defining success of the Killora Bay house is its multifaceted connection with the Tasmanian bush surrounding it. In 2014, architect and owner Lara Maeseele and husband Tim Watson fell in love with the sense of privacy and seclusion afforded by the dense bush and quickly purchased the site, on the north-western tip of Tasmania’s Bruny Island. For Lara, who was born and raised in Belgium (a country one-third the size of Tasmania, but with a population of over 11 million) the untouched coastal site felt immensely “rare and wild”. This sentiment was shared by the previous owners, who entered into a perpetual Part 5 Agreement with the local council to establish the site as a conservation zone – to protect endemic species of flora and fauna for future generations.…

Architect Lara Maeseele in association with Tanner Architects stuarttannerarchitects.com.au Builder Tim Watson and Driftwood Workshop Structural engineer Tim Watson Sustainability in design The house siting and form is heavily conditioned by its delicate environmental setting. Fitting within a small footprint of 130-square-metres, the house is designed to accommodate multiple families at once, in separately serviced wings, and in various modes of occupation within individual rooms. Concealed cavity sliders enable spaces to be closed off into more quiet and warm zones when required, creating flexibility in use and allowing modes of seasonal occupation within the broader site. Each building element has been made to work hard to optimise the use of space, concealing joinery elements within the depth of the walls. Passive energy design The house is mostly oriented to the north and east with glazing to the ground floor…

For many, Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) is a place for family. Here, visitors fall in love with the pristine beaches and rugged landscape, often returning to create a permanent home. Such was the case for three Brisbane families who sought to establish a place of their own – a beach house that would preserve their long-term connection to the island, and which would allow them to share the magic of Minjerribah with family and friends. The brief was a complex one. Not only would this residence be co-owned by three families, but the chosen site was a steep sand dune, introducing structural complexities to an island location where water access already impacted materials and logistics. Unfazed by the nature of the project were Brisbane architects REFRESH*DESIGN, who recognised the unique opportunity…