This small rural Sunshine Coast residence has been designed for a new generation of farmer – a modern day farmhouse pavilion, with concepts borrowed from both famous modernist buildings such as the Farnsworth house in Chicago and also some colonial concepts of the ubiquitous Australian farm house and the utilitarian steel framed tractor shed, but with a contemporary twist on both the shed and traditional timber and tin gable roofed home. Inclusions such as; the outdoor kitchen / BBQ, the sunken lounge ‘conversation pit’ , verandah room and even the quintessential Australian ‘out house’ has been re-interpreted into a powder room located on the exterior of the home, complete with a bio-cycle toilet and grey water system, which is far nicer evolution of the old ‘long drop’ composting toilet design, no saw dust or gas mask required. The home design also incorporates other modern day takes on rural life, there is a super efficient wind generator and photovoltaic solar array proposed in place of the traditional windmill, there is also a 10,000 L  stainless steel water tank specified in place of the rusty tin ones of yesteryear. The project borrows some concepts from Architect Richard Neutra who’s revolutionary modernist buildings in the 1930’s and 50’s were likened to ‘a machine in the garden’ a phrase which adequately summarises this project . Neutra is quoted as saying that “a building [design] should fraternize with the soil”, which is a similar shared core value of the client, as someone who fraternises with soil on a daily basis.

“a building should fraternize with the soil”