As much an exercise in placemaking as architectural invention, Bryant Alsop carefully considered the beauty of the nature’s canvas and seasonal weather extremes when siting a contemporary rural house. It was determined that a deliberate gesture in robust materials would stand heroically – and stoically – in the pastoral setting; a monumental Cor-ten northerly façade punctuated with deeply recessed fenestration.

Entry into a compressed hallway, at the end of which a picture window frames the vista down the Kiewa Valley, gives those arriving a moment. Off-form concrete blade walls running north-south are simple, tactile elements that order the arrangement of program; with other materials being deliberately raw and sustainable.

While starkly modern in form, the patina of rusted steel gives Gundowring House a sense of having been there forever. There is a strong sense that the home will nestle into its surroundings as the landscape grows into and around it.


Builder: Scott James Builder

Photographer: Rhiannon Slatter