Ferntree Gully
Ferntree Gully, VIC. 2020
Form of Life
Solving the dilemma of an original house not purpose built, Ferntree Gully is a renovation to a developer led home constructed off a template design lacking in quality, site sensitivity, and care towards how the clients actually want to live.
Burdened by excessive energy costs due to the poor quality of the original house and conventional layout, the now retired Korean couple desired an energy efficient home and interior akin to a cultural practice of holistic living. The house underwent a radical thermal upgrade with retrofitted insulation, external sun screening and reorientation of the main living spaces towards the North.
The couple, a retired professor and businesswoman respectively, both pursue a lifestyle of ritual, connection to nature and balance, which influenced the reorientation of the home to allow for a meditation space positioned to capture the sun rising over the Dandenong Mountains.
The new design creates a separation from traditional western style living on the ground floor to the more private reflective spaces on the upper level. The two typologies of living are united by a bespoke American Oak staircase and library displaying the Professor’s extensive collection of books, many of which self authored. The upper level provides each with their own singular ceremonial spaces - the tea room and meditation room - mediated by the introduction of a traditional courtyard garden which facilitates the penetration of daylight into the ground floor art gallery radiating through a glass floor inlay.
