An luxurious stone-and-glass home with a spectacular infinity pool built into the side of a cliff along a rugged coastline has been named the best in Australia.
The singe-level mansion looks over the River Derwent in Tinderbox, a small beach-side town 19km south of Hobart, and has taken out the gong for Australian Home of the Year at this year’s HIA-CSR Australian Housing Awards.
Judges described the home as a ‘once and a life time build for Tasmania’ for its expertly crafted stone walls that used 700 tonnes of handpicked mudstone and the ‘indulgent’ indoor/outdoor infinity pool that floats above the bushland below.
It was no surprise that the property was given the HIA’s top gong after it cleaned up at the state awards earning Tasmanian Home of the Year as well as five other categories.
The Tinderbox home’s standout feature is the stunning pool which project manager Michael Lane of Lane Group builders told Archipro had ‘a fair bit of engineering involved’ amid concerns it wouldn’t hold up when filled with water.
Hidden behind stone walls and black gates lies the HIA’s Australian Home of the Year, a spectacular one-of-a-kind mansion with an unique infinity pool, underground wine cellar and jaw-dropping views
HIA judges described the home as a ‘once and a life time build for Tasmania’ for its expertly crafted stone walls that used 700 tonnes of handpick mudstone and the ‘indulgent’ indoor/outdoor infinity pool that floats above the bushland below
The singe-level home looks over the River Derwent in Tinderbox, a small beach side town just 19km south of Hobart. It won the national award after cleaning up at the state ceremony earning Tasmanian Home of the Year on top of five other categories
But hold up it did and it’s now the perfect place for guests to take in the picturesque views of the river and landscape.
The rock walls in each room which were built after stonemasons handpicked through piles of blasted boulders from a nearby quarry are another standout.
‘The stonemasons meticulously worked their way through it – we had to chip away at some stones just to make them fit,’ Michael said.
Lead architect Kate Symons of Studio Ilk said the pool sitting outside the fabric of the home: ‘allows you to feel like you are completely immersed in the landscape when you are using the pool, but also affords the flexibility of year-round use’
A unique feature of the building are the rock walls in each room built using hundreds of tonnes of mudstone which stonemasons handpicked through piles of blasted stone from a nearby quarry
Hard materials like the stone, glass dividers, and concrete floors and made cosy and intimate by the low ceilings and dark timber walls to create a ‘sense of calm and peace’
There is also a games room with a full-sized billiards table, a library with a hidden lift down to the wine cellar and a sleek kitchen featuring a white marbled island bench with an integrated wooden breakfast table.
Hard materials like the stone, glass dividers, and concrete floors are made cosy and intimate by the low ceilings and dark timber walls used to create a ‘sense of calm and peace’.
Lane Group and Studio Ilk collaborated to design a home that showcased Tinderbox’s rugged natural beauty in every room as per the client’s brief.
Each space has glass window walls to make the most of the view and can be closed off to the rest of the house for added privacy.
Kate Symons, the lead architect of Studio Ilk, described the project as ‘commercial in scale’.
There is also a games rooms with a full-sized billiards table, library with a hidden lift down to the wine cellar and a sleek kitchen featuring a white marbled island bench with an integrated wooden breakfast table
While Kate described the project as ‘commercial in scale’, the first was familiar with the land having designed a home for the property’s previous owners that never went ahead
The final result was an architectural masterpiece that works with the surrounding landscape rather than against it using an ‘understated materials palette’ that is bush fire resistant
The former owners had started excavation on an underground wine cellar and subterranean tunnel to the foreshore but left it on the block unfinished for Kate and her team to design around.
‘Although the existence of the cellar was not critical for our clients in purchasing the property, it was only logical that the tunnel access should be located under the main roof of the new house, so we worked the layout around this,’ she explained.
Michael said the existing structures influenced how the construction began: ‘When we first arrived there was only the enclosure around the stairwell that goes down to the cellar, that goes out towards the foreshore.
‘So our first job was to demolish the enclosure, pull out a stairwell, install the lift shaft, and we started building from that point and worked around it.’
HIA Managing Director Graham Wolfe applauded the Tinderbox family retreat for its ‘exceptional workmanship’ and ‘boundary-pushing design and innovation’
Judges said the residence is a ‘spectacular single-level, sprawling property anchored to its windswept, bush land location by a series of heavyset stone pavilions’
The final result is an architectural masterpiece that works with the surrounding landscape rather than against it using an ‘understated materials palette’ that is sustainable and bush fire resistant.
HIA Managing Director Graham Wolfe applauded the Tinderbox family retreat for its ‘exceptional workmanship’ and ‘boundary-pushing design and innovation’.
Judges said the residence is a ‘spectacular single-level, sprawling property anchored to its windswept, bush land location by a series of heavyset stone pavilions’.
‘An abundance of floor-length glass windows create a serene atmosphere for the owners and their guests to enjoy, connecting them to the magnificent, rugged coastline of the Derwent River from all public and private living areas,’ they added.
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