By Bligh Graham Architects
Location: Cedar Creek, QLD
Awards:
The Cedar Creek House and Studio was built for Bligh Graham Architects residence and office. The site is situated in Cedar Creek valley with beautiful views in all directions. The principal siting strategy was to place the house away from the street and along the contours so as to face north, and build a separate studio/carport creating a garden court between.
The concern to create a ‘conversation’ with the surrounding landscape and hills led to the primary design strategies of keeping the house single storey, reflecting the folds in the hills in the counter posed and folded roof slopes and echoing the granite boulder outcrops in the palette of materials. Beneath the simple rectangular skillion roof of the house a spatial richness is achieved by the ‘s’ shaped plan which makes three outdoor spaces – two decks and a courtyard. A beauty and depth is created by the detail and layering of the edges – custom gutter, sliding timber batten screens, translucent walls and doors, and plywood window boxes.
Bligh Graham Architects is a small studio based architecture practice in Samford Village, Australia. The studio’s reputation for developing sustainable, functional and responsive sub-tropical architecture has been acknowledged through many industry awards and a multitude of publications.
Established in 2002, Bligh Graham Architects is situated on the outskirts of Brisbane City primarily undertaking work throughout Brisbane, Moreton, Sunshine Coast, and Northern Rivers region. The majority of the work completed by the firm is residential in nature with aged care, cultural, interior and commercial projects also commissioned. Budgets have ranged from $100k to $20m. The practice only takes on a limited number of projects at a time to ensure a high level of service and professional delivery.
Bligh Graham Architects believes that beyond fulfilling their function, buildings should enrich peoples everyday life, promote a sense of wellbeing and engage with our culture and landscape. Such architecture is not only functional but has a timeless warmth and richness, simplicity and humility. It is a tailored response to each client and site, resulting in highly resolved works that both engage the senses and provide efficient solutions. It is as much about the making of landscapes and gardens as it is about enclosures – of private and public worlds.
Sustainability is a core concern that we address at all scales and phases from the initial site planning to the consideration of material selections and additional mechanical services. From the start we look to the holistic integration of passive design principles into the spatial and material logic of our designs.