As a new home in rural north eastern Victoria, Gundowring House is as much an exercise in placemaking as architectural invention. Set on approx. 400 acres of open tableland, Bryant Alsop carefully considered the beauty of the nature’s canvas and seasonal weather extremes when siting a contemporary ranch house from which the owners could run their working cattle farm and enjoy semi-retirement.

With no existing house or defining land features (other than dead trees in adjacent paddock) to constrain placement, it was determined that a deliberate gesture in robust materials would stand heroically – and stoically – in the pastoral setting. A controlled, structured plane provides a platform for the house, one that extends seamlessly into the natural landscape.

Visitors are greeted with a monumental Cor-ten northerly façade punctuated with deeply recessed fenestration that flanks the principal entrance. While starkly modern in form, the patina of rusted steel gives Gundowring House a sense of having been there forever. From the outside, this sculptural manifestation could be part art museum, part fortress, yet this is very much a homestead. Behind the Cor-ten façade is a simple container for day-to-day living, with spaces that can be closed down to comfortably accommodate just two people or opened up to host gatherings of two hundred.

Form establishes the program – controlling light, views and passage through a series of internal zones flowing to external ones. Spaces are arranged to engage with the landscape across the course of each day, and each season. Entering through the clearly defined front door into a compressed hallway gives those arriving a moment to adjust from the outside light and temperatures, and focus on the view. A floor to ceiling picture window frames the southerly vista down the Kiewa Valley. Off-form concrete blade walls running north-south are simple elements that divide the bedrooms, living, entertaining zones. The south side entry houses laundry and mudroom for back of house farming activity.

Formal landscaping evolved as a collaboration between architect and owner. In direct response to the structural linearity, Bryant Alsop semi-enclosed external spaces such as a sunken terrace, north west wintergarden and private decks from the guest bedrooms that provide both shelter from the elements and a direct connection with nature. There is a strong sense that the home will nestle into its surroundings as the landscape grows into and around it.

With its productive orchard and vegetable garden Gundowring House is completely off-grid and sustainable initiatives include under solar array and battery storage, water tanks, slab insulation and double glazing. Orientation, cross-ventilation and the thermal mass of concrete walls and slab moderate temperature fluctuations such that, even at climatic extremes, one wood fire heats the whole house and no air-conditioning is needed. Materials are deliberately raw and sustainable in the sense that they require no maintenance.

Gundowring House achieves a high level of finish and detailing within a relatively modest budget. Beyond dollars, the ‘personal value’ is extremely high, with the clients stating how much they love being in the house and delight in living there. With its productive orchard and vegetable gardens, this is a home for holistic living rather than a trophy house that is a showpiece for views.