Architect Builds an Off Grid Cabin on the Top of a Mountain (Cabin Tour)

When I bought this block it was really  quite affordable compared to smaller   green grassy blocks and I couldn't understand  why and then the locals said it's just   because it's all rocky but secretly I  would have paid extra for the rocks. There was a nice natural   flat spot almost at the top just below the ridge  line that was screaming for a house to be built. There's even along the ridge rocks  with river pebbles in them and I'm   told that means a long long time ago  that was part of a river or a creek. I promised council I would do a side cut  so I could tuck the building into the hill.   The house as it's weathering, the steel's uh  blending in with the rocks and the dirt up here,   and I'm hoping the earthworks will  soon look like we haven't been here. The house is a long rectangle, we have  24 metres of Nort facing glass and   here you wake up and you come out of the darker  rooms at the back and the views of the sun coming   up over Bulla are pretty amazing, there's  a lot of mornings you're just like 'whoa'. In the centre of the room is the the kitchen and  then at the East end is the living room and then   a more sheltered outdoor area and there's another  outdoor fireplace which heats a little hot tub. Behind that you walk into a hallway  and the East end is the master bedroom   with an ensuite and then a longish  corridor with all the kids bedrooms. Half the house is built like a bunker  and you can hide from the weather and   then the other half of the house is a glass  box so it doesn't take away from what you   saw when you would come up and visit the site with  nothing on it, you can still see all of the views. We have an entrance courtyard  and a garage that face   West. The West is nice you get  lovely sunsets but it is also   that's where the more aggressive weather comes  from and that's why I put the garage up that end. The traditional country house with the  verandas the whole way around and the   eaves the whole way around, that makes  a lot of sense and this is sort of a   version of that because you do need that  up here to protect you from the weather. Having spent time up here living  in the shipping container,   knowing how cold and how hot it gets,  I had to build something that would   handle the wind and the wild weather  and be able to perform being off grid. The screens at the West end swivel so I can  adjust them as the sun sets in different locations   and then there are some screens along the front  which slide. I play with the positions and we're   trying to find the right balance of blending the  building with the landscape but still getting   as much solar energy and solar heat gain  as we could to keep the building working. What's cool is you're off grid up here  because you have to be and the thermal   mass plays a massive role in this house, we can  store so much heat or cool that the building,   it doesn't react too quickly to what the outside  temperature does so you can keep on top of it. Having a big roof space we have a big catchment  for water, we have three concrete water tanks   that are buried. We buried them because  I like the idea that there was just one   box sitting on top of the hill. This building is just concrete floors,  concrete blocks, plywood and raw steel.   Just different versions of that is is all  there is to the whole house. Materials   that are easy to get and are tough and rugged  and weather well in an environment like this. This house was designed to be really  careful and use materials well.   There's not one off cut from this ceiling,  it's all full sheets of plywood and   exact half sheets of plywood. There's no wastage  and the island bench was the exact size a sheet   of steel came in and that didn't have to be  cut the sheet lengths six metres by 1200. The bench top is coated with oil  so it doesn't rust but the rest is   just raw and with the help of a friend of mine   who runs a laser cutter in Melbourne we  came up with a cabinet size and a door size   and depth that got the most you could out of a  sheet of plywood with the least amount of waste. The dimensions were also worked out that  the blocks on the walls are all full blocks,   half blocks or quarter blocks. The top row of  blocks they have ducting on the other side of   them. The rooms along the back they're all South  facing, they always stay cool. They're warmed when   I turn on the transfer fans and suck the warm  air out of the living room. There are also some   of the blocks positioned on their side to allow  some of the light to trickle into the hallway. I like the idea that this building is simple  and that every part of it is on show, there's   the structures on show and the way it works is on  show and even down to the pipes, you see where the   electricity comes down the wall and you see  where the hot and cold comes down the wall.   The bathroom has worked well the hot water comes  down from the ceiling and then becomes a towel   rail and then goes back to the shower head so  when you're having a shower your towel is also   being heated up at the same time and it's not  just there to be tricky it actually does work. We also have to have fly screens  because we're in a bushfire   zone. You have to stop embers from a  fire far away flying into your house.   So I needed to make a blind that would also be  a fly screen, so I'm with the plywood did like   a timber shutter and then they have a door in the  door that if you open you can see a fly screen. I think it's more common now that  things aren't built to last and   I wonder if we'll be passing as much  stuff down to our kids or our grandkids. Everything I do I try and build things that will  last forever, I try and build a lot of my own   furniture and I try and build them tough enough  without looking too rugged but strong enough   that'll last a long time. So I do like the idea  that this building I think is strong enough and   powerful enough that it will be here forever  and I think we'll only get better with age. One day my kids will have this  house when they're older and   grandkids will still be coming to this house. Yeah I think this house will  only get better over time. Published three times a year, The Local Project  hardcopy publication contains over 350 pages of   curated insight into the latest architecture  and design across Australia and New Zealand. Printed on exceptionally high quality paper  stock the publication is designed to be read   and enjoyed over time, a beautiful and valuable  addition to any personal library or coffee table. With world-wide delivery available, have  the hard copy print publication delivered   straight to your door three times  a year with an annual subscription. Head to the description of this video to  subscribe to the tri-annual print publication.

Channel: The Local Project

Views: 80,305

Rating: 4.9838276 out of 5

Keywords: cabin, off grid living, sustainable living, off grid, off the grid, architecture, building a cabin, cabin tour, cabin design, architect builds an off grid cabin, designing an off grid cabin, cabin tour off grid, tiny house, tiny cabin, off grid cabin, tiny home, house tour, Australia, Mansfield, The Local Project, architect, interior design, off-grid house, off grid cabin build, architect builds cabin, how to build a cabin, off grid cabin tour, tiny home tour, home tour

Id: 9Eu0nHapqf0

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 22 2021