Ironbark House
A dark timber house set back into a forest clearing, so the trees stay the tallest thing on the site.
The site was a clearing at the edge of a forest, and the family wanted to keep it that way: nothing cut down, and a house that sits back among the trees rather than in front of them.
The living room is a single storey with tall glass doors onto the lawn, so it opens straight onto the clearing. The bedrooms sit in a taller wing behind it, clad in the same black-stained boards.
At dusk the house lights up from inside, and the dark cladding all but disappears against the trees.
Location
Dandenong Ranges, Australia
Type
Residential
Year
2025
Area
240 m²
Scope
Architecture, interiors, joinery
Photos
Unsplash
Materials
Ironbark for the doors, frames and front step, which gave the house its name. Black-stained vertical boards on every wall, and a wood stove whose flue rises through the roof.
Next project
Garden Guesthouse
