Kangaroo Valley House by Alexander Michael
This incredible home designed by Australian owner & architect Alexander Michael was created under the guiding principle that materials are a response to practicality and should be celebrated.
The Living area is basically a simple rectangular space with a polished concrete floor, eighty percent enclosed by retractable glass walls, and single-span composite timber beams supporting the sub-roof ceiling. At twenty meters long, by seven meters wide, there is no internal structure, the only division being the Utility Pod bringing the services up through the concrete slab to the kitchen, laundry, and media room.
Like a house of cards, the entire pod is fabricated from structural fibrous cement sheet, only held together by exposed galvanised steel braces. The Pod stops well short of the ceiling to allow for visual flow-through.
Like the Pod, I’ve used the same material to sheet all of the exterior walls as well as the top of the sub-roof. In its raw state, fibrous cement sheet is a wonderful, but under-utilised and misunderstood material, thanks mostly to its infamous predecessor, asbestos sheeting. Covering all of this like a giant sun-shade, is a primary roof structure of galvanised steel supported by twelve massive timber columns, four of which stand in the twenty-seven meter long reflection pond.
It is this roof that supports the sub-roof by four fine steel rods, allowing three sides of the living area to be opened to the landscape.
Air, water, and fire have so many things in common when it comes to tranquillity and peace of mind. This building seems to need the air as it scoops it up and channels it through its voids and openings. The sun too is scooped up by twenty panels of photo-voltaic cells, and channelled into twelve massive batteries located behind glass in the sitting room.
I can sit for hours being mesmerised by the light on the reflection pond during the day, and the same while sitting by the fireplace at night. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the building seems to be alive as it interacts with us, and its environment.
