Snowy Mountains House

The brother of James Stockwell, architect of a rather breathtaking new house in the Snowy Mountains, is a geologist. It is always revealing, Stockwell says, to talk to his brother when he is starting out on a project. The geology of the Snowy Mountains site turned out to be weathered igneous granite, with later deformations of quartz “blows” or veins. The diagram of the quartz crystal is a tetrahedron helix, a form containing both triangulated strength and a dazzling ability to catch the alpine light. Geology was the first inspiration for Stockwell’s structure, a structure that thinks seriously about the place of design within a natural system.

Stockwell designed the structure as a holiday house for an extended family who have camped on the site in a shed for 30 years. It was to be used in both summer and winter. A limited palette of direct, unaltered, raw materials enabled a low budget to be met, and a simply-constructed, low-tech, low-embodied energy, low-maintenance outcome. 

The extreme weather experienced in the Kosciusko National Park gave rise to the ground-hugging form for the house. When examining the site, Stockwell observed a beetle’s ability to withstand wind by using its wind-spoiling, domed form, an observation reflected in the structure’s inclined walls extruded from an inclined plinth. The chiselled façade and vaulted roof lean back to the wind, making a parabolic arch, an exact diagram of structural loads. Uplift is transferred to the concrete plinth and the whole form deflects wind over its surface. This smooth transition from foundations to the roof also enables snow to be released and water to be collected, and makes an efficient structural shape for the transfer of snow loads. The internal space is a cocoon-like form tied down to buttress fins of galvanised steel. Windows are cut out of the form like slices in a cake and angled toward dramatic views over the Snowy and Thredbo River valleys.

The house is located along an east-west axis for thermal gain and natural light, and directs its narrow façade to the west over a protective rocky knoll. This results in strong winds, whipped upward from the two valleys, striking the sides of the building that are specially braced for the onslaught.

Besides natural models, Stockwell looked to basic, durable man-made forms for inspiration. His design borrows from the old galvanised steel huts dotted through the Kosciusko Mountain region. Like them, the Snowy Mountains House eliminates exposed timber and includes a concrete plinth for fire protection and water shedding. The concrete plinth articulates the building clearly from the continuous landscape of native grasses that are currently in the process of re-establishment. Post-war Nissen Huts also played into the design influence as a previous model of domestic vaulted building.

The house is an autonomous structure that requires no maintenance due to the unpainted concrete and steel exterior. It incorporates an efficient hydronic wood-burning fireplace that heats water pipes in the floor as well as the hot water. A 1kw solar power system is connected back into the grid. Two 13,500-litre tanks at the rear collect water for domestic and, inevitably, for fire-fighting purposes. With its very low construction cost, its elimination of maintenance and its excellent projected longevity, the building achieves high sustainability credentials.

It is also a much-loved retreat for the extended family in residence, who have expressed their delight at the outcome of Stockwell’s unique design process. +