Eumundi House

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  • 2020

  • Architectural
    Architectual Design

Designed In:

Australia

In the Noosa hinterland, AJ+C designs a farmhouse for a horse whisperer. A series of outbuildings both ethically ambitious and modest in scale have dispensed with fences, to allow wildlife and a herd of brumbies to freely roam across a 35-hectare pastoral property being rewilded by its owners.


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Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
Image: Robin Riddle
  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE
  • Eumundi House reflects a different approach to rural life. The clients wanted the architecture of three new structures to help forge a close relationship with a herd of brumbies that roam their 35-acre property in the Noosa hinterland. The challenge was to connect the clients with the horses without the use of fencing to control movement.

  • The design maintains an original farmstead and adds a modest home of one bedroom plus study, with a detached garage. Together with the farmstead, they define the property’s ‘domesticated’ zone without fences or barricades. Downhill to the west, is the new horse pavilion beside a training paddock. Both are visible from the house. ’Cohabitation with the horses was a driving force of the project. The herd congregates regularly at the verandah waiting for me; it’s one of my greatest joys. The design gives the gift of freedom and choice in the essential structures needed for living.’ –Lynn Scott, client

  • The lack of fences between the new house and outbuildings supports the clients’ larger landscape regeneration projects of restoring habitat, increasing biodiversity and allowing free movement of wildlife, and the brumbies, across this pastural property, which they still use for cultivating food crops, and other native and exotic species. Their vision is not a wilderness as such, but a place for wildness.

  • In using corrugated steel cladding for its three new structures, Eumundi House nods to the tin-shed vernacular of Australian agricultural buildings, while distinguishing each from the other with details. Other features - Passive environmental design - Water harvesting from roof to riparian zone - Solar power ready - Recycled local timbers used in construction