Overlooking the vast landscape of southern Queensland‘s Darling Downs region is Jesse Bennett Studio’s House in Toowoomba. Formerly a 1960’s homestead ‘reminiscent of the English Arts and Crafts Movement’ the architecture went through an ambitious reconstruction to become a two-storey family home crafted in earthy tones and monolithic structures.
On first impression, the house feels like a modern interior encased by a relic. However, as an architecture driven on the concept of time, there’s a shared language of repetition that makes the sudden contrast so successful.
In the beginning, the project was planned as a repurposing of the homestead with concrete sculptures to accommodate the client’s family of five. Upon realising the existing walls were fragile in structure, the design direction pivoted towards a rebuild while reusing as much of the existing material as possible. The decision retained the homestead’s original free-form parameters constructed with bricks. Additional rescued elements, like the weathered roof tiles, were also given a second life as ornamental features that can be viewed from within.
