New South Wales
Located in a sleepy coastal town on Yuin Country, Re-Generation House celebrates the Australian Bush, hosting generations of family, and the regeneration of materials through a circular economy. A low-impact intervention to the site, Re-Generation House retains the site’s existing cottage and provides an additional gabled pavilion, intentionally small in both scale and environmental impact.
Recycled brick, timber cladding, marble, railway sleepers, sandstone steps, tiles, basins, toilets, mirrors, and joinery have been sourced as second-hand or materials that were on their way to landfill. The collaboration shares a respect for materials and the vision of minimising resource depletion by embracing the circular economy: second hand can be beautiful, robust and high-performance.
The dwelling is simple and respectful of its surroundings yet highly considered and crafted to create an example of how we can reuse buildings and materials to create robust structures fit for future climate scenarios.
At first sight we loved our humble 60 m2 house, its vernacular and the serenity of its position by the sea, surrounded by bush. Tiny was perfect when our children were tiny, but not so great for four adult children and future grandchildren. It was important to find an architect whose goals aligned with ours: to build as sustainably as possible; to partner with the bush and the existing house in materials and palette; and to create a structure which would not draw attention to itself – to which ASA have succeeded, besides passers-by stopping to stare at the beautiful addition.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
