Garigal/Caregal of the Guringal Nation
New South Wales
Nestled within a Spotted Gum Forest on Guringai Land, Pittwater, Australia, Ripple House reads more as a landscape feature than a built object placed atop it.
The project seeks to foster connection. Connection between family members and connection to nature.
With each internal space connected to a courtyard, deck or native landscape, Ripple House proffers an invitation to its occupants to go outside and enjoy the local envirnment at every opportunity. Social spaces take in expansive views of Pittwater and private spaces offer interactions with quiet courtyards and native bush.
The home has been skillfully designed to receed into the landscape through the use of dark, natural materials and soft, screening elements that emulate the natural filligree of looking through trees and shrubs in bushland.
“We are concious unencumbered freedom is rare for children these days, ourselves and the architects wanted this house to embody a ‘spirit of play’. A place where the grandchildren run and explore with each other without feeling watched and looked after all the time. The planning of the home and gardens provides ‘secret hideaways’, nooks and areas for kids to play safely but unobserved. From the balconies, we can look at grandchildren playing on the beach beyond the house without ‘helicoptering’ over them. They have their own area of the house and can run wild in the gardens