Architects at Home | Brian Zulaikha
Through a love for the outdoors and a sensitivity to reinvention, Brian Zulaikha – director of Studio ZAWA – has envisioned his own home as a place that illustrates the bond between architecture and ecology.
Comprising a permeable shelter of conscious detailing and storied utility, Tree Change House is an introspective and deeply personal sanctuary. Devised as a humble family shelter, the dwelling echoes the essence of its leafy surrounds, drawing inspiration from the outdoor expanse at every phase of the project’s evolution.
For the couple who call this place home, architect Brian Zulaikha and artist Janet Laurence, it is a welcoming retreat rooted in care and memory and underpinned by the artefacts of this special site. Born of a self-guided brief to live more closely with nature, the project is as much about building as it is about its enveloping ecology. “I’d long sought a place where the seasons, the landscape and our daily rituals could align – somewhere quieter, slower and more intentional,” explains Zulaikha.
Set beneath Woodhill Mountain in the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales, the 20,000-square-metre lot presents a richly diverse oasis of sprawling vegetation that stands removed from the distraction of the world beyond. For Zulaikha, this abundant place became the primary architectural driver – evoking the spirit of the land as a touchstone for a fitting design response. “I chose not to erase this context but to instead work with it, interpreting the local vernacular with sensitive, site-responsive gestures that celebrate, rather than dominate, the surrounds,” he says.
Dissecting the remnant pieces of a 1980s homestead, Zulaikha unearthed a potent idea for a typological framework in a considered approach to adaptive reinvention. Comprising a trio of modest masonry buildings connected by lightweight covered walkways, the existing construction recalled the early influences of a Euro-Australian archetype. This was an isolated shelter shaped by necessity and tuned to a changeable climate.
Guided by the raw utility of these original structures, Zulaikha sought to rekindle the purity of this former environment while elevating its experiential qualities. “The design centres on a simple but transformative idea: to make the verandah the heart of the home. Early schemes felt overly complicated. I guess the breakthrough came while walking the site: I saw an opportunity for a space that would bring the garden into and through the house – thus the concept of ‘the river’ was born.” Softening the exchange between old and new, a stone and timber insertion becomes a prominent anchor, bathed in dappled light and gentle breezes under the canopies of towering trees.
Approaching the home via a winding walkway of split-face pavers, one is greeted by a permeable architecture of friendly disposition. An informal entry of full-height glass is held by warm timber frames, amid a processional stone passage that allows for year-round habitation. This powerful gesture sets the tempo for a calming space to watch the light, hear the birds and smell the approaching weather. “As an architect, you are often asked to design large interventions to accommodate an expanding life, so as the architect-owner, it was a joy to find a scale that reflected our more modest needs.”
Refreshingly compact, the private sleeping and bathing quarters bookend the composition, neatly placed within the footprint of the original Besser block construction. A tranquil library and yoga room overlook the northern garden, while the communal domain resides centrally, providing an arena for the fond routines of daily life. “There was an obvious arrangement, which we didn’t need to alter much,” explains Zulaikha. “As the iterations developed, I found we were doing less and less but making the design richer and more grounded as a result.”
Recalling the former structures’ functionalist vocabulary, Tree Change House embodies a familiar palette that delicately weaves past and present, expressing the simple utility of a rural typology, where materials speak to their purpose, devoid of undue expense or embellishment. “A sense of the materiality, the touch and feel of architecture has always been of prime importance in my work. This is really a country house, and I wanted to reference this through honest selections – the tallowwood kitchen island, white marble worktops, V-groove boarding and stone floors,” says Zulaikha.
On approach, the external enclosure presents a dialogue between the solidity of the old and the lightweight additions that stitch the house together. True to Zulaikha’s ethos of the Sydney School, function and honesty are brought to the fore and rightfully celebrated through skilled detailing and careful craftsmanship. Galvanised corrugated-steel rooftops and gable ends are elevated by paper-thin folded edges. A projecting structure of blackbutt rafters and golden sarking announces its new position atop a pivotal atrium, dissolving the line between containment and openness. “It was important that one could easily read the new building from the old – material choices reference the past but are distinctly contemporary,” adds Zulaikha of his sensitive approach to adaptation.
Moving inward, spaces reveal themselves in dramatic and exciting ways, distinct from a traditional farm cottage yet markedly warm and familiar. Sailing over the stone-clad plaza, grated metal steps provide a transient place to perch, as one might encounter in this rural outpost. Blackened metal shelves adorn nooks and alcoves as a curated glossary of the couple’s lives. “My experience has taught me that architecture cannot be divorced from its context and the end user – me and my wife, in this case.”
As such, the human touch is imbued throughout this home. Well-used furniture sits comfortably as layers of history and patina, juxtaposed by new additions. Earthen handmade finger tiles embellish the most intimate of spaces, enhanced by the lustrous hues of copper, brass and steel. “Materials were selected for durability, their ecological footprint and sourced locally, upholding a quiet but thorough sustainability strategy that is inherent within my architecture,” he says. “By preserving and enhancing what was already there, the project reduces waste and offers a grounded, responsive model for low-impact construction.”
Conceived around an established context of foliage and mature trees, Zulaikha’s foremost move was to listen and learn from the landscape. This garden-first approach instils an appreciation of place in every sense, requiring the architecture to be an equal partner in this symbiotic relationship.
“The house was designed not to sit in the garden but to become part of it. We retained the existing as much as possible – a biodiverse native garden full of movement, shadow and scent. I get great satisfaction from building with intention, and love that our resident wombat feels comfortable to wander right up to the house and fossick in the native shrubs we’ve planted,” he adds with a grin. In a reciprocal dance with this inspiring outlook, the house gives back through framed vignettes and soft transitions that pull the garden closer. Deep eaves and generous apertures evoke an ever-changing sensory experience, imbued in delightful discoveries long held by the surrounding landscape.
“Designing your own home is a kind of reckoning – it forces you to be honest about what matters,” reflects Zulaikha. “For me, that meant generosity without excess, restraint without coldness and architecture that holds emotion without demanding attention.” In Tree Change House, his pragmatism and enduring love for the outdoors has shaped a design that honours the structures that came before while conserving this verdant ecosystem.
Architecture and interior design by Studio ZAWA. Build by Shoalhaven Constructions.
- 项目文案：André Bankier-Perry
- 项目摄影：Clinton Weaver
- Portrait by：Hamish McIntosh
- 转载自：The Local Project
- 图片@The Local Project
- 语言：英语
- 编辑：序赞网
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