The house is located in an unusual saddle-shaped ridge, adjoining both pasture and small stands of bushland, in the heart of the Adelaide Hills. It was conceived as both a retirement home and place of work, with ample space being planned in to accommodate the owners’ adult children who visit on a regular basis.

The micro-climate which affects the site is surprisingly cold for South Australia, and the site receives many frosts and lengthy periods of cold, windy weather through winter. Conversely, the summers can be exceedingly hot and dry. In order to cope with this demanding climate, while keeping as small an emissions profile as possible, the house makes use of a range of active and passive solar technologies. A classic passive solar approach is taken with the basic design of the building envelope which makes extensive use of insulated rammed earth walls and concrete floors to increase the thermal inertia of the building, and planning which aligns the house along an east/west axis with the long façade facing due north. While the brief called for a large floor area, very high insulation levels are use throughout the construction to limit heat exchange, and thus the need for artificial heating/cooling, to a minimum.

In addition, a large solar thermal space heating system is used to supplement the passive heating and a six kW grid-connected photovoltaic array offsets the electricity use. These systems, combined with stand-alone sewerage treatment and water supply, achieve virtual autonomy in terms of day-to-day operation.

The fire risk to the site is met by an integrated fire-suppression sprinkler system and inclusion of an underground safe room, which doubles up as a wine cellar. Three hundred thousand litres of rain-water are held in concrete tanks on a nearby hill to supply gravity pressured water to the house for all domestic and site related uses. A pump-up system, using a small staging tank below the house level achieves the transfer of rainwater to the main holding tanks.

The development consists of several independent pavilions which are loosely connected by the landscape elements, following the best traditions of farmhouse architecture. Secondary buildings consist of a machinery shed (built first and used for materials storage during construction), an outdoor entertaining space and associated swimming pool enclosure and garage, and an activities/studio room and workshop building.