Project in Detail

Mending Wall

Mending Wall has been designed to create a place of contemplation and retreat nestled on the edge of the Blue Mountains looking south east to the coastal plain and the city of Sydney.

The vast space of the landscape demands a deferential composition – a house ambiguously located at the edge of the ancient Blue Mountains range – its concrete block walls finding moment figuratively emanating from the terrestrial form of the sandstone range.

The brief called for a discrete retreat to capture the notion of habitation in an exposed environment subject to strong winds, cold temperatures and isolation. The skin is maintenance free, built of concrete block, weathering timber, locally sourced stone and aluminium windows.

The orthogonal form of the building in such a rigourously amorphous context recalls the geometry of masonry construction – the figurative stone wall or brick and block rudimentary farm buildings.

The materiality of the walls will encourage a patina of the place – the concrete block and stone walls respond to the passing of the seasons with mossy growth in the winter months and dark dormant coloration in the warm summers.

The sanctity of the hearth informs the architecture - the simple composition describes contemporary human occupation of a site that was previously sheep paddocks and prior to that a dense eucalypt forest. The architectural expression of “wall”, whilst making a literal reference to Frost’s poem, protects the interior realm - the contemplative and explorative meaning of Frost’s poem – a familiar place of intellectual exchange, gathered around the hearth in the company of friends with the mystery of life to comprehend.

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