Anthony Knobel Architect

Knobel House

Broulee, NSW, 2011

For Architect Anthony Knobel, growing up on building sites with a carpenter father was a way of life. It was foreseeable that one day with onsite caravan in place, father and son together, sole handedly undertook this uniquely hand crafted and meticulously detailed home. So began the designing and making collaboration, blurring the lines between the architect and the craftsman. The house consists of two solar passive floating timber pavilions, grounded by sand rendered masonry blades and organised around ramps and decks to create a series of sheltered spaces from the bitter sou ‘westerlies. Continuous high level glazing floods the house with warm daylight in winter and frames the tall eucalypt canopy where a flock of yellow tailed black cockatoos are at play. The operable walls and doors merge interior spaces with bushland surrounds and the central maple courtyard. The house is both permeable and protective to its surrounds. The hardwood timber structures follow an articulated grid, which in turn orders the use and expression of all other building materials within the home. Hardwood structural beams and columns have been carefully crafted, achieving a lightness and fineness of detail, that can be seen throughout this architect and carpenter built work.