The Shearers Quarters in Tasmania is a singe family residence recently designed by Architect John Wardle. Located on a Tasmanian sheep farm, it is specially designed to blend with an existing historic cottage. Built with locally available, inexpensive materials like corrugated galvanized iron sheets and timber wood, it has been awarded the 2012 House awards ‘Australian House of the Year’.
The exterior walls and roof consist of corrugated galvanized iron sheets with an inner lining of recycled wood from apple crates which are sourced from nearby orchards in the Huon Valley. The angled roof helps to channel excess rainwater easily into the nearby river. The interiors consist of a large living area with an attached kitchen & dining rooms, a bathroom, two bedrooms and a bunkroom. Full length glazing allows abundant light to flow through the interior. There is a ‘flip windows in the wall’ feature in the bunkroom which provides fresh air ventilation.
“This is an ambitious house that compels us to reflect on the inherent beauty of living. Set within a historic farming property in Tasmania, it is both a working farm building and a place of retreat. While this might seem like a contradictory pattern of day-to-day inhabitation, here it has been effortlessly reconciled. This deft touch has created a house that is an exemplar for contemporary residential architecture, simultaneously functional and beautiful. It is also a model for modest, small-footprint, environmentally responsive houses. The form of the rudimentary shed is the vehicle for an inquisitive exploration of detail, form and context. Sited in a complex of buildings, but self-contained, its relationship to the existing 1840s cottage is in the farm tradition of small clusters of buildings, outbuildings and sheds. This apparently simple house has an effortless relationship to the built, cultivated and natural landscape. The material expression has a farm-sense quality, and draws heavily on recycled timber and convict-era handmade bricks. This is a finely tuned and beautifully synthesized building that is a reminder of the essential systems and patterns of domestic life.” – says the Jury of the 2012 House Awards
