Set on the edge of a national park, the Burrawong House has undergone a transformation that establishes compelling links between the dwelling and its bushland surrounds, providing opportunities for serenity and retreat. Bijl Architecture was engaged by the owners from the very conception of the project, assisting with identifying an ideal site that captured both tranquillity and suburban amenity.

Through careful manipulation, alteration and augmentation of the original 1970s brick dwelling, the scheme interacts with its bush surroundings in an interplay of light and shadow. The simple form of the original 1970s dwelling required specific formal responses, with the new additions designed to nestle under and into the existing building form.

Key design elements such as large picture windows, clerestories, raking ceilings and internal/external spatial flows have been leveraged so as to compete with the shading of the extensive foliage and deal with the difficult bush fire zoning. Utilising this design approach, an equilibrium of spaces come together, making the house work vertically as well as horizontally.

A series of careful insertions – under the house to create a music studio, at the side of the house to create a magnificent lap pool that juts into the bush – translates into a multiplicity of soft or transitional spaces for escape and relaxation. The result is a house that bows to the bush, that makes the most of its original, modest form by offering a flexible family home focused on quiet beauty.

About the products used As the property is in the highest level bushfire planning zone, any new external materials needed to consider not only the aesthetic and form of the original 1970s brick dwelling, but also the ability to withstand stressful bushfire conditions. We also considered how any additions to the existing dwelling would best blend with the highly textured and coloured brickwork as well as the dense bushland surrounds. Thinking about these various parameters, we decided to preserve the original long line of the existing dwelling by placing a ‘pop-out’ addition on the street façade, accommodating a modest extension to the ground floor plane. This addition is clad in Terracade panels, made by Austral Bricks – the terracotta panels comply with the bushfire requirements and allow an efficient wall thickness to be achieved. The panels allow the new addition to make a contemporary reference to the brick ‘units’ of the existing dwelling, while contributing to a slick rectilinear aesthetic. Overall, the box form and its clean, grid-like surface complements the existing building fabric whilst making its own statement as the new street-facing element.

This house is characterized by a strong contrast between the warm colours of the external structure covered with red bricks and the light and cold tone of the interior part of the dwelling. In fact simple lines, steal and white furniture are the actors of this interior design. Our Nafir suspended lamps, in the single or 3-lights version, live this sort of contradiction. From one hand the white finish is according with the main mood of the interior, from the other hand the melted shape of the lampshade, Karim Rashid’s sign, gives a sense of warmth. The lamps, having the same tone of the ceiling, seem like a part of the ceiling trickled down to light up the table.

Our suspensions are fluid, liquid, emphatic, glamorous. Nafir touches upon the sculptural theme: available stand-alone or in groups of threes (a textured and flowing osmosis of 3 lampshades) and illuminated by LED technology, it is just as enchanting with the lights off. The designer sketched them while thinking of light as a complement to music, imagining a fluid surface pulled upwards in several places: the three-dimensional handling of the surface, little by little, took shape and began its transformation into an object that resembles a trumpet. Nafir's fluid and dynamic shape is intended to be the expression of light itself, as if the casing wanted to become/appear an integral part of what it contains, while also expressing the idea that light, like music, is pure emotion. Its name is also a tribute to music: Indeed, the term Nafir is used to indicate a small North African trumpet, without pistons, used to obtain especially acute sounds. Nafir is designed to allow the creation and customisation of an endless number of compositions suitable both for residential and contract use. A triumph of vitality and an unmistakable sign for a fabulous collection of lamps that remains the crux of the purest refinement.