Chinchilla Residence

Manera is a four bedroom family home on the rural outskirts of Chinchilla, built for a local business man and his growing family.

The living and work areas are as open as possible to enable the family to congregate together when the children are home from boarding school.

Living areas open to extensive covered terraces to maximise outdoor living, shaded from the harsh western sun. The study, library and master bedroom alcove provide small retreat spaces away from the main living space. ‘Manera’ is sited on 160 acres of relatively level open grassy paddocks.

The residence is sited at a high point of the property, with maximum advantage taken of the northern orientation to all bedrooms and living spaces. Sited well back from the road, so that privacy is not a concern, maximum use is made of glazing to the north and east elevations to open the house to views across the property, and to allow maximum infiltration of winter sun. The planning concept for this project resulted from the desire to make the house the ordered centre amongst the disorder and natural chaos of its setting.

The building form is ordered and intentionally simple, with the curved ridged forms providing a soft line against the sky. The ends of the roof forms have been extended and feathered to fine, sharp edges, which mirror the sharp images of the western landscape. The elevation concept was to mirror the shed-like forms evident in the surrounding landscape.