Drew House front

Australian architecture is amazingly varied, yet its successes often succeed on the merits of their ability to keep materials and spaces simple, green, local and comfortable.

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Drew House interioer
Drew House detail facade

The Drew House by Anthill Construction is a wonderful example of all of these qualities, curled up in a series of prefabricated pods built offsite then shipped to a remote forest for assembly.

Drew House bathroom
Drew House round interior kitchen

The curved interior has a hobbit-worthy homey quality, while consequently-curvalinear built-ins throughout seem both retro and contemporary. It also has a cave-like sense of enclosure.

Drew House outdoor terrace
Drew House backyard

“The Drew house is a holiday retreat for Australian photographic artist, Marian Drew, and her brother Derek. In their youths the family took camping trips to the same area near Seventeen Seventy, a town just south of Gladstone and the most northerly surf break on the east Australian coast at the start of the Great Barrier Reef.”

“The house aims to create a kind of luxury campsite nestled amongst the knarled Bloodwoods and ancient Palms of the pristine ridge top site with forms that also reflect the strong iconography of the sugar mills that were also a large part of the family’s history. Living and sleeping pods along with a bathhouse were built in Brisbane, close to construction services, and transported the 500km to site fully completed.”

Separated sleeping and living areas allow the privacy of holidaying family groups and also more easily integrate into the existing landscape, which has been minimally disturbed. Covered walkways connect the various pods to the large outdoor living and dining area for shared meals and gatherings. This ribbed parabolic roof structure uses Aramax metal sheeting to free span the two identical, but reversed, hardwood timber truss frames.”

“Natural oiled Australian hardwood timbers and other minimally finished, simple materials have been combined to create indoor/outdoor spaces for maximum enjoyment of the unique bushland setting and mild sub-tropical climate. “