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Sustainable Tin and Wood Home on an Old Australian Orchard Farm

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Tim Stewart Architects have designed a new sustainable home located in Queensland, Australia on part of the property owned by the client.

The new home is entered across a large dam fed pond to the outdoor room which overlooks the family orchard farm.

The new building is located on the site of the original water tanks which had supplied irrigation to the old family orchard.

The large orchard farm is now growing back to its natural form as the owners also wind down in retirement.

The huge farm had been developed from scratch as a thriving orchard farm.

But as the family grew and moved away, the original family home was subdivided and sold, and now the parents opted for a smaller more sustainable new home reflecting their changing values and lifestyle.

As the clients age in place, the home now reflects the site as a whole and its history.

Airy and fresh, all the open space beckons, built with timber taken from the site and from fire breaks cut by the bushland.

The house occupies the coolest part of the property with water nearby, and is far more environmentally conscious than it predecessor, with low energy lighting, solar water heating, and over 60,000 litres of rainwater storage.

Now closely connected to the surrounding orchards and food-providing plants becoming an integral part of the garden, it reflects the more self sufficient lifestyle of the client.

Designed to amply house vising grandchildren, the new house on the old site recalls the family’s love of the history of the original farm.