Commendation for Residential Buildings

Jury Citation

The inspiring Toumbaal Plains House on the New South Wales north coast, by Fergus Scott, was achieved on a very tight budget. Despite this, Scott was able to deliver to his clients a deceptively large building through his use of the outdoors as habitable space.

The clients have a long association with the site and traditionally camped on this land. Scott’s building retains that ethos of camping through his design of two separate buildings joined by common walls, which in turn form a courtyard. Two large sliding timber panels seal off the openings to the space and protect it from strong winds.

Together with a fireplace in the courtyard, they generate a space that falls somewhere between the outdoors and an enclosed environment.

The courtyard allows the clients to experience the unique qualities of the land they inhabit, and to feel connected to it, while also having shelter from the elements. The building is a very successful articulation of the idea of an outdoor room and the notion that a simple pair of parallel walls can have its own microclimate.