Rugged architectural beauty in the Glasshouse mountains

This home in the Glass House mountains of Queensland was designed by Bark Design Architects as a place of ‘glass and stone’ with qualities of being robust and anchored to the earth but also floating, light and transparent.

The connection between indoors and out is blurred with transparency to the interiors while anchored by the basalt garden wall and the natural volcanic landscape.

In the words of the architect the house “celebrates economical finishes, directness, authenticity, natural, textured and unadorned surfaces which are embroidered with highly crafted timber elements and pieces. Surfaces, finishes and details exhibit the Japanese concept of wabi sabi – the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete, allowed to weather and evolve with time. Sustainability starts with natural cooling and lighting, harnessing available breezes and winter sun, using locally sourced hardwood, plantation grown plywood cladding and lining, recycled Blackbutt timber floors, local quarry rock, and endemic garden species.”

[Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones]