How to Build an Off Grid Cabin at the Top of a Mountain (Cabin Tour)

When I bought this block it was really quite affordable compared to smaller green grassy blocks and I couldn't understand why and then the locals said it's just because it's all rocky and secretly I would have paid extra for the rocks. There was a nice natural flat spot almost at the top just below the ridgeline that was screaming for a house to be built. There's even along the ridge rocks with river pebbles in them and I'm told that means a long long time ago that was part of a river or a creek. I promised council I would do a side cut so I could tuck the building into the hill. The house as it's weathering the steels are blending in with the rocks and the dirt up here and I'm hoping the earthworks will soon look like we haven't been here. The house is a long rectangle we have 24 meters of north-facing glass and here you wake up and you come out of the darker rooms at the back and the views of the sun coming up over Bulla are pretty amazing. There's a lot of mornings you're just like whoa. In the center of the room is the kitchen and then at the east end is the living room and then a more sheltered outdoor area and there's another outdoor fireplace which heats a little hot tub. Behind that you walk into a hallway and at the east end is the master bedroom with an ensuite and then a longish corridor with all the kids bedrooms. Half the house is built like a bunker and you can hide from the weather and then the other half of the house is a glass box so it doesn't take away from what you saw when you would come up and visit the site with nothing on it you can still see all of the views. We have an entrance courtyard and a garage that face west. The west is nice you get lovely sunsets but it is also the that's where the more aggressive weather comes from and that's why I put the garage up that end. The traditional country house with the verandas the whole way around and the eaves the whole way around that makes a lot of sense and this is sort of a version of that because you do need that up here to protect you from the weather. Having spent time up here living in the shipping container knowing how cold and how hot it gets I had to build something that would handle the wind and the wild weather and be able perform being off grid. The screens at the west end swivel so I can adjust them as the sun sets in different locations and then there are some screens along the front which slide. I play with the positions and we're trying to find the right balance of blending the building with the landscape but still getting as much solar energy and solar heat gain as we could to keep the building working. What's cool is you're off grid up here because you have to be and the thermal mass plays a massive role in this house. We can store so much heat or cool that the building it doesn't react too quickly to what the outside temperature does so you can keep on top of it. Having a big roof space we have a big catchment for water we have three concrete water tanks that are buried we buried them because I like the idea that there was just one box sitting on top of the hill. This building is just concrete floors, concrete blocks, plywood and raw steel just different versions of that is all there is to the whole house. Materials that are easy to get and are tough and rugged and weather well in an environment like this. This house was designed to be really careful and use materials well. There's not one off cut from this ceiling it's all full sheets of plywood and exact half sheets of plywood. There's no wastage and the island bench was the exact size a sheet of steel came in and that didn't have to be cut the sheet lengths six meters by 1200. The benchtops coated with oil so it doesn't rust but the rest is just raw and with the help of a friend of mine who runs a laser cutter in Melbourne we came up with a cabinet size and a door size and depth that got the most you could out of a sheet of plywood with the least amount of waste. The dimensions were also worked out that the blocks on the walls are all full blocks half blocks or quarter blocks. The top row of blocks they have ducting on the other side of them the rooms along the back they're all south facing they always stay cool they're warmed when I turn on the transfer fans and suck the warm air out of the living room. There are also some of the blocks positioned on their side to allow some of the light to trickle into the hallway. I like the idea that this building is simple and that every part of it is on show there's the structure is on show and the way it works is on show and even down to the pipes you see where the electricity comes down the wall you see where the hot and cold comes down the wall. The bathroom has worked well the hot water comes down from the ceiling and then becomes a towel rail and then goes back to the shower head so when you're having a shower your towel is also being heated up at the same time and it's not just there to be tricky it actually does work. We also have to have fly screens because we're in a bushfire zone you have to stop embers from a fire far away flying into your house so I needed to make a blind that would also be a fly screen so I'm with the plywood did like a timber shutter and then they have a door in the door that if you open you can see a fly screen. I think it's more common now that things aren't built to last and I wonder if we'll be passing as much stuff down to our kids or our grandkids. Everything I do I try and build things that will last forever I try and build a lot of my own furniture and I try and build them tough enough without looking too rugged but strong enough that it'll last a long time so I do like the idea that this building I think is strong enough and powerful enough that it will be here forever and I think it will only get better with age. One day my kids will have this house when they're older and grandkids will still be coming to this house. Yeah I think this house will only get better over time. Published three times a year the Local Project hard copy publication contains over 350 pages of curated insight into the latest architecture and design across Australia and New Zealand. Printed on exceptionally high quality paper stock the publication is designed to be read and enjoyed over time. 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