UNASHAMEDLY AUSTRALIAN

After bushfires swept across their property, these homeowners re-envisioned the future, building on its story while weaving memories into the new structure

- KARSHA GREEN

Robinson’s Run is a 70-acre block of Australian bushland, nestled below a stone escarpment in Budgong, near Kangaroo Valley. Homeowners Ian and Michelle operate Southbound Adventures, an outdoor education company. With a deep love and appreciation for the bush, the couple wanted to renovate the existing 1970s brick house that they used as a weekender. However in January 2020, the catastrophic Currowan and Morton bushfires swept through the property, destroying almost everything. Seeing opportunity within such tragedy, Ian and Michelle enlisted Dom Bennett and John Wilkin from Bennett Murada Architects to “reimagine and regenerate the property wholistically and write a new chapter in the story of this site”.

“The owner’s ability to accept catastrophic bushfires as an integral part of the Australian bush experience, regroup and reimagine the project, and then commit to deliver a more evolved and distilled version, is truly unique,” says Dom, co-founder and managing director of Bennett Murada Architects.

“While the original ‘weekender’ ethos remained intact, the scale of the project grew to become a five-bedroom house designed to suit short-stay, responsible luxury accommodation for small groups of up to 10 adults and their families. The house was to be supported by a maintenance shed with self-contained accommodation for owner/staff use. Dams were rebuilt, vehicle access clarified, and native vegetation re-introduced to the site.”