Architects: Branch Studio Architects
Area: 85 m²
Year: 2017
Photography: Peter Clark
Project Team: Nicholas Russo, Simon Dinh, Rowena Henry
Structural Engineer: WSP Consultancy Private Limited
Builder: Martin Builders
City: Balnarring
Country: Australia
The Pavilion Between Trees, designed by Branch Studio Architects, is an 85 m² master suite added to an existing residence. Completed in 2017, the design carefully integrates with the landscape, preserving the significant trees on the site. Featuring a slender form, the pavilion nestles between the trees, maintaining a modernist aesthetics. Natural materials like charcoal rammed earth and timber are used throughout, contributing to the pavilion’s organic connection to its surroundings.
Focusing on creating a natural atmosphere, the Pavilion Between Trees emphasizes the relationship between the interior and the surrounding garden. Indirect lighting enhances this connection, allowing the architecture to blend seamlessly with the landscape. The master suite includes a bedroom, ensuite, and ancillary spaces, all designed to harmonize with the natural environment while providing a serene and intimate retreat.
The resulting design features a slender form that fits between the trees, linking the three main programmatic areas in a linier arrangement with a modernist aesthetic. The plan began as a simple rectangle but evolved through deliberate gestures to respond to the context. A courtyard was created by making a small gouge in the form, preserving a silver birch tree to the south and serving as a threshold between the bathroom and bedroom areas. Seating around the courtyard offers spaces for rest and reflection.
Further design interventions include two extruded window boxes that interact with adjacent trees and an angular slice at the pavilion’s end, orienting the space towards a view corridor through the vegetation towards the setting sun. The pavilion is accessed via an extension of the central corridor from the main house, which splits the ensuite into two spaces and gradually ascends through a series of platforms that rise about one meter above ground level. This creates varying spatial relationships with the garden as the interior unfolds.
The exterior materials, including charcoal rammed earth, timber, steel, and glass, are natural and raw, chosen to weather and integrate into the rural context over time. Inside, similar materials are used with refined detailing, including honed bluestone, concrete, steel joinery, and brass trims that highlight material junctions.
The design carefully crafts the atmosphere within the pavilion, focusing on capturing the moods of morning and evening through indirect lighting, creating a quite and intimate environment suited to the start and end of each day.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Balnarring, Victoria 3926, Australia
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
