Marramarra Shack
Marramarra Creek, Berowra, New South Wales
Marramarra Shack stands on Marramarra Creek at Berowra, on Darug country inside Marramarra National Park near the mouth of the Hawkesbury River, about 60 kilometres from Sydney; it was built in 2020. Its pillars are old ironbark power poles, in the practice's words "repurposed 200 years old electrical posts used by the Brits", the ceiling and floor beams are spotted gum from the Darug region, and the details and furniture are turpentine salvaged from the settlers' old jetty on the creek. "The house is entirely built in timber; only the façade is covered by thin fire-resistant fiber cement sheets." The footings are pinned into the sandstone instead of sitting on concrete, and power and water come from the roof.
The section steps down the slope on a tight timber grid to this triple-height room at the creek edge, where the seating gathers around the suspended fireplace and one big north-facing window fills the wall. "The window is split in half and can be hoisted upwards using counter weights, allowing the landscape into the tranquil timber lined interior space." The ribbed black weight hanging on its cable at the left is part of that hoist. Two small rooms open onto a patio and the flat roof is a terrace up in the tree canopy. The engineers' entry for the house won the recycled timber category at the 2023 Australian Timber Design Awards.
Leopold Banchini Architects
Leopold Banchini Architects is a Geneva practice founded in 2017 by Leopold Banchini, born in Geneva in 1981 and a graduate of the EPFL.
Architecture Leopold Banchini Architects (@leopoldbanchini). Photography Rory Gardiner. Engineering Cantilever Consulting Engineers (@cantileverengineers). Build Urbon Constructions. Seen via @thetreemag and @mukacasestudy.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram.
Researched September 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.