HORSHAM HOUSE: CURATED WIMMERA LIVING

July 2025

Horsham House is a recently completed projected by Jake Taylor Architecture that creates a truly curated home for a person the architect knows innately: his own mother. The project leverages this uniquely trusting relationship to deliver an innovative site plan that prioritises the quality and warmth of both interior and exterior spaces across the whole scheme. These unique spatial connections are coupled with a palette of enduring materials that endeavours to create a legacy for the potential of well-detailed design in a setting where architect led projects are few and far between.

Horsham has a strong history of farmhouses in Federation, Edwardian and California Bungalow styles. These generous hand-crafted expressions of residential design continue to age gracefully thanks to their large veranda spaces that temper the connection between the interiors and exteriors. These successful examples of how to passively engage with the harsh summer heat in Horsham is something that has been somewhat lost in the recent decades of Wimmera housing and was an aspect that was prioritised in the design of Horsham House.

 The project site is located near the middle of Horsham with the towns amenities within walking distance. This central setting positions the house in a largely civic setting. This includes a large array of late modernist municipal buildings, the Docomomo listed St Andrews Uniting Church and the award-winning Ss Michael and John Catholic Church by Gregory Burgess. Horsham House through its dynamic form looks to blend the residential project into the non-domestic setting.

The site is 10m wide and 50m long with the street frontage facing true north. The design positions three separate north-east vaulted pavilions along the long narrow site, creating an exterior courtyard in front of each. This leverages the site proportions to create increasing levels of privacy as the spaces extend towards the rear. This theorised design concept only grew in strength as Jake worked and travelled extensively across the US and learnt from similar modernist courtyard house such as Philip Johnson’s Rockefeller Guest House c.1950 and Serge Chermayeff’s own home in New Haven c.1962.

The three pavilions are all joined along their western edge by a long, tall brick spine that shields the whole project from Horsham’s harsh western sun. The resulting layout creates a large ‘E’ shaped building footprint on the site to bring planted courtyards deep into the floor plan at every turn.

The spine, which is clad inside and out in brick, dramatically extends nearly the full depth of the site without interruption as the main circulation axis. All spaces either inhabit or are directly accessed off its forty-metre run, which is bookended by windows at both ends. The three pavilions all utilise the heavy form of the spine to propel upwards to the northeast and feature a lighter materiality that create a clear distinction between the elements.

The front elevation squeezes in four crucial functions side-by-side: the entrance path which leads visitors down the west side of the house to the front door, the brick spine which provides a sneak peek deep into the house, the front pavilion with its sharply sloping roof form and lastly the flat roofed tandem carport. The carport features an automated gate that allows this zone to function as an enlarged events space through to the main courtyard and living areas.

Each pavilion is built as a vaulted form that rises to the north-east in each instance and is paired with large openings to create a direct connection between the interior spaces and the courtyard zones bathed in the desired north-eastern sunlight. The interior ceilings follow this form and rise-up dramatically to further reinforce the importance of this relationship.

The Guest Pavilion at the front of the site is made up of two bedrooms which bookend the zone, a bathroom and a large laundry which also connects to the carport. The courtyard behind the Guest Pavilion features a generous planted area that sits next to the covered outdoor dining area. The Living Pavilion is directly connected to this zone and features a series of large sliding doors that allow the interior and exterior zones to be blurred regularly when the weather permits.

The Living Pavilion functions as a large open plan space dissected by the spine corridor. The spine expands through this space to include a long galley kitchen and moveable island that floats fluidly in the space, often partially into the axis corridor as a meeting place to anchor the overall plan. Sitting adjacent to this is the dining and living areas. The dining area is positioned under the high point of vaulted ceiling in the zone adjoining the outdoor dining area. As the ceiling line lowers to the south of the volume the living room is nestled into the cosier portion of the plan. Linking these functions together and filling the whole room with rich natural light is a large east facing bay window and bench seat. A small office nook is snuck in at the extension of the Kitchen which allows for computer equipment and bookwork to be hidden out of regular sight.

Sitting at the rear of the site, behind a private courtyard that includes a small garden and services enclosure is the Bedroom Pavilion. The area is accessed along the southern extension of the main spine corridor. Within this circulation space, adjacent to the rear courtyard is a powder room that serves both the main living areas or the bedroom depending on the time of day. The primary bathroom is situated in the spine extension zone adjacent to the bedroom and features a skylight lit shower and basin area. The bedroom and spine are separated by a double-sided joinery unit. Beyond this large piece of storage is a generous bedroom that opens warmly to the rich natural light of the rear courtyard.

The materials of the project are split into two distinct segments. The western spine features a robust palette of brick walls inside and out and a flat plywood ceiling. The three pavilions all leverage the heavy form of the spine to propel upwards to the northeast. The exteriors of these areas encompass white painted weatherboards to the lower sections, vertical spotted gum boards to the upper areas, with dark grey window and louver areas that align with the change of material. Internally the dual material logic of the pavilion exterior is carried through, with vaulted plywood walls and ceilings above the window head datum and white painted walls below. This transition is solved with a picture rail that allows for full flexibility of art throughout the home. The flooring is a mixture of American Oak and Bluestone that all feature a hydronic seating system in their assembly.

Jake’s mother Bernadette was fully accustomed to the privacy and connection to nature of her rural farmhouse. The design of Horsham House, in its urban setting, successfully reimagines this through the full utilisation of the site to create a series of large shielded exterior spaces that connect directly to their adjacent interior zones. The project is a significant departure from the prevailing contemporary housing in the Wimmera, a trait that both architect and client felt was important to redefine what is possible for residential design in the area.