Eganstown Light Earth Residence

Original ambition: a productive homestead

Ralf and Mara approached the project with a vision extending well beyond a house. They wanted to establish an increasingly self-sufficient 15-acre farm, integrating their home with food production, water management, animal husbandry and the resources of the surrounding rural community. Their early plans included raising pigs for a local meat supply.

They were already interested in light-earth construction, having learned about the Daylesford house. A visit to that project reinforced their confidence in the building system and its approval pathway. Eganstown offered the opportunity to adapt the approach to a considerably larger house and develop the methods of mixing and placing light-earth material on a larger scale.

However, obtaining permission for a dwelling was a substantial early hurdle. The land had been purchased without a planning permit for a residence, and the rural zoning and allotment size complicated the application. Establishing a credible farm development plan became integral to the approval process. I prepared the site and building designs and coordinated the preliminary consultants and approvals; Ralf prepared the accompanying written agricultural proposal. The farm masterplan was therefore part of the project's original purpose as well as its planning response.

Reading an almost featureless landscape

At first sight, the Eganstown plateau appeared to offer almost unlimited possibilities: open grassland, abundant sunshine, distant forest views and very few established trees or other strong landscape features. Yet years of design experience had taught me that the apparent absence of constraints can make finding an appropriate design much harder, not easier.

Trees, landforms, sheltered spaces and other existing elements usually help reveal the living centres from which a design can grow. Here those centres were elusive—sometimes distant, sometimes so subtle that they seemed only latent possibilities. Reading the place required repeated quiet walks, watching the movement of the breeze, the light and slight variations in the land.

We knew that the buildings should be set well back from the road. The southern portion felt more exposed to wind and less inviting. Gradually we were drawn towards the north-eastern quarter, where a rise of perhaps 200 mm above nearby ground offered a barely perceptible change of position. From there, the distant gully and forest to the north-east, in the direction of Daylesford, gave the site a sense of connection and outlook.

The first recognisable centre emerged not as a floor plan, but as an imagined outdoor place: morning sun, some shelter from the south, doors opening from the house towards the north and east. Once we could picture the experience of inhabiting that sunny space, the position of the building behind it began to make sense.

Creating the courtyard, wetland and whole-farm plan

The next centre to emerge was the arrival courtyard. Ralf and Mara preferred an approach that revealed the homestead gradually, rather than a straight driveway giving an immediate view from the road. We imagined visitors arriving into a sheltered space protected from the southerly winds. The barn could provide an enclosing edge, with the guest accommodation acting as a link between the barn and the house, while retaining its own morning light and eastern outlook. Together these elements began forming a horseshoe-shaped compound.

I invited my friend and earthworks contractor Graham Jennings to examine the site's subtle drainage patterns and the possible location of the proposed waterbody. Graham's practical understanding of earthworks, soil conditions and surface water movement helped identify the shallow depression as a suitable location and reinforced our preference for the slightly elevated ground nearby as the house site.

The waterbody was developed as a shallow habitat wetland rather than a conventional water-storage dam. Its gently graded margins and seasonally changing water levels could support aquatic planting and wildlife habitat, integrating water management with the broader ecological ambitions of the farm.

The later planning drawings also explained the advantage of placing buildings on higher, shallower, stonier soils rather than occupying better farmland or low-lying water-collecting ground.

The approach road could now curve around the wetland earthworks and through the developing landscape of orchards and paddocks before reaching parking behind the barn and the protected arrival court. Gradually, the remaining land ceased to feel like an undifferentiated open paddock. Grazing areas were allocated to the north, with orchard and managed lower-fuel plantings near the house; deeper southern soils were considered more suitable for the proposed pig paddocks. Poultry could be integrated into northern gardens and orchards to assist with manure and weed management, remaining visible from the house to help watch for predators. These describe the original farm plan; they do not imply every proposed use is current.

Each decision clarified the next. The wetland location helped define the road; the road shaped arrival; the buildings established protected places; and the productive farm zones related back to the homestead. What began as a largely featureless site gradually acquired a connected structure of living centres.

A country kitchen and an integrated food system

Inside the house, I proposed Christopher Alexander's Country Kitchen pattern: cooking, eating and everyday social life gathered around a generous shared centre. It was intended to connect the principal living areas with the wider working life of the farm and guest accommodation.

With Ralf and Mara's enthusiasm for growing and preserving food, I suggested a roofed, flyscreen-enclosed outdoor scullery beside the kitchen. Produce from the gardens could be brought directly into this working space for washing, sorting and preparation. A sink, central floor drain and hose-down surfaces would make cleaning practical. The original concept also provided for bread baking in a wood-fired oven, while allowing people working on the farm to use the area without passing through the private parts of the house. The oven's construction has not been confirmed.

A cool pantry accessible from both the screened room and the internal kitchen completed the sequence. Harvested food could be cleaned and processed, moved directly into storage, then retrieved conveniently for daily cooking. Mara has subsequently described this arrangement as one of the most successful design decisions in the house.

Passive cooling for the pantry — built system

The cool pantry also incorporates a passive earth-tube air-supply system. Although the original 2013 plan annotated a smaller and shallower pipe, the constructed system uses approximately 500 mm diameter concrete pipes buried around one metre below ground. Its landscaped outdoor inlet is roughly 20 metres east of the house, where the surrounding landscape helps moderate air conditions before the air enters the buried run. These dimensions are recalled as-built information and should be verified against records where possible.

During warm weather, air moving through the earth-coupled pipes can exchange heat with the cooler surrounding ground before entering the pantry. A ceiling vent and ductwork rising through the roof cavity provide a high-level exhaust route, encouraging replacement air to be drawn through the underground pipes by buoyancy and possibly wind-assisted pressure effects. This is principally passive stack-effect ventilation, not necessarily a Venturi in the strict technical sense.

The system was built and, according to the designer's and owners' experience to date, helps keep the pantry cool during summer. Temperature reductions have not yet been instrumentally documented for this case study; a future site visit could measure inlet, pantry and ambient conditions.

Passive Cooling and Food Storage: The completed cool pantry (above) and the illustrated earth-tube air-supply and high-level exhaust system (below).

Greenhouse: propagation, drying and solar warmth

At the northern side of the house, the greenhouse adjoins the bathroom/laundry and sits near the lounge. It was designed to combine plant propagation, winter clothes drying and useful solar warmth for adjoining rooms. Mara has subsequently described the greenhouse performing these functions in everyday use, including raising seedlings, growing food and drying clothes during wet weather. Its contribution to indoor heating has not been independently measured.

Multifunctional Greenhouse Spaces: Used for propagation, growing food and drying clothes during wet weather; its contribution to indoor heating has not been measured.

Light-earth construction and local materials

Light-earth construction was central to the project from the outset. Eganstown extended the methods developed on the earlier Daylesford house to a larger residence and more substantial construction operation.

The wall system combined straw and clay-rich earth within timber framing, finished with natural renders. Straw was sourced from neighbouring wheat growers, while locally grown and milled sugar gum was used for timber elements. These materials reflected the project's emphasis on local resources and minimally processed construction.

Interior finishes also included milk-lime wall paint, an economical, low-toxicity alternative to conventional paints. It allowed a range of attractive colours and surface finishes, extending the project's natural-material approach into the completed living spaces.

Light-earth construction and local materials: Light-earth infill within timber framing during construction, followed by views of the completed residence and farm buildings. Locally grown sugar gum and straw sourced from neighbouring wheat farms formed part of the project's material strategy.