Art & Architecture
Rocky Hills Retreat is the latest manifestation of the creative partnership of Craig Rosevear award winning Architect (Rosevear Architects) and Brett Torossi, Rocky Hills Retreat's owner.
The Retreat's simplicity is all about the question "What do we really need?" The result is a well designed intimate and completely private space for one or two people.
The spaces foundations of sacred geometry help amplify feelings of tranquility, calmness and peace. The beautiful and elegant structure was designed to be grounded, long living and centered. Simplicity and light connected to the earth and rock.
The Rocky Hills Retreat site is 250 acres of mostly Dry Sclerophyll rocky steep ground. The land had been owned by the Clements family for two generations. It had been partly logged about 40 - 50 years ago. We have a conservation covenant over the property that protects it from logging in perpetuity and limits any future development. We have a site management plan that has been developed by the Private Land Conservation Program to protect the Flora and Fauna and manage any pests.
The Retreat was first conceived with an early sketch dated 07.04.04, the design was finalized with a beautiful model Craig made, sitting up till 4am one morning. It was then refined by a 3D Archicad file which provided a good understanding of the finished structure. With the planning process and feasibility complete Craig Brown our builder took control of the site and completed construction late in 2009. Craig Brown also constructed Avalon.
The building is constructed of besser blocks and heat treated double glazed windows. The roof is concrete (about 73 tonnes) part of the fire safe design as there are no combustible materials or conventional gutters on the roof.
As with every project we undertake, sustainability is a central focus and even though concrete and glass have high embodied energy we believe this is off-set in the long life of the building and the thermal mass provided by the central core and concrete floor in particular.
We catch water from the roof via a downpipe in the central core. The water is stored in tanks under the house. The separate tank near the car park is used to store water if needed for fire fighting.
The power for the retreat is provided by 15, 165 W solar panels run by an inverter charger with smarts to manage the battery bank and back up diesel generator. The system is designed to cope with regular energy demand as well as peak demand when everything is on and then someone decides to cook toast.
We commissioned most of the furniture and soft furnishings from Victoria and are very happy with the comfortable couches with their top layer of feather down. The curtain around the bed is stainless steel mesh and was found at the plumbing shop (apparently it is an excellent fine filter). The curtain is trimmed with frivolousness from Houleys in France all held back by the 18th Century gilt French tiebacks.