9 Dot House
Winner of Cemintel’s 2012 ‘9 Dots Award’, 9 Dot House is a holiday house that draws inspiration from its natural setting.
Nestled within a grove of eucalyptus trees in regional NSW, the house proposes new uses for off-the-shelf products to meet the design competition brief and 'think outside the nine dots'.
9 Dot House reconfigures the original 'nine dot puzzle' to blur its visual boundaries and challenge viewers’ expectations of the associated building form. The original nine dots ensnare observers into imagining a perceived boundary around the dots, leading viewers to think ‘within the box’ while the solution lies beyond; the scattered dots of 9 Dot House suggest a free-form enclosure, yet the house plan retains orthogonal boundaries.
Conceptually and structurally, 9 tree-like columns underpin the house design. A retreat from the bustle of the city, there is a playful suggestion of the tree-house in the walkways to the upstairs bedrooms, and grandeur of the double height spaces within.
Cemintel products provide a rich palette of textures and colours that complement the hues of eucalypt leaves and bark outside. Woodgrain ‘Maple’ panels externally visually blend the house into its surroundings. CNC-milled Barestone panels provide adjustable shading and privacy screening to the north. Dappled light filtering through these panels recalls the house’ leafy surrounds, and contrasts with the solid Barestone defining the wet areas internally. I-Cube ‘Onyx’ panels are reconfigured as shutters to the upstairs bedrooms, and provide feature panelling to the kitchen bench downstairs. In a setting prone to bush fire, Cemintel products provide non-combustible, low-maintenance exteriors befitting a holiday house.
