This humble retreat of corrugated copper and recycled iron bark timber is off-grid, way off-grid. The site has no water, no electricity, and no roads (dwellers simply meander in on horseback). The self-sufficient solitary tower is the creative genius of Rob Brown, of Casey Brown Architecture.
The hideaway allows its owner (a Sydney-based graphic designer with the urge for an eternal campsite) to relish a 360 degree view of pure nature without a hint of humanity in sight.
“A simple cabin on a remote Australian sheep station is an eloquent answer to one man’s quest for a ‘permanent tent’ where he re-connects with nature.”
Two simple materials, oiled timber and copper cladding, encase less than 100 square feet of living space. This escape from urban chaos is designed to be warmed through glass walls, allowing solar heat to radiate under the sheltered copper awnings, which fold down to protect the delicate space from Mother Nature’s harshest elements. A powerful lone wood burning fireplace balances the nighttime chills, with heat radiating and rising to warm the insulated loft bedroom. “The copper won’t rust and will patina over the years and, like a boulder covered in lichen, recede into the bush,” Brown notes. I can hardly wait to see this quaint sanctuary after the kiss of time has lent its gorgeous, green patina.
Rainwater collection, a canvas shower among gum trees (poetic, right?), and an outhouse provide all the plumbing.
This little copper haven was erected with no machinery on the site, just old-fashioned labor (the building was prefabricated off-site). “It’s a creative person’s retreat,” says Brown. “You can stay and be at one with nature on a mountain. The ability to go to a place and be in solitude in today’s over-scheduled urban lifestyle is romantic, something perhaps we all long for.”
I don’t know about you, but my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…
(Images by Mikkel Vang. Click here to read the original Vogue Living article, written by Helen Redmond.)