This, our fourth stay in the River Room - we want to take the time to reflect on the experience in the Never Never from an Architectural perspective, focusing on Richard Leplastrier’s works but also the manner that the design has evolved over years of passionate and intentional occupation that has resulted from the ongoing care of the wonderful hosts, Kirsty Cockburn and George Negus as well as Jade, Pascal and Curly who care for the property so well.
The gateway experience of arriving at the property, the first thing that can be noticed is the transparency of the structure. The columns which hold up the structure are forked like trees feathering outwards creating a structural canopy, whose leaves are fine steel sheets. The expectation of weight that we are all accustomed to when seeing a typical home is immediately dismantled - the ground dominated by meandering gardens lovingly kept, uninterrupted by built forms, and the sky filled with structures which resemble a finely crafted tree-house.
As you begin to move through the entry to the River Room and past the underside of the buildings, this feeling of a tree-house is consolidated - the figure of the planning meandering and integrated into the garden paths like a weave throughout the site, the structures below the upper floor like roots and trees that intermingle with the shrubs, flowers and their resident birds.
When we visit we often remark at how the River Room rekindles a child-like feeling. Yet, the longer that we reflect on this, the more we realise it’s just been a while since we felt so primally connected to our environment as part of a lived experience, a feeling that comes quickly when we are younger. We enjoy nature, hiking and camping regularly, but these experiences are so decidedly ‘other’ from what the feeling of life-in-a-home feels like. In this sense every time we visit, we are reminded of what a home can be and in all probability, should be - if we value our environment, care for land and future. This is a place where the definition of life in a home is woven into the fabric of its very context - the garden, the river and the land.
The River Room is characterised by a giant opening panel door, and a sliding door above this, which creates a giant aperture to experience the river from. The door itself is paper thin, the bones of the structure surrounding it like origami. When looking closely at the detailing, everything about the structure is lightness - tensioned steel cabling which props up the roofs and some of the structural beams show a combination of what feels like nautical design and Japanese simplicity.
It is this finer grain and detail which perhaps runs counter to the feeling of it being a treehouse - at further inspection you are aboard a boat in the trees. The timberwork and ingenuity of the detailing are staggering, exciting to Architects from the world over. You will be hard pressed to find this level of playfulness intermingled with craftsmanship anywhere in Australia.
We definitely recommend stays in the River Room for anyone who takes interest in finely crafted and environmentally tuned design. Bellingen is a great town to visit and the local landscape of the Never Never itself is a highly unique and beautiful place, complimented carefully by the RR. It is a culturally and historically significant place that has influenced musicians, architects, designers, artists and writers to see life in environment through pure and inspiring lens.