Toumbaal Plains House - Wilkinson Award 2003

Toumbaal Plains
On the Far North Coast of
New South Wales, Australia

An Exclusive and Private Coastal Wilderness Estate

Winner of the 2003 Wilkinson Award for Residential Architecture

The Wilkinson Award 2003 - Toumbaal Plains House
Fergus Scott Architect

Toumbaal Plains House received the 2003 Wilkinson Award for excellence in residential architecture and congratulations must go to our wonderful architect and friend Fergus Scott for this well deserved and wonderful award.

The design process of Toumbaal Plains House was a long but extremely rewarding experience which has brought to life a building that allows us to live and experience a landscape we are closely connected to.

In the words of the awards jury:

"The Toumbaal House is not so much a 'home' but an idea of a 'camping place' with a temporary sense of occupying space and creating shelter in an extremely exposed environment.

Located on Toumbaal Plains, the sweeping grasslands south of Yamba on the far north coast of NSW, and continuing a family tradition of making camp on the edge of the property near the beach, the house is reminiscent of the old drovers' hut that was used for shelter when the weather turned.........

This house is an experiment in romanticism in its evocation of memory and in its response to its setting. In its occupation of this open plain the shelter represents the taming of the wild, the wind and the fire"

and in particular the awards jury Chairman Professor Tom Heneghan.

Fergus Scott's design "went beyond being a house, of course it functioned exquisitely and it was beautiful looking but it took you into an area - its going to sound bizarre - of dreams"