Bird in Hand Block

Builder BuildINC

Interior Design Enoki

Photography Evolved Images

The Bird in Hand [Ablution] Block is an amenities facility for visitors of the popular Adelaide Hills Bird in Hand winery, cellar door and restaurant. Primarily functional, its design looked to reinterpret generally held feelings associated with public ablutions. In collaboration with Enoki, our brief was to avoid the utilitarian and create a building that complements the rural nature of the surrounding property.

The archetypal shed has served foremost its purpose practically at the winery and was taken as the key inspiration in finding appropriate form and gesture. However, unlike the Block’s neighbouring barrel shed, it plays against the enormous scale and flattened peaks.

Dwarfed, it is nonetheless accentuated by a pitched roof, reminiscent of quaint country churches. The shed’s peak confidently extends as a main focal point, rendered through an unvaried corrugated iron for all exterior walls and roofing.

The Bird in Hand Block embodies a bare humour through its physical and metaphorical character. It has returned an architecture that supports the existing fabric through a creative response to what is otherwise an afterthought.

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