At home in the tropical rainforest

To New Zealanders, it sounds like a tropical fantasy… an open airy home flowing out to a Balinese inspired garden adjoining the Queensland rainforest. To Lisa and Kevin Doodney it was an opportunity to create an architectural home that was very different from their previous homes.

Kevin and Lisa Doodney are no strangers to the building process.  This is the 20th house they've built, either for themselves, or as investments.

“Because we've built quite a few houses, before we started working on this one, we knew we were at risk of creating something that was very similar to the designs we'd done before. For that reason, we chose to have an architect design the house just so we could experience an entirely different style,” says Lisa.

The Doodneys engaged the architectural services of Brisbane-based company Earth Spirit Home – and the end result speaks for itself.

Clean lines, timber slatted panels, tall rectangular panes of glass which bring the rainforest into the house, and James Hardie's HardieFlex™ Sheet, have all come together to create a house that's contemporary yet still manages to blend well with the environment.

When you've built as many homes as Kevin and Lisa have you certainly learn a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. One material that they have used successfully in many of their previous homes is James Hardie HardieFlex sheets. This time round it was an obvious choice again.

“From experience we just knew it would give us so much more flexibility than more traditional materials. With bricks and mortar you end up being quite restricted by what you can do depending on the actual block of land. With this house, HardieFlex gave us the opportunity to create the style of home we wanted despite having a sloping section – it just meant we could get a lot more out of the block.”

And as Lisa and Kevin know, it also allows a lot of versatility in terms of colour – an important decision with any home, but when you're building to suit such a precious environment like a rainforest, it's crucial.

“I really think that it's the perfect product for inspiring designs,” says Kevin.

“Even though we did get involved with the design process, the house has a completely different personality to anything we've built before.  We love the lines and the kitchen, which has obviously been ‘designed'. We've discovered that it's a different experience living in an architecturally designed home and we love the fact that it's so different to the other houses we've built. ”

“The feel of the house is what we like to call ‘contemporary rainforest',” says Lisa. “I guess the property dictated the sort of home that we'd build in a sense – because it's in a rainforest area we knew we had to do something that would complement those surroundings. Having the rainforest around us provides such a beautiful outlook and lends itself to a house that's quite open and airy. It was the surrounds that attracted us to the property in the first place, so we knew we wanted a home that somehow brought that rainforest feel inside.”

“The design is perfect for us. Our children are growing up so we needed a home with communal areas, as well as separate living areas for us and the children. The design and size of this house allows for that.”