When the Brisbane River flooded a beloved 1954 home beyond repair, the question became: what do you do next?
In Chelmer, a mid-century home designed by Kenneth Drewe in 1954, holds decades of architectural history. Lovingly renovated by celebrated Brisbane practice Hayes and Scott, it was a property that mattered to its owners, to the street, and to Brisbane’s architectural heritage. Then the Brisbane River, with its own indifferent rhythms, flooded the property beyond structural repair.
The decision to demolish was made collectively, carefully, and not without grief. For Arcke director Matt Kennedy, the question that followed was both architectural and deeply human: how do you move forward when something beautiful must be dismantled?
The answer is River Hearth House, a considered cluster of intimate, permeable forms that quietly coexist with their riverside site while carrying forward something essential from what stood before.
A Brief Built Around Two Distinct Lives on Shared Ground
The clients brought genuinely different needs to the project. One, a woodcarver requiring dedicated studio space for creative practice and group workshops. The other needs a generous work-from-home office. Rather than compromising either program, Arcke resolved them as two separate yet dialoguing forms, their siting and shape defining a funnelled entry procession from the street that gradually reveals the courtyard, house, and river beyond.
“As the brief evolved, it became apparent that an approach of ‘less but better’ was very much in alignment with our design values,” Matt explains. “Our clients sought a strong connection to place and a permeability of structure that dissolved the boundaries typically defined by a building.”
The design unfolds around and beneath the canopy of large existing trees, creating what the Japanese call komorebi, that beautiful quality of dappled light filtering through leaves. Those retained trees informed every decision: where the building sits, how interiors connect to landscape, which views to frame and which to obscure.
How Arcke Designed a Flood-Resilient Home That Works With the Land
The building’s relationship to the ground was never going to be incidental on a site with this history. Analysis of drainage patterns across the site defined new paths and dry creek beds that work with rather than against the land’s natural tendencies toward water movement.
Forms dissolve at corners in some areas while defining protected courtyard spaces in others, what Matt describes as the nurturing crook of an arm. The house touches earth lightly, folding with the natural topography around established vegetation rather than imposing a predetermined plan onto resistant terrain.
The journey from street to house has been carefully choreographed. Visitors pass between the two studio forms through a narrow entry that opens into a generous courtyard. Here sits the home’s most poignant detail: the original brick fireplace from the demolished house, meticulously restored and set on a concrete base. No longer enclosed by walls, it remains as both a gathering point and a touchstone, a soulful physical connection to the house that came before.
Salvaged Materials and the Architecture of Material Memory
Salvage informed the entire material strategy by Arcke, and the results are both ecologically sound and deeply meaningful. All exposed timber comes from recycled hardwood, much of it reclaimed from the original 1954 structure. The intent is patina: grey weathering over time, allowing the building to age gracefully alongside its landscape rather than against it.
Recycled bricks from the demolished dwelling create a warm grey exterior that becomes a backdrop for verdant planting. Original rafters, bearers, and joists were refinished at a timber yard and returned as dressed pieces for reuse throughout the new build. The kitchen benchtop around the sink incorporates recycled glass. Tiles, glass, and structural timber salvaged from the original structure were stitched into the new design, reducing waste while capturing something less tangible than material alone.
Low-toxicity finishes complete the sustainable approach: hardwax oils to floors, natural oils to external timbers, and LED lighting throughout.
Passive Solar Design for a Subtropical Riverside Site
Passive solar principles drove orientation throughout. Most openings face north and northeast, capturing warming winter sun and river views while minimising harsh western exposure. Where afternoon vistas proved too compelling to ignore, solid casements control summer heat while still allowing air movement through the home.
All living and bedroom spaces feature multiple windows and doors for strong natural daylight and cross-ventilation responding to prevailing breezes. Larger permeable openings, combined with smaller louvre bays, give inhabitants significant control over their relationship with the natural environment at any given moment. The canopy of retained existing trees provides natural shade and temperature moderation, doing quietly what mechanical systems would otherwise need to manage loudly.
Built-in seating in the main living room, study, and master bedroom creates intimate nooks for reclining close to nature. Small yet impactful spaces that Matt notes are always the most coveted in Arcke projects.
Better Living Through Better Design
River Hearth House proves something quietly and without fuss: that better living can be achieved through better design. Through fragments preserved and forms carefully placed, it honours what the flood took while creating something permeable, considered, and wholly new.
For anyone facing the difficult reality of rebuilding after flood damage in Brisbane’s riverside suburbs, this renovation project by Arcke offers something genuinely valuable. Not just inspiration, but a demonstration that loss, handled with intelligence and care, can become the foundation for something that honours the past while belonging completely to the present.
Architecture: Arcke | arcke.com.au
