When an architect describes a project as \u201cdear to their heart\u201d, it\u2019s usually worth paying attention. The Sydney-based small practice Incidental Architecture says this of Gingkin, an off-grid house named for its location on a remote site west of the Blue Mountains. According to co-director Matt Elkan, \u201cit exemplifies an awful lot for us\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also seems to exemplify the spirit of the moment. Who\u2019s not dreaming of escape right now, slipping the bonds of the city and the news cycle to retreat to a solitary house, small and self-contained, on some lofty, cold plateau, to find solace away from the teeming frenzy?<\/p>\n
Gingkin sits on the edge between Gundungurra and Wiradjuri Country. Its elevation is about 1300 metres \u2013 similar to Thredbo Village. The house follows all the articles of passive environmental design \u2013 orientation maximising sun access to the north, thermal mass where it counts, careful siting with regard to prevailing winds.<\/p>\n
The architects cite the late and much missed Paul Pholeros, who advised his students that in assessing a site, you should locate the house wherever you would put up your tent if you were camping. In this case, it meant ducking below the brow of a ridge for protection from the frigid westerlies and siting the house near a fringe of trees, facing outwards and upwards. The point, say the architects, is to be \u201cin a big landscape, under a huge sky, with less stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n
The house has ample rainwater storage and an array of photovoltaic panels and batteries. It\u2019s heated via hydronic radiators connected with a geothermal system. There\u2019s no air-conditioning, but it opens up for cross-ventilation on the warmer summer days, while a highly insulated, high-performance building envelope keeps out the cold.<\/p>\n
The plan is almost Palladian in its discipline and organisation: an orderly square formed by a rigorous construction grid, creating a series of small cellular rooms that can be closed off for efficient heating. It\u2019s not built to Passivhaus specifications, although the practice has pursued that model before, notably in the Kazahana lodge built in the very snowy Nagano Prefecture in Japan. At Gingkin the approach is less technical and for all the language of building science \u2013 a heat pump with a coefficient of performance of six! Double low-E glazing! \u2013 the architects are anxious to avoid what they describe as a \u201csustainability by checklist\u201d approach. Sustainability, they say, is logic.<\/p>\n
It may not be super fancy, but it\u2019s exceptionally precisely assembled: tight as a drum and crisp as a new apple.<\/p>\n
Incidental Architecture has a long association with the Alternative Technology Association, an advocacy and resource group for sustainable housing now known as Renew, and the architects cite the idea that in a low-energy house you don\u2019t necessarily need to be comfortable in all of the rooms all of the time, only in some of them all of the time. At Gingkin the smaller, cosy spaces are pushed to the edges towards the light, leaving a higher central space with a raised raked ceiling and a kicked-up clerestory to bring in northern sun to the centre of the plan. Outdoor suntrap decks are tucked into the volume on each side \u2013 a place out of the wind \u2013 and catch the first or last light of the day.<\/p>\n
The building was economical by the standards of bespoke architect-designed houses, with a square-metre build rate of $4800 per square metre internally and $2400 for the covered outdoor decks. The architects ascribe this to efficient use of materials and bog-standard, lightweight construction techniques. There\u2019s no excavation and the footings are straight from Bunnings.<\/p>\n
It may not be super fancy, but it\u2019s exceptionally precise in its assemblage: tight as a drum and crisp as a new apple. The fine eave edges, the expressed structure of bearers and purlins, the detailing of the corrugated sheet walls and roof are all satisfying. The horizontal striped tanks stand in humming contrast with the vertical timber and steel wall cladding, the cylinders against the square; the whole reading as a meticulous, glimmering object poised just above the earth.<\/p>\n
The practice had its beginning back in 2006 with Elkan working alone. His first building \u2013 Riverview, the reworking of a 1960s split-level house on Pittwater \u2013 was received rapturously by one reviewer as having the feeling of \u201cTarzan\u2019s whimsical tree house\u201d. Elkan was joined in 2014 by Daina Cunningham, first as an employee and later as co-director.<\/p>\n
The name \u201cIncidental Architecture\u201d refers to a practice ethos: that any building should be an \u201cincidental\u201d support for the lives of its inhabitants, rather than seeking to be the centre of attention. In the beginning the directors toyed with other names, including \u201cAnonymous Architecture\u201d, recalling Bernard Rudofsky\u2019s influential 1964 MoMA exhibition, Architecture Without Architects. But while Rudofsky was interested in the work of vernacular, \u201cnon-pedigreed\u201d architects, the interest here was more in predesigned mass-produced architecture \u2013 low-cost modular units that could be reconfigured for any site, whether city or suburban or regional.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not alone in experimenting with this mode \u2013 most architects have given it a crack at some point, with varying success. Incidental Architecture has done a container house, although they wouldn\u2019t rush to do another, describing the idea as a bit of a furphy. They\u2019ve also designed an extension to an original lightweight kit home designed by the celebrated Sunshine Coast architect Gabriel Poole, built at Mollymook in 1990 \u2013 one of very few to be built in New South Wales.<\/p>\n
Mass-produced housing in Australia remains a great idea whose time has yet to come. So while they continue their interest in modular housing, Incidental Architecture has mostly become known for bespoke houses, including some pretty swish ones. They say that now, they\u2019re deliberately looking to design things that are \u2013 relatively \u2013 smaller and cheaper: things like Gingkin.<\/p>\n
I admit I baulked a bit when they invoked Henry David Thoreau: \u201cIf one designs to construct a dwelling house \u2026 Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary.\u201d It\u2019s now widely acknowledged that Thoreau\u2019s mooning about on Walden Pond was enabled by his mum regularly bringing him clean undies and fresh-baked pies. Through one lens, he was simply playing house, enjoying the spartan pleasures of philosophy while ignoring the invisible labour upon which it all subsisted.<\/p>\n
The architectural profession can have similar blind spots \u2013 a tendency to gloss over the labour relations, supply chains and social stratifications undergirding any building, including the raw privilege behind any private commission. Incidental Architecture answers these disciplinary hypocrisies with a longstanding commitment to pro bono \u2013 or \u201clow bono\u201d \u2013 work. There is a genuine moral seriousness in their definition of architecture as a service profession, most evident in their work for Nungalinya, a tri-denominational Aboriginal Christian theological residential college in Darwin.<\/p>\n
Incidental Architecture\u2019s relationship with Nungalinya goes back 15 years. Elkan jokingly describes how, when he first visited and offered his services gratis, asking what he could do to help, the answer came back: nothing. Elkan and Cunningham continued to visit and serve the Nungalinya community with practical tasks such as gardening and maintenance and eventually this evolved into the staged design and construction of a suite of five new group-accommodation units for students.<\/p>\n
People go to Nungalinya \u2013 mostly women from outlying settlements and homelands around the Northern Territory \u2013 to study and join a community of fellow believers. The site is like a botanic garden, an immaculately maintained campus with accommodation and shared eating and working spaces tucked within lush tropical plantings. The new buildings are simple and robust, following the tenets of tropical design \u2013 deep eaves, heavy shade, open breezeways. Each is a simple rectangle with a hollow centre, not unlike the Gingkin plan \u2013 bedrooms at the four corners joined by a central open space, cooled by hanging ceiling fans. Importantly, they\u2019re designed to be both climatically and culturally appropriate.<\/p>\n
These are not schmick or precious buildings. They\u2019re modest and workaday, durable but built very economically. They are distinguished by the evident care and sensitivity in their design, the instantiation of a long and respectful relationship with the community, the each-way learning.<\/p>\n
On the horizon, there\u2019s discussion of a new house for a group of students from Nungalinya in the remote Arnhem Land community of Milingimbi. The architects say \u201cthey\u2019re looking for an architect who\u2019s prepared to go there and design it for free. Sounds like us!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
\n May 2, 2026 as “Keeping it simple”.<\/p>\n
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