Sources of inspiration for modern home designs may come from far-off times and places. The Glass House Mountains House explores a seamless connection to landscape.

Designed in glass, plywood and steel, Bark Design Studio stands between two leafy bloodwood trees, poised against the unrefined beauty of the Noosa Hinterland and functions as a showcase of Bark’s design approach and principles.

A clear vision and a high regard for Zen philosophy delivers a modernist retreat in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland of Maleny.

Bark director Lindy Atkin was honoured to be invited to be Master of Ceremonies at the 2013 Queensland State Architecture Awards for the Australian Institute of Architects at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Friday, 21 June.

The hinterland house contains two main interconnected steel framed volumes for living and sleeping, perched high on the site to take in broad views of the Pacific coastline with the forested hinterland in the foreground.

Growth by Bark Lab was inspired by the sunlight which provides ‘growth’ to nature. Growth was created after Bark one an art prize and were engaged as Lead Artists at the 2013 Floating Land Festival. The project comprises a series of three physical constructs that aim to ‘frame’ or celebrate ones experience of nature.

Engaging with its site’s topography, orientation, views and vegetation, the interior practises the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi – “the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete, allowed to weather and evolve over time”.

The occupant dwells in a world of transparency and dynamic patterns of light and shade through which natural breezes roam, dispersing the boundary between indoor and outdoor.