“Material choices and construction methodologies utilised shall ensure a building of great longevity with the minimum of means. The project is a statement of quality over quantity.” Room11 Architects director Thomas Bailey says.
Danish design brand Vipp invites guests to experience a station of solitude on Tasmania’s Bruny Island, where arresting architecture fosters a deep connection with nature.
Expanding their universe of furniture, lighting, accessories, kitchens, and guesthouses, Vipp has unveiled its first Australian outpost—Vipp Tunnel. Three years in the making, their latest guesthouse Vipp Tunnel designed by Hobart-based Room11 Architects cantilevers out from on a sloping site on Bruny Island. The sustainable, brutalist structure is described as where raw architecture meets raw nature, surrounded by bushland and with views to the ocean and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel connecting Bruny Island to Tasmania’s main island. “On Bruny Island we have created understandable forms that do not mimic context, rather they create an intelligible form from which we can comprehend the nature of place,” Room11 Architects director Thomas Bailey says.
At the heart of the interiors, Vipp’s V3 kitchen features a stainless steel island and fluted aluminium doors that mirror the guesthouse’s architectural language.
The concrete panel design ensures year-round thermal insulation, accompanied by heated flooring and air conditioning.
A kaleidoscopic lightwell casts shifting hues of yellow, pink, and orange across the concrete interior, tracing the passage of time and season.
Room11 Architects conceived a concrete cubist structure that stretches 30 metres, with a design that expresses a distinct sensitivity to landscape, detail and materiality. The elevated design minimises the direct footprint, and Room11 Architects established a narrow construction corridor to minimise the impact on native vegetation, working around every tree on site.
Wall-to-wall glazing and recessed steel doors frame uninterrupted views, while lightwells introduce a soft luminosity, enhancing the interplay between light and space. An atrium separates the shared living area from the primary bedroom and bathroom, and a glass door at the tunnel’s end leads to a floating terrace, heightening the sensation of being at the edge of the world. “The dramatically elongated proportions of the structure respond to the landscape by purposefully framing the D’Entrecasteaux Channel with a broad expanse of frameless glass,” Bailey explains.
A nod to the Southern Lights, chromatic glazing has been integrated into the central skylights, casting a celestial glow that reflects off the polished concrete floors and walls. At the heart of the interiors is Vipp’s all-aluminium V3 kitchen, where a stainless steel island and fluted aluminium doors echo the architectural language of the guesthouse. Complementing custom elements such as the sunken lounge, Vipp has curated a selection of its own furniture, including the Vipp Swivel chairs upholstered in Australian sheepskin.
Vipp Tunnel offers a place to pause, immerse in Bruny Island’s pristine flora and fauna, and breathe some of the freshest air in the world—through the lens of considered, contemporary architecture. “Room11 has created a truly breathtaking piece of architecture—a space for reflection and escape—that perfectly complements Vipp’s design ethos,” Vipp CEO and third-generation owner Kasper Egelund attests.
The Vipp bath module
“It is a place where the cut of contemporary architectural thinking is starkly rendered against a raw natural context,” Bailey says.
The off-grid retreat is entirely self-sufficient, running on solar energy and harvested rainwater. “It’s a celebration of a new frontier in sustainable construction. As far as we are aware, this is the first building to feature an entire façade created by solar technology, making the most of the location’s latitude,” Bailey says.
The main tunnel is accompanied by a separate concrete cube, featuring four-metre-high ceilings; a studio space for working or for meditation, with an integrated desk and hidden mezzanine double bed.
Elevated for a minimal footprint, Room11 Architects’ design carefully preserves the site’s ecology, with roadworks and construction planned around significant trees.
