CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW ‘RAL’ HOUSE
The house was designed and
pre-fabricated by a company based in Ararat called RAL homes. The design is a
little unusual, the walls and roof are curved and form a half cylinder shape. A
number of these half-cylinders intersect to create the house; an above-ground
Hobbit Hole is probably a good analogy. All the windows, with one small
exception, are semi-circular. The house is raised above ground and built on
grid of ‘bearers’ and, in turn, the bearers are supported on stumps
(posts). The house has 80 of these posts, the shortest
is about 0.6 m above the ground, the tallest about 2.5 m. The stumps are made
of double CCA treated pine and the rest of the house, windows, doors etc. is
wooden. The roof and walls are covered by Colorbond
corrugated steel (in a gum leaf blue). Underneath the house there is car-port,
and space for an enclosed store (for essential country living accessories such
as a chain-saw and wine cellar) and 6 rainwater tanks.
Elevation
drawing of the house
Plan of
the house
The photograph below shows a model
of the house that RAL homes built during the design process. This should give a
reasonable idea of the concept. Note that some changes have been made since
this model was built.
Model of
the original design (some changes have been made since this model was created)
