Gruyere ‘Hilltop Hood’ by Rachcoff Vella

Rachcoff Vella Architecture has designed Gruyere ‘Hilltop Hood’, a farmhouse in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley. The house is perched atop a hill, offering panoramic views and featuring a cantilevered pitched roof. Its design integrates seamlessly with the surrounding landscape, utilizing materials like handmade bricks and Colorbond cladding. The layout includes three distinct building wings, framing a protected courtyard.

A modern, minimalist building with clean lines, large windows, and surrounded by a lush green lawn.

Panoramic Views from a Hilltop

Gruyere ‘Hilltop Hood’, designed by Rachcoff Vella Architecture, is a recently completed farmhouse located in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley, about an hour’s drive from the city. This project, which took five years from conception to realisation, showcases the resilience and shared values of the RVA team, consultants, builders, and visionary clients. They overcame various challenges, including planning constraints, the COVID pandemic, and extreme weather conditions.
Sleek, modern architecture with a stunning pool and stylish outdoor living space.
The clients presented a comprehensive brief for a new family home, selecting a breathtaking hilltop site with panoramic views. The design challenge involved creating a suitable dwelling while addressing logistical issues like site access and material transportation across the 100-acre property with an 85-metre (279-foot) vertical rise from the entrance to the proposed dwelling location.
Expansive living room with large windows, cozy furnishings, and scenic mountain views.

The clients’ familiarity with the site, honed during their holidays in a self-contained cabin, significantly influenced the design brief. Their preferences for specific views throughout the day and desire to leave an enduring legacy guided the design inspiration. Planning constraints played a role in seamlessly integrating the building into the hillside without disrupting the existing Gruyere hillside ridge. This approach informed the building’s placement, materials, and intricate details, ensuring the farmhouse blended into the surrounding dark vegetation and the Yarra Ranges beyond.
A modern living room with a brick fireplace, TV, and large windows overlooking nature.

Design Adaptation to Climate

Considering the extreme hilltop climate, the design team strategically framed a protected courtyard with three distinct building wings. Each wing, tailored to its functional purpose, showcased specific materials. Handmade, imperfect bricks were chosen for the bedroom and secondary living/utility spaces to mirror the site’s natural geology and soil colours. The main living pavilion adopted a lighter, more delicate structure with rhythmic board and batten details. Matt Monument Colorbond cladding was selected for its colour and lustre, seamlessly connecting the building to its backdrop.
Sleek wood-paneled kitchen with modern bar stools, steel accents, and expansive views.
The design drew inspiration from the surrounding landscape, emphasising a strong connection to the Yarra Ranges. The undulating and dancing pitched roof forms, directly inspired by the silhouette of the mountain range to the north, created a meaningful dialogue with the natural context on both a micro and macro scale. The main pavilion’s unique roofline earned the project the nickname “Hilltop Hood,” featuring a pitched roof that cantilevers three metres (10 feet) at both ends, offering weather protection like a ‘hood’ over the glazed and delicately ribbed pavilion.
A minimalist bathroom with a freestanding tub, wooden vanity, and panoramic countryside view.

Beyond aesthetics, the design respected the locale by preserving view lines from and towards the neighbouring property through the strategic planting of a mature olive grove. The site unfolds through a series of spaces, evoking the feel of traditional European farmhouses, with a newly created driveway concealed from view. The culmination of this experience is the journey and slow reveal from the forecourt to the secluded courtyard, equipped with all the amenities expected in luxury homes. Within the pavilion, three breathtaking views await: one to the West capturing Melbourne’s skyline, another to the north overlooking the Yarra Ranges from the living room, and a morning view over the Warramate Ranges from the master bedroom.
Sleek modern architecture with wood, steel, and natural elements in outdoor living space.
Gruyere farmhouse, affectionately known as “Hilltop Hood,” aspires to transcend the ordinary and exemplify a harmonious integration between architecture and its natural surroundings, celebrating a holistic approach to design.
A modern pavilion with glass walls and a sloping roof overlooking a grassy landscape.
Modern rural retreat with pitched roof, floor-to-ceiling windows, and expansive outdoor deck.
A modern cabin-style building with sleek black siding, large windows, and a sloped roof.

Photography by Tatjana Plitt
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- by Matt Watts

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