Our love affair with rural sheds continues as Ross Brewin’s 49 Sheds photographic exhibition reminisces: Title Tattle

Astiden Springs, the recently completed Crookwell residence, is a current day version of the shed from our rural history.

It also represents the best of environmentally friendly, sustainable living. Well insulated, no need for air conditioning given the air flow from cross-ventilation.

Hydronic heating, solar hot water and low-wattage power-saving controls are other key design features of this possibly iconic 21st Century Australian home in rural NSW.

It's a split-level architect designed house offering lightness and space.

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The northern wing has its lounge, dining and living areas with a double-sided wood fireplace separating the space. There's also a very big, north-facing deck with automatically closing Vergola roof. The other wing has the bedrooms.

And it's built of corrugated iron.

Designed by architect Ian Bailey, it has been recently listed with a $1.5 million asking price through Tronn Alstergren at Tronn Alstergren Real Estate.

The vendors are Steve and Kellie Shepher who are selling to move closer to Steve’s business in the Southern Highands.

Astiden Springs is a five-minute drive into Crookwell and thirty-five minutes to Goulburn, set on thirty well cared for acres with ample water, including natural, permanent springs.

The home is built from corrugated iron on a steel frame, with Lysaght Long-Line 305 steel roofing.

Internally, frames are wood and walls gyprock. The internal flooring is polished concrete while the decks are Le Mesurier Modwood made from recycled material which never needs oiling and won't crack or splinter.

Speaking of splinters, Ross Brewin reckons Australians have a love affair with sheds, stemming from their utility, compositional quirks and oddities and rustic charm.

49 Sheds is an ongoing series of photographic images (one of which is pictured below) – now on exhibition at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery – in which Brewin documents rural sheds he's found dotted across the vast landscape of Australia. 

A Monash University lecturer and architect, Ross Brewin has the aim of capturing the various odd formal and material qualities of these humble structures.

Recalling the work of the German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, each shed is captured as a single frontal elevation in order to abstract its formal and material composition and to create a consistent method of documentation.

He suggests their display in the state of weathered ruin prompts consideration of what may have led to their abandonment and a sense that the natural elements will eventually reclaim the human-made.

Brewin's shed images are being exhibited at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery until April 21.

Accompanying the exhibition is a small catalogue which includes an essay by  Australian architect John Wardle.