little cove beach house

The owners brief was for a
low maintenance beach house that was warm in winter and cool in summer.  Their property backed onto the noosa
national park so there was a great opportunity to open the house up onto a
beautiful subtropical forest.

One of the challenges was
getting winter sun into the building while still maintaining privacy from the
neighbouring houses and the street. 
This was achieved by designing a central north facing courtyard and high
level glass that allowed light to penetrate deep into the house in winter. This
strategic orientation also allowed us to exclude the hot summer sun which comes
on a different angle and is shielded by the exterior concrete walls.  The concrete construction possesses
wonderful thermal properties that retains heat internally in winter and blocks
out the hot summer sun.
The other difficult task
is to design a house that is low maintenance. Living on the coast is a harsh
environment for buildings.  Salt
spray from the ocean and severe storms need to be combated by robust building
materials.  The client was interested
in reducing the use of timber and light weight materials externally that would
potentially require ongoing care. 
The appearance of off form concrete appealed to the owner and the fact
that it is robust and requires minimal looking after makes it a great material to
work with.
We did not want the house
to become too formal.  Internally,
timber and plaster has been used to soften the spaces and give the house a
feeling of warmth. This combined with natural light and ventilation, provides
the house with a beautiful relaxed feeling.
Key features include the
use of off-form concrete construction, enabling a dramatic spatial composition.
 Floor to ceiling glass walls for intimate connection to surrounding subtropical
landscape.  Incorporation of environmental design elements such as, use of
natural light and ventilation, solar electricity, rainwater tanks and edible
landscapes.