This project overlooking a wind-swept beach on the south coast of NSW was to create a comfortable refuge from the persistent southerlies, that was open to views of the sea and the sky, but not of the unfortunate neighbouring houses. Two walls the colour of the local rock define the exterior of this ocean front house; internal surfaces of the walls are white; with a raked timber ceiling they define the internal space. While openings are cut into the eastern wall to embrace the adjacent bush, the western wall excludes the encroaching suburbia. The ends are open: to the ocean at the south, to the sun at the rear. A split section accentuates the site’s topography. The dining room retains the tower form of an initial project, catching light to reflect it right back into the kitchen. Not surfers, the clients read, drink and sit by the fire as the wind outside blows.
In the words of our client:
Although it might not always have looked it, Helen and I both loved the results that good architecture produces.
© Randles Hill Architects
Published in ‘Beach House 2’ by Stephen Crafti
