Bundeena Beach House

The upper level bedroom commands 360 degree views of the beach, the surrounding bush land and the hamlet of Bundeena.

The building is a reflection of the client's personal relationship to the site.

Her brief was fairly straight-forward. Design me a simple, unpretentious beach house that will shelter me from the weather, but otherwise allow me to experience the surrounding environment.

The site - the shifting meeting place of land and sea - is the key to this project. An authentic built form emerges from it - as well as the client's brief and budget.

The elemental use of steel and timber, and a clear expression of surface and junction, echo the immediate natural and historic built environment.

The guest bathroom doubles as internal access to the guest bedroom.

Environment Sustainable Design

It is important to recognise that whilst some headway has been made with this project in dealing with issues of environmental sustainability, there is always more that can be done. Some planned measures have not yet been instituted. Others were considered but abandoned for budgetary or other reasons.

The most obvious measures that have been implemented include natural cross-ventilation to each room, orientation of spaces and protection of openings to maximise winter solar gain and minimise summer solar gain, use of gas space and water heating in lieu of electrical, use of ceiling fans for summer cooling in lieu of air-conditioning, provision of water storage tanks to reduce town water consumption, and use of renewable and recycled materials where possible.

Other measures have been implemented as much in response to the site as for environmental reasons. They form part of the environmental strategy, and yet in another project on a different site, would not be appropriate. For instance, lightweight construction was chosen, allowing the building to sit off the ground, minimise disturbance to the site and obstruction of natural sand, water and fauna movements. On another site, in different circumstances, a slab on ground might have been more appropriate - allowing for thermal mass and passive solar heating.

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