• CASUARINA HOUSE Casuarina Beach, NSW, Australia | 2000

    The design of this house is based upon sound passive solar design principles, with all rooms being orientated to the north and running the full width of the plan allowing natural cross ventilation. The major living area is located at the eastern end of the house furthest from the street. This provides for private outdoor living spaces overlooking the garden and dunes giving access to the beach. The garage is located at the western street frontage providing both an acoustic and solar buffer to the bedrooms.  The street frontage is heavily landscaped to provide additional western sun shading and privacy from the street.

    A deep shaded verandah is recessed into the north elevation, providing outdoor undercover areas for each of the bedrooms and the study/home office adjacent to the garage.  This verandah is also accessible from the living area by way of a large glazed pivot door. A large deck is similarly recessed into the eastern elevation beneath the canopy of the roof, with a broad set of steps leading down to the lawn, and beach beyond.

    On the southern elevation the steel framework is infilled with profiled stainless steel cladding to exactly match the roof sheeting. This continuity of material emphasises the protective skin provided by these two elements, which are both heavily insulated.

    The northern elevation is screened by adjustable external aluminium louvres which exclude hot summer sun, but permit deep penetration to the interior of warm winter sun. These louvres also provide privacy from neighbouring houses while allowing an outlook to the heavily landscaped northern side of the house.

    The dominant element within the interior of the house is the coloured core, containing the garage, bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry and kitchen.  This core is made up of a series of full height storage walls, providing acoustic buffers between rooms, which are linked by large sliding wall panels to the bedrooms. The accentuation of this core by way of its distinctive colour clearly separates it from the external envelope and allows it to be read as an insertion into the main volume of the house. The bathroom and laundry within the core also double as a natural disaster cell in the event of cyclones.

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