Located on the south coast of New South Wales, this home was designed as a contemporary beach house, occupying a greenfield site overlooking Gerringong Beach. The form of the building is simple: a timber driftwood box with a crisp white roof floating overhead. Serving as a platform from which to appreciate the outstanding views, the lower level enjoys 270˚ views of the ocean, adjacent headland, and dramatic cliffs of the Great Dividing Range.
Expand ContentWeathered western red cedar — a classic beach house material — wraps around the lower part of the house, creating a tactile plinth. The same timber extends inwards and becomes part of the interior as wall cladding in key areas. This is expanded to timber-walled stair and limed oak joinery, which further blur the relationship between the inside and out.
A key Smart Design Studio planning principle was adopted, minimising reliance on internal doors and allowing space to flow around joinery and blade walls. As such, conventional planning arrangements have been inverted by locating the living room, kitchenette, and master bedroom upstairs, where the views are best. Downstairs, the main kitchen, dining room, family room, and bedrooms open up to the north and westward, to the mountains.
To make the most of the views and the sunny and protected northern aspect, the living and sleeping spaces have been located on the north side. Conversely, all service rooms, including the bathrooms, laundry, and garage, are located to the south. All of the rooms, however, open onto generous outdoor spaces on different sides of the house, ensuring protection from the changeable seaside winds.
The walls of the timber plinth wrap up and form a solid balustrade to the first-floor terrace. This simple move creates privacy for occupants of the upper living room and screens the street from view.
The sharp natural light allows sun and shade to animate the architecture, making the house part of the ever-changing scenery of its ocean setting. This is compounded by the paved entertaining areas and garden, which has been planted in a scrubby coastal style using species from the immediate surroundings.
By night, the house has a lantern-like quality. Simple in form, with a confident relationship of solid and void, timber and glass, this house sets a new benchmark for coastal living.
