The name Halcyon denotes an idyllic time from the past which was peaceful or happy.
My grandparents first put a house boat on the lake in the late 60's,
I'd come here with my family and siblings for most weekends and holidays till I was about 30.
Fundamentally the place itself hasn't
changed, it's quintessentially a rugged Australian landscape.
A good building is about how you interpret context,
how to immerse yourself at every opportunity. What makes living on
the water so special is our ability to move our view wherever we like.
The orientation changes depending on which direction we travel,
it's extraordinary the way natural light passes through,
it really influenced the design and layouts of the bedrooms and bathrooms, the open floor plan,
maximizing this indoor-outdoor connection and at all times trying to bring
the texture of the landscape inside the boat.
The ground floor consists of an open floor plan arrangement,
we wanted to limit any joinery or furniture or walls built up against the elevations,
we inserted one full height wall as a division that enables the experience
in the lounge room and the outdoor dining area to connect seamlessly.
We then have our sleeping quarters on the first floor, we have two master bedrooms
that are identical, one of the front of the boat, one in the back of the boat.
Inbetween we've got two other guest bedrooms for our kids and they share their own ensuite.
The staircase through the middle of the boat goes right up onto the open rooftop, accessed by an
automated hatch. At the front of the boat on the roof, we put in a wood-fired hot tub to immerse
yourself in hot water and be in the elements as the clouds come through, is truly extraordinary.
I love watching the quality of light as it changes from morning to night.
My grandparents first houseboat was rather simple, it was really a glorified caravan run off a single
car battery. I can still hear my grandfather in my head telling me to turn the lights off at night
time and you'd just sit around having dinner around a candle. Something quite special about
watching the moon rise over the mountain range and track over the waterline. At night time when we
come here and you turn off power in the engine, you immerse yourself in the sound of nature.
Designing a boat is like designing a piece of sculpture where each elevation rolls into the
next. As you rotate around the outside of the boat, it becomes quite important to understand
how the line seamlessly brings the curve from the top, right down to the water line, from the side
elevations of the fiberglass, to the vertical elevations of the double glazed windows. The
exterior of the boat is quite strong and sleek, it's juxtaposed by quite a calm and soft interior.
We chose a limited palette of materials with the objective to connect to a
landscape as much as possible, we've used a combination of saw-cut oak floorboards,
polish plastered walls, plasterboard and timber.
We chose colours that were calming and really part of the outside environment.
The interior lighting experience is quite soft and ambient, lighting comes off the floor and
indirectly bounces off the ceiling, we've also got a series of lamps. The boat's been double
glazed and fully insulated and the energy that we draw from the sun is stored in lithium batteries.
In summertime we can run the boat fully from solar power with exception of the engines.
It's a real privilege to be able to design and build a place like this for your family.
It really enabled me to draw on my history of using the lake but also think about how we can
combine our interior design and architectural expertise. Some days there's just no wind and
it's quite peaceful calm waters, other days we have cyclonic winds and waves,
the temperatures range from hot, hot summers to really cold winters. From swimming to skiing,
bush walking, mountain bike riding, we have such great long days spending quality time together
and that's what's so special about being an environment like this, you can create these
experiences and memories with your own children just like you did growing up.