This The Local Project video is brought to you by Skillshare, an online learning
community for creative and curious people with thousands of inspiring classes.
Head to the link in the description of this video to be one of the first 1000
subscribers to receive a one month free trial.
We wanted you to walk into the house and go, "wow, this is pretty amazing".
The clients were quite specific on their brief because obviously there's the street and there's
the bay and all your living spaces and where you want to spend all your time is at the bay
side. So the question was for us, how do you allocate and give priority to those rooms?
The way we were able to achieve that is we have a small level change,
so that the living room is slightly lower than the main entrance. That small little change
to the levels allows us to frame a beautiful patch of blue water from the very front door.
We do have a philosophy, a guiding philosophy through our work and
that's about livability and how people are going to be actually living in those houses.
We come from a modernist tradition. We tend to be a little bit restrained
with our palette and really make use of the materials for what they are.
The thing that comes through all of our houses is how it relates to the site.
The biggest issue we find up and down the coast of Australia is it's such a harsh environment.
Everything you put here is immediately set upon by the elements. There's salt and wind and rain.
We've worked with concrete a lot before but probably not as much as we've ever done in
this house before so we thought, okay now's our chance to do that. It worked out really
well for the climatic conditions and the corrosive environment that we're building in.
We learned a lot about the dynamics of concrete and how its textures and finishes can change.
You normally don't get that working on projects that
you can be experimental as much as we could be here with some of the things that we tried.
When you start to look at some of the areas like the kitchen benches, that's the sort of concrete
that you touch and feel and that is highly polished and it's almost got a glow to it.
We think the concrete pairs really nicely with the timber,
particularly those honey coloured timbers that come into it. It suits the sort of paired back
pallet and detailing that we did in the building.
The reason why we've introduced skylights into a space such as the living room which
already has like a large amount of light coming into it is to try and diffuse the light so that
it evens out the light throughout the day. So in the afternoon, it's still dropping
a lot of light into your living room areas and and making them pleasant places to be.
My favourite space is actually the entry,
which is the part of the building that links all the levels together it's a double height space.
To set the mood we have this bright blue shiny tile on one of the walls. It's about
saying welcome to our home, it's a tough house but it's got a playfulness and a joy to it.
The staircase then, it takes you up to the bedrooms but if you keep going straight ahead you
go down a few areas and you come into this main living room space with the kitchen on the side.
The idea is is that if you have a large living area,
you've got to make intimate spaces within that.
So by dividing up the furnishings and creating a small little alcove it, means that a couple
of people can sit with the best view of the house directly out towards the bay.
Off to the side of that is a roof garden that goes over part of the house as well.
There is another living area which is down on the level below, which is in the garden area.
That's your daytime, rough and tumble, having fun, wet, sandy feet space.
The bedrooms are quite intimate.
Two of the bedrooms face to the view, the main bedroom obviously is one of those.
The outdoor entertaining is a very important part of the brief for the family. So there's a pavilion
just near the downstairs area where you can actually sit out and cook,
barbecue and pizza oven and things like that. It was designed so when there's
lots of people over and visiting and they're having a swim, that was a deliberate thing
to work with the idea of this sort of beach lifestyle that people wanted to have here.
There's sort of a modern simplicity to it. It's just about the light the
simple materials and the proportion of the space.
This The Local Project video is brought to you by Skillshare, an online learning community for
creative and curious people with thousands of inspiring classes. Explore new skills, develop
existing interests and get lost in creativity. Our personal favourite Skillshare class is 'Style Your
Space: Creative Tips and Techniques for Interior Design by Stylist and Author, Emily Henderson.
This class provides a great way to discover both simple and practical ways to create a unique and
personal space through Emily's tips and techniques for styling. Skillshare is curated specifically
for learning, meaning there are no ads and they're always launching new premium classes so you can
stay focused. Skillshare offers membership with meaning. Connect with the support of fellow
creatives and enter a community of encouragement communication and inspiration. Head to the link in
the video description to be one of the first 1000 subscribers to receive a one month free trial.