Residing deeply within bushy hectares near enough into the famous break at Bells Beach on Victoria’s surf shore seems like an idyllic situation for the medico couple with four children, and two household members – dad and teenage son – who surf.
But at Jan Juc, the break and downsizer settlement which has prioritised the retention of regional plant species, and that on the 2.02-hectare block means numerous twisty, rutted ironbarks, the truth search for any brand brand new create or home expansion is defence.
The Surf Coast is high score bushfire nation.
As well as in light of exactly exactly what our eastern and south coast Australian summer has brought to date, this exemplifies thinking, planning and building design which could now end up being the norm for places positioned anywhere beyond the kerbed and asphalted suburbs of our capitals.
Whenever few stumbled on David Seeley, seeking an expansion up to a much-amended and rangy 1970s home that is low-rise the fire risk research founded that this new children’s wing will have a southerly facade with a Bal 29 score.
The couple stumbled on David Seeley seeking an expansion to their rangy ’70s house. Photo: Peter Hyatt
In the case … cash land that way that is’s than halfway to incredibly frightening.
And even though Seeley, whom for many years happens to be certainly one of the coast’s many ubiquitous architects, claims that the longer he practises the easier and simpler their building types have become, the ensuing design for the four room, double-level brand new wing is indeed reductionist the upper storey has had the design of a Monopoly home.
“Reducing the fire-front issues was our forefront concern. Therefore the kind, that is a type of the current home, developed before the product had been selected, ” he claims.
The children’s wing is a remarkable object that is new the Jan Juc bush. Picture: Peter Hyatt
The material that fully enwraps the cantilevering seven x 16-metre top degree without any eaves or exposed guttering – and that makes this kind of striking item when you look at the bush yard – is Corten, or tough-as rusting steel that is ochre-toned.
“We’d considered Colorbond, ” Seeley claims. “But we place it down for tender therefore the figures arrived in okay when it comes to Corten. And that managed to make it a pretty cool element. ”
The children’s accommodation sits atop of double-brick plinth with some ground-level service rooms and a place where Seeley could create a new entry sequence in a home that previously didn’t have one that could be easily identified with a small stair-landing study, two bedrooms and 1.4-metre-wide balconies at each end of the building.
The door, covers the ceiling and makes the stairwell – and is also the stuff of the crafted cupboard joinery in this deeply-recessed and broad entry portal – it’s the 1.4-metre wide and steel-clad “big, heavy door – a really serious door” that is both statement piece and, symbolically, another piece of the house’s fire-prevention armoury while ironbark is the hardwood that frames.
Clad in metal, surrounded by ironbark, this new entry way. Picture: Peter Hyatt
“i suppose, the metal home had been a subconscious reaction to the type associated with home, ” Seeley claims.
The keeping of the children’s wing on an east-west axis had not been, he stated, the sun arrangement that is optimal. So on the deck ends, a completely covering mesh of metal functions as balustrade and also the supporting framework for future deciduous vines that may keep carefully the room temperate when you look at the hot seasons.
Although the six-metre long cantilever is sharp architectural design, it isn’t gratuitous – instead, “an financial treatment for producing auto parking. I’m maybe maybe not really a big fan of garages. ”
The broad cantilever regarding the level that is upper space for automobiles underneath. Picture: Peter Hyatt
Seeley will pay compliment to their consumers for providing him “enough rope” in order to make this handsome object. They wanted”, he could give them back “stripped back architecture in which everything counts and everything solves a problem”“Because they were so clear about what.