‘Luxury camping’ architecture on mid-North coast of NSW

You don't often see a beach house that blends the indoors with the outdoors as well as this compact little gem on the mid-north coast of NSW. Designed by Bourne Blue architects to be a compact and simple holiday home for its owners, the structure is made up of three pavilions, with landscaping in between to minimize the scale and bulk of the building. The roof structure has been stepped to reduce bulk when viewed from the beach below. Simple, economical and corrosion resistant materials have been used, including fibre cement sheeting for the external cladding. The living spaces open easily to the decks and and Eastern roofed deck doubles the available living area.

In the words of the architect Shane Blue, this beach suburb “is about surfing and the bush. The attributes of a family home have been distilled down to the basics, moulded to suit the site and optimised for holidays. Careful consideration has been given to the entry to the building, how sand is removed, where surfboards can be stored (out of the sun), where towels dry (in the sun), where wetsuits hang (out of the sun). The adults have the top part of the house, the kids have the lower part (bunk room), they meet at the living space in the middle level. Everyone has their own domain.”

Sustainable features: 4.5kW photovoltaic system, which produces 2.5 times the energy use of the building annually, feeding excess back into the grid; low embodied energy materials – mainly timber, good solar passive qualities, worm farm wastewater treatment system; all water Storage , both domestic use and fire fighting is collected and stored onsite; predominately LED and Fluoro lighting; thorough insulation; compact building.

[Photography by Simon Whitbread]