Robust Responsiveness - Barwon Heads House by Lovell Burton

At 320 square metres, the new structure replaces an existing cedar cabin that sat on hardwood stilts, which the owners had utilised as their holiday home for numerous years. The home is designed as the permanent address for its retiring owners, and as the continual holiday home for the extended family. Set within its rich and layered coastal landscape terrain, the home is anchored to the site and offers a sense of protection, and its expressed materiality is a reflection of this. The opening up of directional vistas then allows for a visual engagement with the coast beyond, and a connection to the landscape and the living elements that surround.

Built by Project Group and designed with input from consultants in environmentally sustainable design, Arc Resources, aluminium, masonry and timber comprise the main structural and cladding elements. The large roof gesture acts as catchment of water to be used for irrigation, the pool and the home. Other elements such as a photovoltaic system, ground source heat pumps and a solar hot water system all add to the low maintenance and self-sufficiency of the home.

Creating a contrast in purpose, the materiality internally and externally is significantly contrasting. Externally, corrugated dark grey timber clads the form, referencing a sense of the original utilitarian cabin structure. This is then counterbalanced by the internal use of timber, stained on a varying spectrum to reflect orientation. Combined with internal blockwork, the structure is designed to be embedded with appropriate active energy to naturally mediate and cool and retain heat as needed.