Bark Architects designed Sunrise Studio as a small tree house with big views. It recedes into and embraces the surrounding bush landscape whilst embracing its expansive coastal views over the Pacific Ocean.

This two bedroom studio is for our client’s daughter and grandson to live connected to family but with privacy and their own secluded space. It is a separate dwelling sited adjacent to an original Quadroped house designed by Gabriel Poole in 1983.

Gabriel Poole (1934–2020) was a celebrated Queensland architect known for innovative residential projects and pioneering of low cost, prefabricated designs.

Gabriel’s designs endure decades on, inspiring the recent creation of the Sunrise Studio in Tinbeerwah, Queensland, located just outside Noosa. The new building is positioned just 20 metres downhill from their original house designed by Gabriel Poole. 

The spirit of the original Poole house provided cues for the Sunrise Studio design principles with its modular proportioning system, its prefabricated steel primary structure with lightweight infill construction, its clear expression and legibility of structure, and a similar pared back directness and unadorned modesty of means,’ says Stephen Guthrie, co-director of Bark Architects.

Using the same principles of spatial generosity and transparency, the architects created a small two-bedroom home opening to a north-facing deck. Every space connects to a central skywell bringing light and ventilation into the middle of the floorplan.

Orientation allows for a large portion of the new studio to face towards the north and east, taking advantage of low winter sun, with ocean views filtered through mature eucalypts. The floor plan accommodates spaces for living and leisure, always connected to its bushland context.

The lightwell in the centre of the studio, allows for natural ventilation and light to enter into the southern bedrooms and bathrooms and floor to ceiling glazing allows for a visual connection to the landscape, while allowing rooms to feel light, airy and open.

The Outdoor Dining and Yoga Deck maximises the northern aspect and ocean views for morning meditation. Transparency is maximised throughout the building with connection to the outdoors and its bushland setting. The Main Bedroom engages with its natural bushland setting, offering ocean views towards Peregian Beach and across to the Noosa National Park.

Key design strategies included modular construction, retention of all existing trees, connection to all spaces through central lightwell, roof modules orientated to allow for maximum northern light to enter floor plan, create a design that touches the earth lightly and allows planting in the central lightwell.

‘We love how the house feels,’ says Steve. ‘It’s physically a small house at 74 sq.m internally and 36 sq.m of outdoor space, but spatially it feels generous, and there’s the ever present focus on bringing the outdoors in and the feeling that you are perched up in a treehouse, naturally immersed in nature.’ says Stephen . 

What was important to us and our clients was that the house needed to be economical, it needed to be ‘small’ for local government planning as well as for cost reasons, but it needed to ‘feel’ big and well connected to its site and landscape. It needed to be responsive to climate and place. It needed to have natural ventilation, welcome winter sun, provide relief summer shade and it needed to capitalise on its immediate and long distance views to the coast. The design principles of spatial generosity, through transparency, permeability and inextricable connection to nature are at the heart of the experience of the spaces.

Mid century southern Californian modern, case study houses, Barks own design Studio, principles of sunshine coast design for climate, landscape and place, expression of structural legibility and economy.

Whilst the project wasn’t completely ‘prefab’ modular construction, it was designed with modular design and construction principles in mind with the intent of prefabrication. Due to site access, existing trees and steep terrain it was considered that partial prefabrication and traditional on site construction was the preferred outcome. The primary structure of painted steel was prefabricated off site, and erected within 3 days, followed by traditional timber frame infill.

The primary materials are steel, plywood and glass. Externally precoated steel cladding minimises any ongoing maintenance, which is important due the the building height and access considerations. Internally, the spaces are warmly cocooned in the modular sheets of limed plywood lined walls and ebony stained plywood floor, plywood joinery. The plywood provides a natural, timber grained foreground to the immediate forest of trees and views over the verdant hinterland towards Noosa.

To achieve the inspired feeling of living up in the tree canopy, limited construction access, preserving the adjacent large eucalypts and the steep terrain all provided challenges which needed to be addressed through the design.

We love how the house ‘feels’. It’s physically a small house but spatially it feels generous, and there’s the ever-present focus on bringing the outdoors in and the feeling that you are perched up a treehouse, naturally immersed in nature.

Crucial to the success of the ‘feel’ of the house is the central skywell, that brings light and ventilation into the middle of the floor plan. It allows diagonal views through the spaces, as well as new trees popping up in the middle of the house. Total immersion in landscape.

Team:

Architects: Bark Design Architects

Photographer: Christopher Frederick Jones