What was the brief?
The primary aspect of the brief was to design a new dual dwelling home that could be transformed into a single four-bedroom home with minimal impact to the initial design. So we separated the two dwelling spaces with individual entrances. There is just one wall separating them, with a secret door for service requirements. If that wall is removed, the dwellings become one and the home can be enjoyed as a single family residence.
Another crucial requirement in the brief was to capture prominent ocean views whilst keeping privacy a priority.
What were the key challenges?
The most challenging process in this project was fitting a three level home with an extensive brief onto a compact site that was surrounded by other homes. The design needed to suit the client but respect the neighbours in many aspects, which involved a lengthy design development process. Solving this challenge and seeing it succeed became the most rewarding moment during the project and the name Two-Close-Between came about thereafter. The name is derived from the constraints of the sites surroundings along with the functionality of the building.
What materials did you choose and why?
The suburb is located at the base of a mountain made from Granite rock. Areas of the beach are surrounded by enormous boulders that position themselves as if they had been strategically placed there, where some of the boulders lean against one another forming natural openings in-between. The large off shutter concrete wall on the East elevation of the home has a primary function of forming a privacy boundary from the neighbouring properties but it is also a representation of the boulders with its size and colour, where the windows around it are those openings in-between.
Granite rock cladding was used extensively on the lower external walls, the rock is dug up on most of the sites in the suburb so it is readily available. Other elements like wood cladding and roof gardens were introduced to help soften the building,furthermore cables were fixed in-between a roof garden and the off-shutter wall to allow creeper plants to grow and eventually attach to the concrete. The notion of this is to serve as an additional privacy barrier once fully grown.
A natural coloured NedZink cladding was chosen to create a more dynamic contrast against the other material colours and textures. A great performance feature of this type of metal cladding isthe ability to retain its appearance in coastal weather.
When entering the beach from the site, there is a progression of natural material from walking under trees, to walking between the boulders to surrounding yourself with fine white sand. By flowing the external material pallet through the front entrance area, we managed to achieve this progression from using a combination of off-shutter concrete, dark features, granite and wood in the double volume and main kitchen – to a lighter beachy feel in the living space moving to the ocean facing side with a combination of light grey, white features, granite and wood.
Material Used:
1. Nedzink - Zinc 0.7mm Standing Seam System
2. JBC Aluminium
3. Weylandts - MIRIAM HANGING LAMP - VAR_3526
4. Oggie Flooring - Classico
5. Somfy - Motorised Blinds - SONESSE ULTRA 30 WF RTS Li-ion - 1003310
6. Somfy - Motorised Curtains - IRISMO 45 WIREFREE RTS - 1002353
7. Chryso - CHRYSO® Beton Cire Finishing - Colour Ash
8. Dado - Amsterdam - SBM060
9. Earthstone Granite and Quartz Products - 20mm Zim Black Leathered - Des18077b
10. Earthstone Granite and Quartz Products - 20mm Brooklyn rough silestone - Des18078
11. Boreal - Boreal Serie E1000
12. Styles Tiles - ONE ANTHRACITE RETT 1200X600 - 101-93073
13. Styles Tiles - ONE GRIS NATURAL RETT 1200X600 - 101-93077
