Byna Road, Palm Beach

A light modernist building in an elevated coastal location.

The clients brief called for a new beach house to replace an existing dwelling that had been used as a summer weekend retreat for many years. This architecture responds to the site and the clients brief on a number of levels.

Central to the concept for the design of this house was the location of the main living areas on the upper level of the building to obtain views over Palm Beach, the light house and Pittwater a configuration that had been established in the original house but without the views. Generally, all bedrooms, rumpus room and garaging have been located on the lower level and relate more closely to the site and its lower level landscaped setting.

The new house had to be configured to accommodate a new extended family with separate guest accommodation and be able to provide large areas for entertaining friends and their children. The emphasis had to be on flexibility.

The sites very public corner location and dual street frontage dictated a strongly designed corner that provided a sense of privacy and security, with the entry sequence starting from Ralson Road and taking you to the upper living level via a stair that has an expressed stair landing projecting back into the garden on the eastern elevation.

Metal clad bay window elements project out from the eastern elevation to abstract the sense of layered floor levels and to focus on landscaped frame views. Material selections including sandstone and painted weather boards were selected as a reference to the original beach house and for minimal maintenance. These materials contrast with crisp metal elements and other sheet materials, and colours that combine to create a modernist beach side style. Fina galvanized steel plate roof edges to the large overhangs emphasize a sense of lightness, shading, and layering beyond the form of the building.