Florida beach house

Full description

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The Florida Beach House is a five-bedroom suburban beach house just behind the sand dunes of Florida Beach, Dawesville (south of Perth, WA). The beach was a 1970s playground dotted with fibro shacks but it has now been engulfed by suburban sprawl. The Beach House references the local vernacular by emulating the robust restraint and rectilinear clarity of the 1950s and 60s undesigned weekenders yet it also reflects an international outlook; the striking undulating roof draws on an old sketch by the great Danish architect Jorn Utzon. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The Florida Beach house consists of two simple, rectilinear parts: a platform for occupying the ground; and an undulating roof plane that hovers above. The roof plane adjusts its overhang carefully to exclude summer sun and admit low-level winter sun, stretched at its western extent to allow the occupants to engage in comfort with the setting sun. The research continues the practice's exploration of the aesthetics of environmental architecture and design dictated by nature rather than machines. In this case, a space for living is extruded through a strict dialogue of plan and section to frame the intense variety and constant presence of the Indian Ocean and its relationship to a 'big sky'.
RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The Florida Beach house was exhibited at 2012 Venice Biennale (Slovenian pavilion), was a finalist in the 2012 International Architecture Awards (organised by The European Centre of Architecture Art and Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum) and won the Marshall Clifton Award for Residential Architecture Houses at the Australian Institute of Architects 2011 Western Australia Architecture Awards. The house was on the cover of Steel Profile (April, 2012), featured in 'Pure Luxury - World's Best Houses (2012, ed Driss Faith, pp. 74-77) and was included in 'Extreme Homes' a documentary for American cable television.