Bundeena Beach House – Revisited

Bundeena Beach House is a weekend escape with a strong connection to its environment, and context. It is also a house of its environment with a native roof garden and a sculptural skylight. Designed by Grove Architects it’s a house with a playful interaction between inside and outside, public and private.
The house does not attempt to relate to its neighbours but rather stands in contrast to them. Set low, the house presents its roof as its as a native garden, the roof announces the house to the community, connecting the street with the water and expanding the adjacent reserve. A sculptural skylight glows at night, signaling the house beneath, drawing sunlight inside, and connecting the inside out, encouraging a playful interaction with the sun’s movement.
Beneath its roof, the house is conceived as an object in its landscape, a corten sleeping box emerges from the hill, floating above a glass living box, intersected by a timber mulit-purpose box. The house serves to connect the inhabitants with the landscape beneath and beyond while engaging them with the transience of the environment surrounding them. It harnesses that environment for light, breeze, heat, power, and water while protecting the occupants from the harshness of its elements.
In addition the house is gas-free, with PV’s providing all electricity, hot water, heating, cooling and cooking needs. The only fossil fuel the house uses is minimal surplus electricity needs from the grid. While it uses collected rainwater for garden irrigation, the house itself is connected to the main water supply.