Project: Clareville Beach House
Architecture and Interior Designers: Rama Architects
Built: Hampton Constructions
Landscape: Sprout Studio, Reflective Gardens
Location: Clareville, New South Wales, Australia
Year: 2023
Photo Credits: Anson Smart
Awards:
2023 New South Wales Architecture Awards | Residential Houses (New)
2023 Australian Interior Design Awards | Residential Design
2023 Houses Awards | New House Over 200 m2
2023 INDE Awards | The Living Space
2023 IDEA Awards | Residential Single
On the leafy shoreline of Clareville Beach, this new residential dwelling recedes behind a green canopy cascading from the rooftop down and growing up from below blurring the lines between outside and in. Hints of Brazilian Modernism are seen in the concrete form with deep drawn-out eaves, voids and openness.
The underlying principal for Clareville Beach House was to create a restful and private family home that receded into the landscape using immersive planting from the rooftop cascading down, visible from every room, as well as planting from the ground up. Encouraging nature to envelop the structure, blurring lines between outside and in allows the home to disappear behind the greenery providing privacy and tranquillity.
The feeling of being outside yet still being sheltered by a formative structure was key – this is where we played with the idea of hard and soft. Hard is represented in the Brazilian modernist design with concrete, stone and tallowwood. The result is a solid structure with large eaves creating a safe shelter in which to recede.
The soft is exemplified with light, voids, landscape and glass. The soft allows the strong shelter to become one with the trees, plants and water surrounding the home.
