Goolwa House 2016

Goolwa House

The underlying principle of this house is that it will provide a low maintenance beach house that will be used in the first instance as a weekend retreat and later become a permanent dwelling. It is located in a highly corrosive environment 250 metres from breaking surf. The southern (rear) boundary of the site abuts a coastal reserve containing primary, secondary and tertiary dunes. The house has been sited to maximise its relationship and connection to this wonderful dune landscape.

The climatic conditions are extremely variable featuring strong winds (bearing sand, salt and rain) from the south west quadrant, cooling on-shore breezes (SE to SW), hot northerlies and occasional breathless warm nights. Accordingly the house has been designed to mitigate the less pleasant conditions while maximising the benefits of the benign weather events. Timber decks to the north and south provide outdoor living opportunities in almost every kind of weather. Variable shading to the northern deck provides amenity in both winter and summer while the solar panels provide shade to the southern deck.

Generally, construction materials have been selected for their low-corrosive qualities, durability, energy efficiency and include a slab on ground (to take advantage of thermal mass), well insulated lightweight walls, simple roof form falling to one SS gutter to one downpipe to water tanks, natural anodised (25 microns) external door and window frames and external shading. There is no air conditioning (heating via slow combustion wood fire).

Having now been through four summers with days above 40 degrees it is clear that there is no need for air conditioning.