Memories, moments and artful planning: Breezeway House

Designed for a Sydney family to share with their friends, this engaging Central Coast holiday house embodies a collective memory of time spent by the beach.

When I was young, we used to visit my uncle’s holiday house on the south coast of New South Wales. It was a small shack with a deep wraparound verandah where we slept through the summer nights. That memory of sleeping under an old, timber-framed roof with a cool breeze filtering through mosquito nets has stayed with me.

All kinds of locations, events and experiences inform the memory of a beach holiday, but we often develop the deepest bonds with the specific places we inhabit when we travel. In some cases, a very special building can create unique memories that lead to new habits and attitudes towards life.

The house’s unusual, angular form echoes that of the headlands at the nearby beach.

The house’s unusual, angular form echoes that of the headlands at the nearby beach.

Image: Brett Boardman

When I met architect David Boyle while visiting his Breezeway House – a holiday house for a family from Sydney to share with their friends – he mentioned his own family holidays. David shares a holiday house with some of his friends (kids in bunks, movie nights on beanbags) and he based the design for Breezeway House on what he most wants from his own house on those trips.

Breezeway House embodies a collective memory of time spent by the beach. The open corridor, or breezeway, that connects all the rooms in this house is made of decking boards, open timber framing and fibre cement shutters. These shutters, which are easy to open and close, offer a simple form of natural ventilation control.

The rooms upstairs are open and outward, taking in the ocean outlook through a layer of screens.

The rooms upstairs are open and outward, taking in the ocean outlook through a layer of screens.

Image: Brett Boardman

Big sliding doors connect all the rooms, including two parent rooms and an eight-bed bunkroom for the kids, and create open spaces reminiscent of sleepovers. Two huge built-in couches, one in the living space and the other in a rumpus room, facilitate the simple joys of movie nights and popcorn.

Outside the lower-level rooms, intimate gardens gather around fire pits and a paved area, enabling easy congregation, marshmallow toasting and handball competitions. Above these gardens, the exposed structure of the upstairs timber deck is the epitome of the Australian coastal shack.

Outdoor showers, sliding timber screens and window seats are formalized versions of the “bolt-on” amendments that typically adorn a holiday home. However, instead of rickety plastic chairs or a lashed-on bamboo lattice, this house employs exquisite hardwood framing, sculptural brickwork and oversized openings.

David tells me that he seeks to create “new memories intrinsic to the architecture.” This house’s rigorous detailing looks to go beyond accuracy and quality, to inspire new memories via subtle manoeuvres that suggest new ways to inhabit the home. A continuous metal handrail snakes inside and out, upstairs and along the breezeway, becoming a perfect towel hanger. A small hatch between pantry and living room allows dad to play barista on a lazy morning. A tiny deck for one shoots into the existing fig trees – a treehouse to read a book away from the others. These moments create patterns of use to be remembered into the future.

Comfortable built- in couches facilitate the joys of movie nights and popcorn.

Comfortable built- in couches facilitate the joys of movie nights and popcorn.

Image: Brett Boardman

Memories, moments and artful planning coalesce in this house. The rooms downstairs, and their associated gardens, are calm and inward, shielded from the surrounding neighbours and offering welcome shelter from the sun and wind. Upstairs, meanwhile, the rooms are open and outward, taking in the ocean outlook at one end through a layer of screens and the forest at the other through a western deck, blinkered from the neighbours by the extended walls.

The generous northern deck is flanked by a wall to the north and a roof over half its area. These points of enclosure might seem counterintuitive, in terms of achieving optimal sun and views, yet they work to control privacy while providing focused views. A screen is simply slid back and the view is revealed, channelled through tapering walls to frame the rising headland beyond.

The final, most resolute and perhaps most subtle memory comes from the twisting geometry of the living room. It turns diagonally from the rest of the house, its scooping form closely referencing the nearby headlands. In a way, the landform is a memory of the place in which it exists: a coastal outcrop sculpted by wind and waves.

Breezeway House is not a radical new breed of beach house, nor is it the culmination of an architect’s nostalgia for the perfect holiday. It sits somewhere in the middle, informing a continuous story of how we can live by the beach and how the brilliant Australian coast influences our lives.

Products and materials

Roofing
Lysaght Klip-lok 406 in Colorbond ‘Matt Monument’
External walls
Austral Brick Commons bricks in Dulux ‘Snowy Mountains Half’; Cemintel Barestone unfinished fibre cement
Internal walls
Austral Brick Commons bricks in Dulux ‘Snowy Mountains Half’; Frencham Cypress Designaclad tongue and groove cypress cladding
Windows
Frames in recylced timber with Cutek Extreme oil finish by Architectural Hardwood Joinery; Viridian toughened glass; Breezway louvres
Doors
Custom doors in Wisa plywood and blackbutt with Whittle Waxes Hardwax oil finish; frames in recylced timber with Cutek Extreme oil finish by Architectural Hardwood Joinery
Flooring
Burnished concrete in Drytreat Stain-Proof sealer; ironbark decking with Whittle Waxes Hardwax oil finish; Onsite natural split slate
Lighting
Anchor Ceramics Potter Halo pendants; Tovo downlights; Flos Camouflage wall light from Euroluce; The Lighting Guild wall lights; Workstead Wall Lamp
Kitchen
Custom stainless steel benchtop and V-Grooved MDF by Fine Earth Joinery; Onsite Aren Bianco limestone benchtop; solid recycled hardwood joinery in Liberon Finishing Oil by Architectural Hardwood Joinery; Briggs Veneers blackbutt veneer; Index and Co Diva Pull handles in ‘Paper White’ matt powdercoat; custom splashback tiles by Anchor Ceramics; V-Zug oven, steam oven, warmer and induction cooktop; Qasair undermount rangehood; Siemens dishwasher; Liebherr fridge; Vintec bar fridge; Wolf barbecue; Abey sink; Brodware tapware
Bathrooms
Inax Sugie Series floor tiles from Artedomus; Rockcote Marrakesh lime plaster; custom basin by Lindsey Wherrett Ceramics; Parisi basin; Astra Walker toilet suites, and tapware and accessories in ‘Eco Brass’; Victoria and Albert bath; Stormtech linear floor drain; custom blackbutt towel rails
Heating and cooling
Hunter Pacific ceiling fans; Invicta Nelson wood fire heater; Daikin airconditioning
External elements
The Brick Pit recycled bricks; Eco Outdoor Porphyry and Endicott crazy paving; turfgrid by Adbri Masonry
Other
Custom built-in bunk beds, wardrobes and seats; Verosol blinds; linen curtains and upholstered cushions by Master Workroom; Westbury Textiles fabrics; Henrik Pedersen for Gloster Bay lounge chairs from Cosh Living; Mark Tuckey Belt stool, Refectory table and Wicker chairs; Cuero Pampa Maripose Butterfly chairs

Credits

Project
Breezeway House
Architect
David Boyle Architect
Pretty Beach, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Project Team
David Boyle, Kevin Liu
Consultants
Builder Paterson Builders
Hydraulic and civil engineer Northrop Consulting Engineers
Landscape design Pangkarra Garden Design
Structural engineer SDA Structures
Upholstery and curtain consultants Smith and Levine
Aboriginal Nation
Breezeway House is built on the land of the Darkinjung people.
Site Details
Location Central Coast,  NSW,  Australia
Site type Suburban
Site area 748 m2
Building area 231 m2
Project Details
Status Built
Completion date 2019
Design, documentation 24 months
Construction 24 months
Category Residential
Type New houses

Source

Project

Published online: 22 Sep 2020
Words: Casey Bryant
Images: Brett Boardman

Issue

Houses, June 2020

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