While holiday homes are generally getting bigger and being built for permanent use, the owner of the plot on St Andrews Beach, south of Melbourne, just wanted a simple bolthole. With an image of the rickety huts created from remnants of wood and flotsam that are often seen on New Zealand’s beaches in their minds, the architects were inspired to create a building that looks more like a tent than a house and only contains the bare essentials. Superfluous additions such as a hall and internal walls were stripped out, leading to a cylindrical building with two floors and a diameter of less than 10 metres. The bedroom on the upper floor is screened off with a curtain, and the shell of the building is the only limit on how one can use the space.
The house has been built with sustainability in mind. The façade is clad in a eucalyptus named silvertop ash, while the post and beam structure in the same wood has a robust feel that is accentuated by the clearly visible screws and bolts.
Read more at maynardarchitects.com
