Deep Pool House – The Marina, Culburra beach

The site for the deep pool house , being a dramatic coastal grassed dune ridge on Culburra beaches NSW South Coast, offered an opportunity to design within a magnificent natural landscape, and to create a home that becomes a sculptural set piece against its grand foreground of sea with a dramatic background of distant river landscape and  mountain ridge line.

This house explores the idea of the building envelope being a continuous lightweight band of material that folds around the serrated footprint forming a U shape two storey pavilion, which sits anchored into the site via a solid masonry podium.

The sides formed by this envelope form a partial enclosure around a central pool , with the pavilions at each end opening up to focus on pool, sea or river views according to interior function requirements. The client wanted to be able to dive from the upper level into the pool and not hit the bottom there for we made the pool 3.5 metres deep , deep enough to place a window from the pool back to the media room. 

The house required consideration for accommodating family holidays from Canberra or extended family and guests for a weekend on the coast.

The principal planning strategy was to maximise the view potential from each room and connect with the dramatic surrounding water landscapes.

The brief gave direct instruction on required spaces, however , allowed flexibility in how these would be arranged and expressed as a form.

The arrangement gave the outdoor living spaces protection from the prevailing winds according to the season or time of day, inherent in its exposed location, in a way that still provided good solar access, and outlook to the primary views.

By setting the building on an elevated podium from the street, the house transitions from the formal and solid baase, to lightweight attached pavilions which  gradually  fragment  at its beach front corners to achieve a floating appearance, reaching out to the landscape.

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