•The design brief was to build a 3 bedroom beachside retreat for up-market clients in this holiday destination of Port Douglas, FNQ. The aim: to create a haven where visitors could enjoy nature in the balmy tropics.
•Design Project entailed collaborating with the architect from the concept stage to the construction, electrical plan and landscape plan/choices/concepts and interior design/furnishing/finishes.
Budget was restricted so a simple design of single level, open-planned U-shaped footprint avoided excessive building costs. All design choices were based around passive cooling elements and creation of shade. A large roof top garden absorbed the majority of the heat during the days. Seperating the 3 bedroom/ensuites from the kitchen/living/dining space meant living areas could be enjoyed during the day whilst UV resistant blockout blinds kept bedrooms cool for evenings, solar heating in pool.
Cross ventilation was important, with louvers on most windows including vertical windows that created a thermal chimney with ceiling fans, both indoors and out. Cooling breezes from plants on the roof garden also helped cool down the interior temperature.
Colours played a part in the passive cooling process, with the stark white walls and blues reminiscent of Santorini in Greece being the base colour, refreshing in mood and reflective of heat.This was contrasted with bursts of bright feature fluro colours in furnishings to give the house a tropical vernacular.
• To bring in textures/colours of the surrounding beach, ocean and tropical rainforest: floorcoverings stayed uniform inside and out, a honed limestone both practical for wet feet the colour of a sandy beach. large pebbles, stones, water-features (also blocked traffic noise), shells and timber furnishings. Design in bathrooms and kitchen was given a dramatic glamourous edge. Glossy black countertops and funky nature-inspired timber laminate joinery.