will collins design: South Pavilion House Design

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Hi everyone,

In my most previous blog I posted about the house design stage of putting the sketch plans into the computer and a bit about why a pavilion house design was chosen over other forms of housing.

Today I'm going to talk about some of the special designer features in our house:

I'll start with the carport as that is where the house design started. I often start locating the garage first in a bubble sketch as the position is usually dictated by physical constraints or the developers covenants. In this case it was both. The carport is in the sth west corner which is the least desirable aspect in this region leaving the better aspects of north and east for the habitable rooms.
The 2nd photo is a picture of the finished carport. The first thing you might notice is the pitch of the roof which is a bit steeper than the front pavilion as I am locating the solar photo voltaic panels directly to it.
I have given it a rusty red trim to fit in with the rest of the colour scheme which has been designed to sit well with nature and not fight against the surrounding bush. Supporting the roof structure you will see wide pillars of Corten steel. Part of the covenants here was to have a minimum of 6 sq.m of storage space around the carport vicinity so that people wouldn't junk up the visible part of the house to public.
So I decided to use cupd's for the structure support instead of plain posts.
Below is a photo of the structure so you can see the stud frame which makes up the cupd's:

I used corten for cladding as they are exposed and would need maintenance otherwise, it also blends in with nature and I have used the material elsewhere in the house and it's good design to carry a theme around a house rather than just one spot. For the doors I used old recycled cypress pine doors with a natural stain finish also blending with nature.

Another most unusual feature in this house is that I used cypress pine mulch in the driveway and also as the carport surface. How many people do you know have a mulch floor in their carport?
The main reason for this is to keep the use of concrete to a minimum. Concrete is high in embodied energy ie it takes a lot of the earth's resources to make - especially electricity. Another reason is that you can just rake it over the oil spills and once again it looks more natural. The only negative is that when it's windy your car can get a bit dusty. Fortunately we are sheltered here.
Next in line is my office:
I have used a long skinny horizontal window from my office to the carport, this is so I can see when clients or visitors are pulling up but without my focus being straight onto the cars, and I have a view out to the pine forest (not my only view from my office). My office is located here so that I don't have clients passing by the rest of the house to visit me, it's first cab off the rank. As discussed earlier it has a polished concrete floor and a rammed earth wall for thermal mass and design aesthetics. It looks awesome and always gets comments from first time visitors.
Below is a photo of me in my office with my latest award for a steep house design near the beachfront in Currumbin on the Gold Coast. Can't pass up an opportunity to brag.

Below is a shot of the rammed earth and polished concrete in my home office:

Next is the 3rd bedroom which shares the rammed earth wall. This has a sliding door of obscure pearl glass to the north for privacy and same coloured louvre windows to the south for cross flow ventilation.

I have used curved plywood wall lights which pick up all the features of the rammed earth and keeps the lighting soft.

This bedroom has a shared access to a bathroom behind the massage room and laundry which features another rammed earth wall.

The vanity bench top is made from recycled hwd from a company in Burleigh Heads called Hwd Heaven. Ring Matt 5522 0531 if you need something made up. He planes it and glues the pieces together to suit your design.

I have kept the colours light here as it is on the south side of house. Travertine floor tiles will stay in fashion for ever and are easy on the eye. Same with the rammed earth wall by Matt Steele from Rammed Earth National 0427 381567. It's a product that will last for ever, never need maintenance, is easy on the eye and wont go out of fashion. Those sort of attributes can save the home owner a lot of $ over the years...

The bathroom doesn't quit look the same now that the girls have moved in. Lucky I got a before shot.

Next in line is the 2nd bedroom. It's now got a double bed in it and all decked out so looks much better, but the main feature here is the windows. I have used double sliding windows which open right up to the Hoop Pine forest views which are awesome. I'm often jealous when I visit this room as the feeling is so peaceful. Great crossflow ventilation is achieved with the double action sliders, the louvres and the entry sliding door. She also has a study nook with a small casement window which catches the breezes and view of the pond.

In front of the shared bathroom and to the north is the massage room and laundry. Featuring the same rammed earth wall that features in the bathroom. It has 2 double glazed obscure glass windows which transfer northern light into the bathroom framed in recycled timber of course. I recycled hwd ladder takes you to a loft which is an extra sleeping spot for guests and provides a bit more storage.

The side walls are of bamboo ply to give that spa like feel, recycled shutters for cross flow vent.

Recycled glass tiles as the splashback for the laundry. Combine this atmosphere with the best Kahuna massage on the Gold Coast and you are in heaven...

That completes the internals of the south pavilion, now I explain the external.

Below to the right you see 2 recycled cedar doors which have clear plastic roll up covers enabling cross flow vent. That is the entry to the massage room. To the left of that is a recycled shutter window. This area was designed as a semi outdoor area and sports the same timber deck flooring as the access balcony. The main wall covering is Weathertex Exterior Board with a paint finish in a pale green to blend in with nature. I have selectively used recycled weatherboards as feature panelling. The 3rd bedroom access is through a pearl coloured sliding door.

The balcony balustrading I built myself, made from a curved stainless steel tube threaded through the shaped cypress pine supports and stainless steel wire. It gives a bit of a yachty feel to it. Galvanised gutter and roofing also blend in to the colour scheme.

You can see the pine tree which I had to bend my house design around on the north pavilion.

That's it for the south pavilion. Started with the carport, next my office, 3rd bedroom/meeting room, share bathroom and massage room, then last is the 2nd bedroom. All connected by doors internally and externally by the curved balcony.

I hope you enjoyed reading about this part of the house design.

Next blog I will talk about the front (north pavilion).

You can learn more about what we do and see samples of my designs on our website http://www.willcollinsdesign.com.au and http://www.goldcoastbuildingdesigners.com.au

or our business facebook page:

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