Fresh Finds Products
Vintage style and impeccable craftsmanship are on display in this selection of finishes, lighting, furniture and other new products for the home.
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My sister once explained to me that the Byron Bay region is home to a spiritual spine that snakes through the hinterland to the ocean, a sacred healing ground that seduces visitors with its magic, so much so that many of them end up never leaving. First settled by the Arakwal Bumberlin people of the Bundjalung Nation, Byron Bay has an undeniable energy in its bones. This could be attributed to the hints of Hollywood glamour seen in the many film sets currently scattered around the region, or perhaps it’s “the Hemsworth effect.” Dominic Finlay Jones, director of DFJ Architects, assures me that this allure is not because of the hippies, the celebrities nor even Crocodile Dundee. He gestures to the mass of mountains and explains that “all of this” is because some 23 million years ago, a volcano erupted and left in its wake a luscious and rich fertile basin. Dom is, of course, referring to the Byron hinterland, a volcanic depression that is one of the world’s largest calderas. “It never ceases to amaze me up here, the consequence of that geological act,” Dom says.
The owners of Coolamon House, who are originally from Sydney but have spent the majority of their professional lives living in the UK and Hong Kong, returned to Australia seeking respite from their busy lives. They were looking to build in a different climate and wanted space for visiting adult children, and they felt a pull to the mysterious and compelling pockets of the Byron hinterland and its rich cultural scene.
The site of Coolamon House has a history of farming. Once-thick rainforest had been previously cleared for a banana plantation, which degraded the soil over time through heavy chemical use. It later became a piggery and camphor laurel was introduced, spreading throughout the site and rendering further damage. When the clients purchased the steeply sloping twenty-acre site, two dwellings remained: one at the top and one down the bottom. This became the precedent for how to build on the site.
“Small but perfectly formed” and “sitting gently on the land without being ostentatious” were key elements of the brief. Having lived in various cities around the world, the clients were inspired by their time in Japan and
Sri Lanka and, in particular, by the work of Geoffrey Bawa. They requested that DFJ capture these influences along with their love for mid-century modern furniture. Although the firm’s primary inspiration for the house was climatic, the outcome also appears to reflect a lineage of work by Dom, beginning with his time in the studio of Sydney architect Bruce Rickard.
The house occupies the top of the site, which is exposed to ferocious north-easterly winds. These roaring winds were the primary obstacle that
DFJ wished to overcome, and the team responded by folding the house around a central courtyard that offers reprieve. This courtyard is screened from the main entry by an enormous brass pivot gate crafted by local “Big Neale,” and from this vantage point, you can appreciate a full elevation of the house and immediately understand the dialogue with its setting. The concrete slab tapers at its edge and appears impossibly thin, as if floating off the ground and cradling the house over a falling valley below.
The courtyard forms part of a language of landscaping, carefully curated by Fig Landscapes, transitioning the visitor through a number of key vantage points across the site. The entry sequence is one of alleviation, leading you through the oasis-like courtyard and into the main living space. Here, the expansive view is elegantly framed by custom-made windows. Internal corridors have been avoided so that every room has a direct relationship with the central courtyard in order to maximize cross-ventilation, which is an important consideration in a house without airconditioning. A pool inside the courtyard can be used year-round. A timber-battened screen in the courtyard cleverly conceals the entrances to the second and third bedrooms.
The interior palette offers warmth and is beautifully understated, avoiding competition with nature’s spectacular canvas. Subtle pops of colour in the joinery offer delight throughout the kitchen and bathrooms. The concrete finish on the walls, pool and floor slab is first class. Regeneration of the site has already begun with more than 3,500 native trees planted. The house also collects rainwater in tanks, holding more than 100,000 litres at capacity, and the carport roof is actually a 21 kilowatt solar bank. Dom credits the success of Coolamon House to two gifts from the clients: the gift of time and the gift of trust – the two critical elements required to achieve an architectural outcome befitting the magic of the site.
Products
Roofing: Lysaght Spandek cladding in Colorbond ‘Basalt’ External walls: Blackbutt battens from Old Mill Timberyard; Boral blockwork; Rockcote Marrakesh render; folded brass from
N.A. Mathie Steel Fabrications; concrete from AKZ Concreting; James Hardie fibre cement in Colorbond ‘Basalt’
Internal walls: James Hardie plasterboard in Dulux ‘Snowy Mountains Half’ paint finish Windows and doors: Design Spec Joinery and Kitchens blackbutt windows and doors; Aneeta sashless windows; Lickiss Fabrications louvre windows and aluminium door; Halliday Baillie hardware Flooring: Concrete from AKZ Concreting; blackbutt floors and ironbark deck from
Old Mill Timberyard
Lighting: Unios and Energyline lights from Raylinc Lighting; Michael Anastassiades Mobile Chandelier 12 pendant
Kitchen: Artedomus Artetech splashback tiles and terrazzo benchtop; stainless steel benchtop by N. A. Mathie Steel Fabrications; Dada VVD Kitchen joinery from Hub Furniture; Franke Eos pull-out tap; Miele appliances; Liebherr fridge–freezer; Qasair rangehood Bathroom: Surface Society tiles from Signorino; Agape basins from Artedomus; Rogerseller
Tonic and Luna tapware; Catalano Sfera toilet pan and Claybrook Ellipse bath from Rogerseller Heating and cooling: Threesixty Ceiling Fans Spitfire fan; Boffi
Air ST fan; Devex Systems underfloor heating
External elements: Swimming pool by Paul Flatley Pools
Architect DFJ Architects +61 2 6687 1425 studio@dfj.com.au dfj.com.au
Project team Dominic Finlay-Jones, Daniel Mann, Amber Garde Builder Cedar Creek Constructions Engineer Westera Partners Landscape design Fig Landscapes Civil engineer SDS Engineering Quantity surveyor QS Plus Lighting consultants Raylinc Lighting, Creative Lighting Solutions