第23号住宅丨澳大利亚丨Tristan Burfield

Architects:Tristan Burfield

Area:58m²

Year:2025

Photographs:Tasha Tylee

Category:Houses

Contractor:Great Ocean Road Builders

City:Aireys Inlet

Country:Australia

Text description provided by the architects. Located on the Great Ocean Road with a short walk down to Eagle Rock, the home's namesake, this project sits amongst coastal walks, surf beaches, dirt roads, and sandstone cliffs.  A discreet and unassuming timber building, hidden in the back of a deep bush garden, this freestanding addition is a robust retreat to suit a family or couple for short-term stays. A private breakaway space from a larger holiday home that supports it.

The design is centred on a long array of tall, deep revealed, blackbutt timber window frames that open the small building's spaces onto itself, and its garden views beyond. Raw hardwearing galvanised steel frames border the door and window openings, with repeat folded sheet profiles forming a spandrel fascia line above. Chains drop down, encouraging the new landscaping to reach up and slowly embrace the higher levels of the facade over time.

Simple timber-lined spaces provide the basics for living oriented toward the outdoors. A small open fireplace with a garden view offers reprieve from the coastal winds in one space. With a long foot-to-foot single-level bunk trimmed in tarnished brass in another room, colloquially referred to as the ship's cabin.

Furnished with soft open-weave natural linens, woven surfaces, timbers, and a collection of books and found objects, the spaces speak to a calm beach holiday and are designed to actively combat the ever-present assault from the sand.

The bathrooms are approached with a rigour in simplicity, a direct response to the trials that beach house wet areas are put through. A heavy-gauge galvanised steel trough forming a deep vanity surrounded by a simple white porcelain tiles in one, and a shallow stainless steel wash plane cut into the textured mosaic tiles of the other.

This small building project slowly developed its own quiet, individual, and curious architectural language that appears throughout in subtle moments and details. It's timber/ steel/ glass, come bushfire regulation inspired ( ehhe), window solution fronts a very raw, warm, and friendly place. It is a lovely project to have authored and one that will age and grow into its landscape in the years to come.

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