A Retired Couple’s Hillside Home Is an Ode to Laid-Back Coastal Living
On Australia’s Coal Coast, Bokey Grant Architects creates a crisp, white dwelling that emphasizes ocean views and indoor/outdoor flow.
On Australia’s Coal Coast, Bokey Grant Architects creates a crisp, white dwelling that emphasizes ocean views and indoor/outdoor flow.
Retirement often brings the opportunity to start afresh, and to rethink one’s lifestyle unburdened by the constraints of work. For recent retirees Dave and Donna, it offered the chance to move closer to their children and grandchildren on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. They found an empty site on Wollongong’s Coal Coast and decided to build a home that could cater to extended family visits while allowing them to embrace their new seaside setting and celebrate their love of outdoor living.
The site was previously owned by a couple who donated the original home for aged care use in 1968. In 2016, the three-storey, 24-unit building was privately sold, demolished and subdivided into six separate lots. These were sold with approved homes on them, and this site was the last one to be developed. Architect Jeffrey Bokey-Grant then convinced the clients to design a new home that would be suited to their specific needs.
Photograph by Clinton Weaver
The empty site had existing approval for a new home, and Dave and Donna initially planned to simply modify the existing plans. When they approached architect Jeffrey Bokey-Grant, however, he convinced them to start fresh and completely tailor the house to suit their needs.
The home is set on a steep hillside site and is playfully named "DD House" in reference to the clients, retired couple Dave and Donna.
Photograph by Clinton Weaver
Inevitably, there were a number of challenges to this approach. The hillside site has a steep gradient in two directions, bushfire restrictions on construction and glazing, and the morning light is blocked by a neighboring property. In addition, the cliff to the rear of the site meant the new home would have to work very hard to balance its climate control.
Through editing the views with the built form—to block out roads and power lines—DD House takes on a striking, sculptural form. The upper level is perched atop the elevated ground floor on slender columns that dissolve the building's mass and give it a lightweight appearance despite the solid balustrades.
Photograph by Clinton Weaver
See the full story on Dwell.com: A Retired Couple’s Hillside Home Is an Ode to Laid-Back Coastal Living
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