LOW POINT
“The only low point on the project was having to stop for 6 weeks during Covid lockdown, although we turned it into a positive and took the time to refine the interior joinery plans.”
The existing building on the site was a 1960s home constructed of brick and timber. Aaron explains that the building wasn’t doing justice to its “amazing” location, for example in terms of orientation, and – any new construction “would need to start from scratch.” Via a friend's recommendation, the couple also finally found an architect they loved – Michael O’Sullivan of Bull O’Sullivan Architecture, who was well established in the local area. “Everything was lining up,” explains Aaron, “I had also come to a point in my business where I could step back and fully focus on a project of this magnitude.”
BRIEF
While the couple wanted to create their own distinctive home, they also wanted to provide the architect with as much freedom as possible, and therefore kept the brief intentionally loose. “When you find an architect that you trust, whose work you love, you need to step aside and let them do their job,” says Aaron. He adds: “In the same way I would never take the paintbrush off an artist, I didn’t feel the need to tell Michael how to design a home.” Some of their specifics however included three ensuite bedrooms, a generous open plan living kitchen and dining area, a five-vehicle garage for car enthusiast Aaron, and a cinema. They left virtually everything else to Michael’s creative skills.
During the design phase, Michael spent several months visiting the family, to understand how they function, and their way of living. And even though he was given an almost blank canvas, he made sure that he was sharing all of his ideas and sketches with the family
jan/feb 2022
throughout the project, as well as with the builders onsite. “From that perspective, the project has been a team effort,” asserts Aaron. Michael drew up three designs and presented them to the Greens, one of which really captivated them. He wanted to create a building that really fitted into its environment, so his design incorporated a curved, organic form which emulated the site’s coastal and hilly landscape. The original design was for a very natural cedar cladding, however the final option chosen of carefully detailed copper helps the project sit in its surroundings, while providing a strong aesthetic.
At the start they made very few tweaks to this design, but Michael enabled them to make some decisions later, says Aaron. For example, the positioning of windows was left to the latter stages of construction. The reasoning behind this was to see where would be best to place them while they stood in the structure – “when you’re standing in framed up spaces it becomes very apparent what needs to go where.”
The design was bold and quirky, but as
Aaron explains, their intention was to never make an attention-seeking statement, but instead to produce a building that “considered the environment” it was in. With the site backing onto a large and well-used public park and beach, and being at the junction of two roads, it was a challenge to not only keep the design relevant to the local aesthetic but to also ensure the family had some privacy.
“Michael wanted to clearly demarcate the public and private areas,” says Aaron. This was done using a substantial cinder-block
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