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Barestone - the perfect choice in a BAL40 Bushfire zone

Located in the small coastal town along Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Wye River House has been designed by Matt Goodman Architecture Office (MGAO). The home was one of three bushfire rebuild probono projects for MGAO.

What started with a lightning strike in the 2015 Christmas Day bushfires, went onto destroy 80 per cent of the Wye River township. 116 homes were lost together with the bushland that surrounded the town.

The owners of Wye River House had a long historical connection to the town through family and a man named Paddy Harrington.  Matt Goodman, said “when we discovered that Paddy was one of the original builders who had constructed many of the town’s early fibro beach shacks, it pretty much drove the design intent of the project.”

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Barestone® - Original
case-study A modern, minimalist two-story building with a flat roof, large vertical windows, and a balcony with metal railings. The exterior features smooth, light-colored walls. The sky is clear, and trees surround the building.
art-image A modern, cube-shaped building with a gray concrete facade is perched on a hillside. It has a rectangular window and a balcony with a wooden railing. Trees and a clear sky are visible in the background.

“This family connection to the built fabric of the town, paired with MGAO’s interest in the vernacular beach shack typology as a reference for design, lead to an exploration of simple materials, rational forms and a ‘careful carelessness’ that the original beach shack typology embodies.”

There were several key elements to the design including:

  • Four connected ‘Living Rooms’ joined to create an enfilade, the careful positioning of the joinery walls and window openings was aimed to create privacy and reinforce the identity and function of each room within an essentially open plan.
  • The openings on the Northern facade shifted slightly in relation to the function of the room, as the external deck was designed to be ‘open’ to the public and for chatting with neighbours.
  • The bench height window in the kitchen provides a visual connection to the street. As well as the eye level window to the living room, this ensures winter sun can penetrate deep into the plan, whilst providing a high level of privacy.
  • The highlight ensuite window provides daylight and keeps out peeping toms!
  • The single skillion roofed beach shack contains a 3 bedroom dwelling on the right and a double storey, one bedroom studio holiday rental ”Redlum Studio’ on the left.
art-image A modern gray building features a long walkway with metal railings, connecting two sections of the structure. Large windows and a covered outdoor area are visible, surrounded by greenery in the background under a clear sky.
art-image A modern, minimalist concrete house with cubic architecture. It features large windows, a flat roof, and a small fenced outdoor patio with a table and benches. The house is situated on a sloped landscape with trees in the background.

The home was completely cladded using Cemintel’s Barestone Original fibre cement panels. MGAO’s decision around using Cemintel Barestone was made for both aesthetic and performance reasons.  “The design of this project draws heavily on local vernacular fibro beach shacks, many of which were lost in the 2015 Bushfires.”

“The project is located in a BAL40 Bushfire zone, which requires a BAL40 compliant cladding system. Cemintel’s 9mm Barestone cladding panels installed with the Commercial ExpressWall system easily met these requirements, without the need for additional painting costs.”

Matt added, “the Barestone cladding system allowed us to develop a simple skillion form. We used the Barestone cladding joints as a way to reference the board and batten cladding used in the original fibro beach shacks, yet in a modern, bushfire compliant way.”

Project Credits:
Architect: MGAO
Instagram: @mg_ao
Website: http://www.mgao.com.au

Photographer: Paul Hermes
Instagram: @paul_hermes_
Website: http://paulhermes.com

Builder: Basebuild Construction
Instagram: @basebuild
Website: http://www.basebuildconstruction.com.au

Holiday rental: Redlum Studio
Instagram: @redlum_wyeriver

art-image A modern, rectangular white concrete house with large windows and an elevated ground floor. It has a balcony on the first floor with a wooden bench. The surroundings feature tall trees, a grassy area, and a sloping pathway to a gated entrance.

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