Dune Home / KLG Architects

Textual content description offered by the architects. Inside the topography of Betty’s Bay, between mountain and ocean, sits the Dune Home. The pure ecology of this locale is delicate, each to disturbances which have occurred over the previous few a long time by way of indiscriminate constructing practices and thru the windswept native local weather. This was the datum upon which this home grew, and the resultant resolution was made proper from the start to create a constructing with two defining moments.

Firstly, a particular roofscape was conceived to offer safety from the prevailing wind situations, which throughout the summer season months arrive strongly from the seaward side (SE) whereas in winter, these come from over the mountain (NW). The curved apex of the roofscape was designed to permit the wind to go overhead and shelter the out of doors dwelling house off the mountain-facing elevation for the hotter months whereas the home itself kinds a bastion throughout the colder elements of the yr. Concurrently, the roofscape turns into an extension of the undulating dunescape, which encompasses the location and surrounds.

Secondly, your complete construction was raised off the terrain on timber posts. This elevates the areas off the delicate dune surroundings, which permits the panorama to rejuvenate after building and permits small indigenous fauna, reminiscent of mice and moles, a conserved thoroughfare that may have been impeded had this been a stable wall-to-ground situation. The dunes additionally are likely to naturally migrate over time, and elevating the construction off the bottom permits the panorama to evolve with out disrupting the general areas inside.

For the publish’s foundations, an modern methodology was carried out whereby all the excavated soil was reused. No soil was faraway from the location. As a substitute, it was employed to stabilize the fill across the posts, alongside its use throughout the footings’ concrete combine. The footings themselves make use of an uncommon basis, with using barrels as everlasting shuttering, thereby minimizing concrete spillage and contamination on the encompassing surroundings.

Embodied by these defining moments, the volumes for inhabitation and the visitor pod grew from the dunes. The dwelling areas inside are open and lengthen out to the views past, providing an area of refuge from the oftentimes unstable climate situations past, turning into a sanctuary throughout these moments. On the identical time, the in depth glazed sliding doorways lead onto open decks, which unlock the dwelling to the enveloping panorama of ocean, sky, and mountain when the climate permits. This ethos of being in tune with the surroundings embraces and accepts the weather. These inhabitable zones are bisected by an elevated walkway hovering above the bottom airplane. A typology synonymous with the boardwalks of the native shoreline, forming a continuation of the axis from the mountain to the ocean.

Timber was chosen as the first structural and ending aspect for its sustainable properties, which was a continued reflection of the delicate method we took from the conceptual stage influenced by the situations discovered on-site. Juxtaposed in opposition to this, occasional gabion parts present a tactile grounding to the land and type a method of anchoring defining moments, specifically the central walkway axis and the seaward-facing deck. The larch timber was left unfinished to permit it to gray and tonally recede into the panorama. This language is sustained into the interiors, with the timber finishes offering a backdrop for the inhabitants to populate the areas. The home is of the locale. A home which sits comfortably inside its windswept, pure surroundings, permitting its customers to be custodians of the panorama through which they inhabit.