LOCATION:

Albany WA

CLIENT:

Private

SITE AREA:

726 square metres

YEAR:

2023

ARCHITECT:

Benson Design

SITE CONTEXT:

A very steeply graded site with exceptional views to the north east towards Middleton Beach and beyond. Situated on one of Albany’s best known streets, the house design utilises massive cantilevered steel elements and has a brooding masculine feel.

DESIGN INTENT:

The inspiration for the design came from the client’s original brief to the building designer for a beach house — and so the intent was to bring the dunescape of Middleton Beach right up to the house, with endemic grasses and soft native planting lapping up to and enveloping the entire building.

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A long run of offset concrete steps guides visitors up to the house and through the planting, with a galvanised tube steel  balustrading providing much needed support for the climb. A permeable wall of local granite boulders stabilises the bottom of the hill without the formality of a typical retaining wall and copper lighting provides accents throughout the garden, which will patina in the salty air with time.