casa crisp

casa crisp reworks a modest 1.5 bedroom brick veneer cottage in Mona Vale, New South Wales into a light-filled, environmentally minded home for a young family of six. buck&simple kept much of the original dwelling intact, setting a rectilinear timber form on top of the existing brick veneer podium so the cottage now reads as a modern beach house built from natural materials and a carefully considered arrangement of volumes.

The site is a battle-axe lot with only 180 m² of usable land, but the tight outdoor area is offset by a short walk to the sand at Warriewood Beach. The brief added two bedrooms and two bathrooms to the original one-and-a-half, making the house workable for a family of six. North facing and surrounded by eight neighbouring dwellings, the new first floor still finds surprising outlooks in several directions, including glimpses of the ocean. With such a modest envelope, every nook has been shaped into functional space to give the rooms variation and make the most of the site.

Blackbutt, a locally sourced Australian hardwood, is the principal external material, used for the first floor cladding, carport and entry screening. It was a natural choice: it grows locally, grows fast, is naturally termite resistant and is not susceptible to lyctus borers. The upper floor is wrapped in large sections of vertical blackbutt laid like decking to form a continuous, fully ventilated rain screen that lets heat dissipate before it reaches the facade. Lower floor windows are also blackbutt, where they are easy to reach for maintenance, while the upper windows switch to white aluminium frames that reflect heat and avoid the upkeep of high level glazing. The lower floors keep their existing brickwork, finished in heat-reflective white paint.

Environmental performance drove the detailing. Upstairs rooms are cross ventilated and highly operable, drawing cool air through the house in summer through a stack effect. Timber runs through the structure, cladding, windows and joinery as a deliberate carbon store and a small contribution to the plantation timber industry. There is no artificial heating or cooling: temperature is regulated by solar penetration onto thermal mass in winter and by operable shading and ventilation in summer. External adjustable louvres and awnings sit over the large areas of glazing, letting the home be trimmed to the weather like a yacht.

Indoors, a timber-on-white palette carries through, with concrete, tiled and oak floors and timber detailing set against white walls for a clean, robust and relaxed coastal feel. Housing six people in 140 m² is an ambitious goal, but the attention paid to the social dynamic and to the quality and variation of the internal spaces lets casa crisp meet it.

Architect: buck&simple. Builder: dc shield constructions. Photography: Simon Whitbread.