Greybox
Greybox is an experiment. Set in a seaside suburban setting, Greybox takes the idea of a verandah homestread turned inside out, cross bred with a beachside motel, a tractor shed and a cloistered abbey.
It’s a house we’ve funded ourselves. The site is South-West Rocks (SWR) – almost exactly halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. It’s a bit suburban, but its also a coastal holiday town. The site itself is half of one of the original town blocks, subdivided by the previous owner. All 4 edges of the site has some sort of limitation; to the north – a great big 2 storey neighbour, built as close to the boundary as able; to the south: a bushfire setback with (requiring a BAL 40 rating); to the east – a sewer easement – and a 6m high shed, again built as close to the boundary as allowed, and to the west – the street side – an electricity easement. All of these created challenges, but it also made the site affordable for a modest housing experiment.
We want as many people as possible to experience what this house was like – not just by photo. This experiment needed to ‘pay for itself’ – it is unashamedly a holiday house – and renting it out for short stay accommodation made it available for more people to experience it.
The site we found had been cleared, however it was adjacent to a bush reserve that was an important green corridor, host to kangaroos, koalas, echidnas and at least 30 bird species. Working with Emily Simpson Landscape Architect and local First Nations landscape suppliers we’ve reinstated endemic species as part of a new garden, interspersed with a few exotics, which wrap the house and continue the green corridor a little further.
SWR has a fairly benign climate. We wanted to experiment with a house that was a vehicle for living outside – as much as we could. The house is a series of separate rooms connected by a 3-sided veradah that wraps around the courtyard. There are no internal corridors. To go between rooms you have to go outside. All rooms have windows or ventilation from at least 2 sides. Bedroom and bathrooms are separate. Kitchen is a separate room, as is the Living Room. Both are separated by an outdoor loggia which is the main dining space. It’s connected to it’s environment – you experience the breezes – which inform what you might do – if its coming from the south that means its probably great at the beach.
From the street, save for a happy yellow stripey awning, the façade is quite plain. Materially, the house is made from locally available materials, utilising a lightweight frame clad entirely in metal sheet. It’s a backdrop for the planting, which is starting to take shape. Its also a buffer to the street itself, which is a bit of a rat-run for locals trying to sneak a short cut.
Greybox is a courtyard house for an urban site, one that maximises landscape and connections with climate and country.
