The Pacific Ocean offers an endless blue horizon for occupants of a newly built Newcastle home, which cascades over five levels towards the sea and shelters its occupants from howling winds and torrential coastal rain.
Bob Dylan could have easily composed his song, Shelter from the Storm, sitting in the multi-level house overlooking the Cowrie Hole surf break and the ocean.
But for its architects, from the firm Curious Practice, it wasn’t Dylan’s song that intrigued them about the project. Rather they were thinking of ways to create a great family home on the long narrow site, about five metres in width, that plunges into a substantial 10-metre drop-off midway through.
What could best replace the worker’s cottage on the site, its roof cavity filled with Mr Fluffy asbestos? Curious Practice saw an opportunity to create a home with two very different ends, both with street access.
From the west, away from the ocean views, the house appears relatively closed – a two-level black steel facade adds a sense of mystery to the street and creates a shield from the harsh afternoon sunlight. To the east, overlooking the surf beach, the house cascades down the site over five levels, with chunky concrete beams framing generous glazing.
“We wanted to make this elevation feel part of the coastal conditions,” says architect Warren Haasnoot, director of Curious Practice, pointing out the fine steel frames in the large sliding doors to the outdoor gardens and terraces, designed by landscape architects, Fytogreen.
As well as blurring the lines with the treatment of glass, the architects took the opportunity to create outdoor concrete stairs to link a number of levels, protected yet exposed to the elements.
While Cowrie House, named after the rocky Cowrie Hole in the foreground, appears quiet and fairly modest from one elevation, it literally roars from the ocean side, with each level connected by stairs, either outside or within.
“The design is like a series of pavilions that are pulled apart in some areas to allow for the views, and in others to create more protected enclaves away from the wind,” Haasnoot says.
Unlike most multi-level houses that are clearly delineated from floor to ceiling and neatly stacked vertically, here the demarcation lines are blurred. The kitchen, for example, is elevated above the living area and includes a concrete bench as a landing platform between levels. And to soften the extensive use of concrete, there’s a strong dose of spotted gum for the joinery, with the staggered cupboards in the adjacent dining area designed to extend the view lines to the ocean.
“We saw the house as being not dissimilar to a landscape where the swimming pool and the courtyards felt integral to the home, rather than separate from it,” Haasnoot says.
Although there are five bedrooms and multiple living areas, both indoors and out, there’s a sense of intimacy at each level. The main bedroom suite, oriented to the ocean, features an ensuite and a separate dressing area, both of which have curtains rather than solid walls. Lined with mottled green tiles, these spaces have a grotto-like feel that, again, create a sense of shelter from the storm. Mossy green marble tiles in wet areas, such as bathrooms, also capture the colours of the ocean.
Cowrie House also benefits from works of art. Paintings by local artist James Drinkwater are on some of the concrete walls and also a ceiling mural in the dining area. And some areas, including the pale green painted steel balustrade in part of the staircase sequence, appears as art, providing a fascinating journey as one moves between levels.
“A lot of the colours we’ve used are tied to the ocean but they also soften the more robust materials, such as concrete,” Haasnoot says.
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Stephen Crafti is a specialist in contemporary design, including architecture, furniture, fashion and decorative arts.