Chelydra.

This Cast Studio project is an uncompromising and unique beachside home for our clients.

Project Details

Under Construction

Surely one of the most ambitious owner-builder projects in the country (where are you, Grand Designs?), this project is an uncompromising and unique beachside home for clients who know exactly how they want to live. The house is a study in contradictions, at once sheltered and open, its spaces connected to the world but private too.

Set over three levels, the building faces a quiet street on its lowest level and the ocean on the level above. Built with off-form concrete, a landscaped staircase passes under a floating timber screen and brings visitors up to a sheltered garden level, with the main living spaces connecting between this and an ocean-side balcony. A private bedroom level sits above, supported by thick concrete columns and screened from the harsh northern sunlight.

As with many residential projects in new housing estates, our clients’ ambition for the project required protracted negotiation with the council and estate architect, with the design guidelines pushed and pulled to create architecture that was at once sympathetic to its context while uniquely its own expression.