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OR VIEW ALL PROJECTSOR GO BACK TO SEARCH RESULTSOR VIEW ALLPROJECTS BY ARCHITECT TONY OWEN PARTNERSHOUSE PROJECTS2007 PROJECTSPROJECTS IN SYDNEYPROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRETT BOARDMAN |
Duke might not feel quite at home in The Wave House in Bondi. After all, its high-end minimalism is a long way from the ramshackle hut on Waikiki beach he called home, or, for the matter, the humble fibro cottages that once dotted Sydney's beachside suburbs.
Perhaps that's to be expected. After all, this award winning project from Tony Owen rides high on the crest of a new wave, that of shifting demography and the chic urban style now so much a part of life in Bondi.
The house luxuriates in space that recalls the cosmopolitan tone of local cafes and wine bars. The master bedroom has a wet bar and an open bathroom with a free standingh bath as the centerpiece; the shower and toilet are concealed behind a sliding translucent glass wall.
Downstairs there is an out-door shower off the street for hosing off after the beach, as well as open timber decking and stone wall wrought in contemporary orientalist fashion.
But the Wave House is a whole lot more than opulent pastiche. For, the house looks to the sea as much as it does to the city, refusing to bury nature under the suffocating weight of artifice.
Like a breathe of fresh sea-salty air, the Wave House invites the ocean in. Indeed, the line of the wave is the unifying element which runs all the way through the house. It forms an entry wing over the garage at the south and rises to give greater height to the living room at the north end. In between, the ceiling curves overhead at the main star in the center where the lower and upper levels fold into one another.
The wave re-emerges in the kitchen in the form of a single poured cantilevered concrete island bench. This island bench forms the centerpiece of the living area, and is the only cantilevered concrete bench on an obtuse angle with curved geometry.
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