The brief from building design er Chris Clout’s parents, the clients, was for a relaxed beachside home at Castaways Beach, near Noosa Heads in Queensland. The brief included three bedrooms, a games room, cinema, study and rumpus room and to use the 747 sqm site as much as possible. The other requirement was for the home to have a Japanese influence.
The site was on a slope, with a detailed contour survey the first step for Chris, who decided the best solution for taking advantage of the site was to design the house as a split level home.
“Major excavation would be the norm in similar circumstances, but we opted to build a smaller box on the lower level to house bedrooms and balanced a larger box over the top, creating a single level living space from the front gate to the back deck. The pool was therefore sus pended in the void between the ground at the street level and the bedroom level,” Chris says.
From the street, Japan house presents itself as a collection of Asian inspired pavilions behind a front fence composed of round slat panels and stacked stone. The main living pavilion comprises a richly textured timber panel ceiling with alternating timber battens, in addition to polished timber floors. The feature wall that houses the entertain ment centre is also comprised of tex tured panels and aluminium battens. The main bedroom and study are located on the upper level, while the remaining two bedrooms, cinema and family room on the lower level.
The sloping site was a challenge for Peter Clout, the builder and Chris’ father, as it was steep, sandy and he was work ing with two first-year apprentices and no carpenters. “Supporting and bracing block lintels on 8m sliding door open ings prior to block fill and securing a sus pended pool with screw piers were also challenges,” Peter says.
When it came to creating an environ mentally friendly home, Chris took sus tainability back to the basics. “We want ed to make it ‘light’ on energy use, but also protect it from certain winds and the dead heat of summer to ensure it would feel cool in summer and warm in winter,” Chris says.
He did this by capturing and enhanc ing summer breezes with large sliding panel doors that opened the house up on both sides. Chris also positioned the living areas from the west with the place ment of the games room/guest bed room on the other side of the pool. This blocked the afternoon sun from directly entering the main living spaces. “But this too opens up with large shoji style pan els on both sides, creating a breezeway from the street, across the pool and through to the back deck if required,” Chris says.
The back-to-basics approach to sus tainability was contrasted with attention to detail in other areas. “Every item was custom-made,” Peter says. This included all windows, cupboard doors and the front door. “All the internal joinery, kitchen and vanities, staircase and handrails (internal and external) were all custom-made. Nothing was standard.”
The gutters were also custom-made, which had to cope with Queensland’s torrential downpours. Standard guttering would have detracted from the visual appeal of the flared Japanese top hat of the roof line. Instead, Chris designed and made the gutters from flat Colorbond sheets to fit the client’s design requirement.
With Chris and Peter already having an established relationship as son and father, issues were resolved through a lot of communication. “I’d still have worked with Pete on the job [even if he wasn’t my father]. Some builders know how to listen and pay attention to detail — some don’t. Pete is one of those builders who does, and he understands that one of his roles is to work out how to get it done rather than say it can’t be done,” Chris says.
And despite being only 25 years old, Peter said he learnt a valuable lesson: “Just do what Chris says, because he knows what he’s doing.”
Chris won the Design Excellence Award for the 2008 Building Designers Association’s National Building Design Award for Japan House. He also won the Residential Buildings 351 sqm to 450 sqm for the project and Residential Building 251 sqm to 350 sqm for his Kestrel House project.
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