When bold innovation, a modest budget, and a newly minted architect crossed paths, a home like no other was built. The project, featured in Grand Designs Australia series 11, is a new build on a subdivided block, and certainly hits the high notes when it comes to style and design ingenuity.
Architect Nick Browne is also the homeowner, a veteran who reskilled in architecture as part of a rehabilitation program for PTSD. A wise and well-considered move. “This is why the home is called Daydream,” explains Nick. “It started as a dream and turned into reality.”
The design conundrum the project underpinned was: can an architectural home be a financially viable alternative to a standard cookie-cutter project home? Nick notes that to be fair, it needed to have the common specs of a mid-tier project home. “For example, four bedrooms, two-plus-one bathrooms, dual living, butler’s kitchen, and double off-road parking,” he says. “It also needed to go beyond and have a plunge pool, garden irrigation and some automation.”
The final result is breathtaking. It captures the essence of coastal living with well-considered warm spaces, earthy organic materials, and a light, bright colour palette. The dwelling is comfortable, spacious and modern. Nick shares his home with his partner Trent and their Border Collie. His inspiration for the design was its celebrated location, the Gold Coast. It’s a character-filled home that rejoices its iconic locale. Nick says it also needed to embrace Gold Coast history. “To draw from the city’s love of modernism in the ’50s
and ’60s,” he notes. But it needed to deliver more than that. History and contemporary Queensland living had to coexist in harmony.
When you sit outside, sipping a long cool drink poolside, the ambience is calm and relaxed. The home is streamlined and uncomplicated. True to its modernism philosophy, ornamentation is pared back and earthy organic materials proliferate.
The flow between indoors and out is seamless. Nick says angles, cross-ventilation, weather control mechanisms and lots of natural light improve space perception and indoor-outdoor integration. “Indoor-outdoor plants were also critical to the overall spatial experience,” he adds.
One of the couple’s favourite aspects is the outdoor bathtub and courtyard. A relaxing soak in the tub, complete with a glass of your favourite tipple, under a starry sky, is pure heaven. Another much-loved aspect is the concrete benches. They offer additional seating for guests, or a place to lie back on a summer afternoon and watch the clouds roll by.
This project was a collaboration between the owner, engineer and builder. When Nick first met with Mick the builder to discuss the build experiment, Mick said, “It’s certainly very different, but I like a challenge.”
“When Mick was warned about the possibility of numerous variations due to the project’s experimental nature, he said that was fine,” says Nick. “I regretted, saying that!” While the structural plan didn’t change during the build process, there were some internal variations. These include the addition of skylights, window sizing, the choice of plywood species, joinery and tile selection.
The tightly knit crew worked tirelessly together to deliver the finished project in just seven months. That factored in cost and product supply issues with some components. Eco-friendly, organic elements feature. It also has fabulous acoustic properties.
Nick says the home was designed to be passively sustainable. “In winter, the lower angle of the sun allows the exposed concrete slab to warm up due to thermal mass. The slab releases this warmth during the evening,” he says. “In summer, the sun sits at a higher angle, meaning less sun on the slab itself, keeping evenings cooler.”
The pitched ceilings draw hot air, which is expelled via clerestory windows. Automated blinds, large window openings, a white roof, quality insulation and ceiling fans also help to control temperatures and comfort levels.
The home is unique among the homes that dot the coastline on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Nick says it’s faithful to the city’s history while improving the ‘project home’ standard of living — “all without a million-dollar price tag”, he notes. “All floor plan specs go beyond that of a mid-tier project home.” I’d say that’s a win.
