Embracing The Coastal Milieu – Tama House by Carla Middleton Architecture

Stretching lengthways along its narrow site, Tama House intentionally encourages the outside natural elements inward and embraces its coastal milieu. Carla Middleton Architecture conjures a privately-focused home, filled with light that is reflective of its context.

Nestled between Bondi and Bronte beaches, Tama House sits neatly in its coastal setting of Tamarama and deliberately takes cues from the casual nature of its surrounding beachside context. Previously an underutilised semi-detached structure of a bygone era, the inherited home was steeped in the inefficiencies of its time. Stretching the length of its narrow site, the row-style home was devoid of natural illumination, lacked access to cross-ventilation internally and needed to respond to its site. The aim was to open up the bones of the existing home, better connect the interior experience with the natural elements that surround it and embrace its proximity to the ocean. Carla Middleton Architecture combines an outward and upward looking approach with a contemporary freshness.

Built by TC Build, with engineering by Partridge and landscape by Pepo Botanic Design, Tama House sees the close collaboration between disciplines as the underpinning of its cohesion. Although the site was tight and unforgiving, the team was able to create a program of five bedrooms and three bathrooms. By extending the silhouette of the original roofline toward the rear, a gabled roof opens up the internals and creates a lofty, open combined kitchen, dining and living space. Carved into the gable form are large light wells that invite a connection between the inhabitants and the sky, tree canopies and changing climatic skies. Named ‘roof windows’, these glazing elements curate vistas upward and allow the volume to become light-filled naturally and maintain privacy internally.

Spread over two levels, the mass of the home is cleverly concealed behind the original streetscape, which is maintained and restored. Behind the front heritage veil exists a vibrant series of spaces that allow for passive retreat and active connection and which are intentionally multi-functional. Instead of complying with traditional, expected convention, the tension between scales is expressed through the hierarchy of light-filled open void space over the implementation of larger bedrooms, reflecting how the family uses the home. With operable vertical and horizontal planes, natural cross-ventilation can be employed throughout and allows for passive cooling and solar control.

Tama House reinterprets the typical extension and renovation, instead responding based on the client’s unique functional requirements. Carla Middleton Architecture combines a contemporary coastal lightness with considerable restraint to create a home with incredible discipline and purpose.