Under the Sun – Bajo El Sol Beach House by Kelle Howard
Embodying an open and connected attachment to an outdoor lifestyle, Bajo El Sol Beach House is the ideal home of its owner and designer. Together with BCG Building Design, Kelle Howard draws from coastal destinations in the proposal that captures the essence of the home’s namesake ‘living under the sun’.
An ideal immersion within its Burleigh Heads milieu, Bajo El Sol Beach House takes global cues in the conjuring of its resulting geometries and ingrained sense of openness. Home to designer and owner Kelle Howard, the residence is the result of close collaboration with BCG Building Design and captures the spirit of residences in Ibiza, Palm Springs, Greece and Mexico, where an open and outdoor lifestyle is celebrated. Both through a connection to site and the careful and curated integration of green landscaped elements, Kelle Howard creates a place of familiar resonance. The expression and connection to place through raw timbers and hand-crafted stonework and masonry further reinforces an intended organic and casual feeling.
Built by PJH Constructions, Bajo El Sol takes its name from the Spanish translation of being under the sun. Both in its openness and an engaging softness, the textured concrete walls invite a conversation with the incoming natural sunlight and deflect the absorption of heat in the process. As a complement to the blue skies and seas, thick masonry walls and non-traditional cut-outs offer portals between inside and out, lightly defining one another. Accents of aged brass and warming timber add contrasting texture and offer an interesting moment for users to engage with.
The approach to planning connects an open kitchen with its supporting pantry space, while also being open to the living and dining spaces. The same openness between inside and out is carried through internally between usually separated zones, and in that gesture a laid-back feel is ingrained. Thresholds are softened by arched geometries that hint at a shift in function of space without the need to open and close doors. A similar approach is applied to the custom furniture and built-in joinery, as it softly navigates the plan and provides places to pause or interact with the space. Connecting the levels is a handmade brass handrail, which through its crispness offers a sense of balance to the more curvilinear elements.
Bajo El Sol beautifully embraces a biophilic lived experience and an open want to live connected beyond the traditional built envelope. Kelle Howards has created a distinctive residence that, while referencing far-reaching destinations, has its own sense of place and appropriateness in its matched climate.
