An Eroded Bold Expression – Beaumaris House by Clare Cousins Architects
Expressed as an eroded masonry mass, Beaumaris House addresses its corner allotment with a customised sensitivity, creating elements of privacy, concealment and climate control while formally being expressed as expertly sculptural. Clare Cousins Architects curates a measured response to the home’s residential setting, with an emphasis on experience and an expression of boldness concurrently.
Tucked in the residential milieu of Beaumaris, the same-named home emerges as an immersive place of recharge that innately responds to its site. Dual facing, Beaumaris House needed to provide a sense of privacy and enclosure, while also aligning with site opportunities of solar gain and ventilation and ensuring a feeling of connectedness and cohesion. The approach sees a monolithic form wrap the corner site, which slowly becomes eroded by punctuations that allow light in and ensure sightlines are controlled. Home to a family of six, the spaces needed to offer a resilience while maintaining the familiar elements of home. Clare Cousins adopts a sculptural approach to the architecture, creating a form that is then carved into and layered to add richness and embed meaning.
Constructed by ProvanBuilt, Beaumaris House is the result of responding to the many constraints on site, including enforced setbacks, while still maintaining a considered approach to its contribution within the streetscape proper. Tactility and subtleties are utilised as the main mechanisms that evoke a connection to place. In creating a home that feels connected to its varied occupants, allowing personalisation was key. As an extension of an ingrained and sensitive approach, along the building edge the threshold is softened by deliberate landscape elements that buffer the transition and become their own offering to the public interface between the building and the street.
The use of contrasting materiality sees heavy masonry anchor the home to its site, while natural materials such as timber wrap and carve out moments of warmth and invitation. The contrasts emphasise a similar boldness seen in the formwork and ensure a considered home emerges. Throughout, flexibility was key and ensuring the ease of adaptation across spaces as the family grows within its many zones allows the architecture to respond to the changing needs over time. Key to the home remaining relevant is also the integrated sustainable gestures that allow for a reduced impact and reliance on energy. A 10,000L underground tank collects rainwater and allows for reuse, while double glazing, low energy fittings and the use of reclaimed materials ensure minimised embodied energy is embedded into the resulting home.
Beaumaris House offers a curious and considered place to call home for its fortunate residents, where Clare Cousins Architects has cleverly layered into its expressive form mechanisms that heighten the everyday, while leaving a minimal imprint in the process.
