Blok Belongil by Blok Modular & Vokes and Peters

Blok Belongil by Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters is a modular beach house characterised by its monolithic Tallowwood form – a triangulated composition of six prefabricated components, transported to site and assembled in just one day.

With a vision to create a relaxed holiday home in Byron Bay, the clients purchased a unique site nestled between a public beach, car park, train line and a busy neighbourhood feeder road, with panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, the hinterland mountains and Point Byron. “The block is situated within a council erosion zone, requiring all construction to be modular and fully relocatable in the event of coastal erosion or sea level rise,” explains Daniel Burnett, director, principal architect and builder of Blok Modular. Embracing this complex blend of constraints and opportunities, Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters considered the house “as a compound building with a series of connected but discreet parts, both internal and external, roofed and unroofed,” a distinct departure from the site’s adjacent suburban building stock.

In partnership with architects Vokes and Peters, Blok Modular envisaged Blok Belongil as a boutique hotel – a direct response to the homeowners’ desire for “a place where they could come and go at a moment’s notice without having to lock everything up,” recalls Burnett.

In partnership with architects Vokes and Peters, Blok Modular envisaged Blok Belongil as a boutique hotel – a direct response to the homeowners’ desire for “a place where they could come and go at a moment’s notice without having to lock everything up,” recalls Burnett. This narrative allowed the team to think critically about the building typology and “overcome the shortcomings of a suburban house as a place for social gatherings of extended family and friends,” says Burnett. These considerations were enriched by the site’s positioning as a ‘gateway’ between dense, suburban lots and the landscape, which inspired Blok Modular to question: “Are we making a building that is part of suburbia or part of a broader set of civic and cultural icons?”

Embracing the latter, Blok Belongil is conceived as a monolithic Tallowwood form, “resembling a kind of modern ark washed up on the dunes, hollowed out to hold a remnant of the coastal dune at its centre,” describes Burnett. Statutory setbacks generated a triangular plan, compact in scale yet experientially generous. Inspired by societal shifts toward agile housing that better accommodates multi-generational living, ageing in place, short-term accommodation, de-institutionalised care and shared tenure models, the house’s upper level can be occupied separately, while the lower-level rooms are accessed individually from the courtyard verandah, like hotel rooms. “One can locate themselves in relation to the edge of the building, moving from an immersion in the coastal landscape to connect to street life in the kitchen,” says Burnett.

Blok Belongil is conceived as a monolithic Tallowwood form, “resembling a kind of modern ark washed up on the dunes, hollowed out to hold a remnant of the coastal dune at its centre,” describes Burnett.

The design was fully prefabricated in Blok Modular’s Brisbane factory as six volumetric modules, “optimising efficiency, allowing accurate cost control from the first drawing, reducing construction time by up to five times, eliminating the impacts of weather, and allowing a higher level of precision and build quality,” lists Burnett. The project’s off-site construction, which Burnett believes is “the future of the construction industry,” also significantly reduces the environmental impact associated with traditional in-situ construction, with pollution, noise, traffic and waste responsibly controlled in a factory environment.

Blok Belongil continues Blok Modular’s belief in the agility and sustainability of modular architecture and construction. Delivered as part of Blok Modular’s ongoing collaborative practice with Vokes and Peters, spanning over 7 years and 70 projects, the project highlights the capacity of prefabricated buildings in executing creative responses to site and brief, setting a new benchmark for the industry.

Architecture by Blok Modular and Vokes and Peters. Build by Urban Building Services. Landscape design by Prandium Studio. Structural engineering by Incode Engineers. Civic engineering by Westera Partners. Hydraulic engineering by Chilton Woodward & Associates. Joinery by Juro Design.