Cobbadah Beach House
Glosswood enhances architectural design with prefinished timber that brings natural warmth and texture, showcased beautifully in the Cobbadah Beach House by Hayman + Charlton Architects.
Leading Australian supplier Glosswood crafts high-quality, locally manufactured, pre-finished architectural timber linings, claddings and acoustic panels made from sustainably harvested plantation timber. Trusted by architects, designers and builders nationwide, the company’s timber profiles bring warmth, natural texture and performance to interiors and exterior applications.
Glosswood champions sustainability, sourcing from rapidly renewable timber stock to maintain a long-term focus on ethical supply: responsibly grown species like paulownia and radiata pine offer renewable alternatives to slow-growing hardwoods. These lightweight yet durable timbers provide superior stability, smooth finishes and reliable performance in Australia’s harsh climate. Their natural stability minimises the risk of warping or movement, ensuring a consistent finish, even in demanding conditions.
The company was founded in 2002, with the intention of creating products that captured the look and warmth of native, slow-growth hardwoods. Over the years, Glosswood has continued to refine its expertise, specialising in the design and manufacture of architectural finishes for residences and large-scale commercial projects. Always guided by quality, sustainability and innovation, it collaborates closely to bring creative visions to life through timber.
Glosswood’s varied applications are showcased at Cobbadah Beach House, designed by award-winning architecture and interior design firm Hayman + Charlton Architects. Located in laid-back Tugun on the Gold Coast, the residence was created for a newly retired couple, who owned a charming but dilapidated holiday cottage on the site. As the building was in significant disrepair, they chose to commission a new home. For this next chapter, they envisioned a residence defined by depth, texture and enduring tactility.
The home has panoramic ocean views and is surrounded by dense, jungle-like vegetation. Both factors heavily shaped the design, forging strong connections between architecture, landscape and coastal panoramas. This site-responsive approach is common in Hayman + Charlton’s work. “Our projects are deeply rooted in place, and the design of Cobbadah Beach House is strongly informed by its physical and cultural context,” says director Craig Hayman.
For the clients, the home had to accommodate their needs as they grew older, including the potential for single-level living and a future live-in carer. To achieve this, the residence is conceived as two vertically stacked dwellings that balance connection and privacy. The primary residence occupies the upper two levels, featuring three bedrooms and a series of interlinked living spaces that frame key horizons while opening inward to a double-volume courtyard garden.
The couple each have a private study at opposite ends of the house, while the lower level contains an independent apartment intended for long-term guests or future care accommodation. On the ocean side, a dramatic ‘pool in the sky’ projects six metres above ground, appearing to flow into the sea. An outdoor sitting area bridges the pool and house, centred around a mature palm rising through a steel-mesh collar in the deck.
Multiple applications of Glosswood feature throughout, including 90-millimetre spotted gum timber lining boards for the ceilings and soffits, complemented by Glosswood Designer Lining vertical boards in a satin white finish for the internal walls. Hayman explains why he was drawn to the product: “We appreciate the sustainability credentials of Glosswood, and the way the narrow, vertical Designer Lining boards internally give scale to a large space and pick up the soft, rich, reflected internal light.”
The Glosswood wall cladding and ceiling and soffit linings pair beautifully with other materials and finishes – including the roasted peat timber flooring – and were integral to establishing a warm and tactile base layer of the design. “The products establish a rhythm around which the home is structured, one echoed externally in the aluminium and terracotta cladding,” says Hayman. “We were drawn to Glosswood both for the rich texture and finish of the boards, and for the ability to run the ceiling cladding both internally and externally to achieve visual continuity.
“The Glosswood team also provided prompt and knowledgeable assistance throughout the design and construction process and understood what we wanted to achieve with their product and helped to bring that vision to reality.”
Architecture and interior design by Hayman + Charlton Architects. Build by Kamber. Landscape design by LDG Landscape Architecture and Reserve Landscape Architecture & Construction. Structural engineering by Ingineered. Prefinished timber by Glosswood.
