Warm Minimalism – Cream House by Davis Architects

Crisply contained, Cream House is imagined as a refreshing coastal home that draws from the nearby ocean and its calm, proposing a home of open connectedness. Davis Architects recalibrates the expected to create a passively designed home for its young family.

Sitting contained and concealed from the street, Cream House is positioned across from Tallows Beach in Suffolk Park, epitomising a contemporary coastal approach. The family home is imagined as a place of retreat whilst also referencing integral cues of living near the ocean. Through an openness that embraces the elements, the integrated spaces feel generous and light filled, welcoming a conversation between inside and out. Required to be both resilient and robust for the needs of its growing family over time, the comprising materiality and sense of internal flow are deliberately conducive to allowing personal expression whilst still retaining a sense of identity. Davis Architects ensures the resulting home feels deeply personal and yet open to change.

The single level structure is a modest insertion along its streetscape, gently elevating the traditional coastal and beach vernacular through its clean restraint yet still feeling welcoming despite its scale.

Cream House embraces its minimalist approach in all gestures that comprise the home. The single level structure is a modest insertion along its streetscape, gently elevating the traditional coastal and beach vernacular through its clean restraint yet still feeling welcoming despite its scale. From initial approach, the landscape beautifully ties into the principles that underpin the home, echoing references to Japanese design and a sense of containment. The same sensibilities are then continued internally – a matched regularity of form and framed portals between the interior and the surrounding elements.

The four-bedroom home opens at its centre to allow the connected living spaces to have optimal access to natural light and ventilation. Defying the urge to group sleeping quarters at one end and more communal spaces at the other, the approach was driven by comfort, ensuring the home could passively engage with the elements and reduce the reliance on outside energy sources in the process. The site generously allows for the home to sit comfortably with supporting and private landscape throughout. A palette of cool masonry is warmed through timber elements and the use of bond-stacked pavers externally. A similar yet muted warmth adds interest to the bathroom spaces while still carrying the same language of clean and uninterrupted linework.

The site generously allows for the home to sit comfortably with supporting and private landscape throughout.

Through contrasting elements, Cream House by Davis Architects is deceptively concealed from the street, expertly revealing a sense of openness throughout the home.