Whatever the Weather – Culbara by MRA Design and Gray Construction Group

Nestled in a winding estuary on Australia’s paradisical Sunshine Coast, Culbara, a new build by MRA Design and Gray Construction Group, is expanding the horizon of easy-going costal living.

Behind an ordered front garden, complete with blooming frangipani tree, the façade of Culbara features Abodo Vulcan timber battens that sit comfortably alongside off-form concrete. The tonal shift between the two materials is subtle and the textures complementary. Balancing this is a ground-level wall of breeze blocks in a charcoal grey. The effect is a crisply collaged exterior, which looks sleek and contemporary but not out of place. This is a costal home that is in consonance with its environment yet does not conform to the typical ‘beachy’ aesthetic. From the street-facing elevation of the house, the building curves at a right angle, with timber battens and off-form concrete stretching all the way to the backyard, where a trim lawn steps directly down to the sandy bank of the Mooloolah River. The scale and combination of these materials feel monumental, creating a strong sense of arrival.

This is a costal home that is in consonance with its environment yet does not conform to the typical ‘beachy’ aesthetic.

Hamish Gray, Director of Gray Construction Group, chose Abodo to supply the timber battens for multiple reasons – both aesthetic and practical. Familiar with the reality of frequent up-keep for homes in a tropical climate to prevent discolouration and mould, Hamish was keen to use low-maintenance materials. The Vulcan timber battens are treated with Abodo’s Sioo:x, a protective coating which silvers off and does not require a recoat for at least seven years. “It’s very important, especially when you’re up on the second level, that you’ve got a product that’s not going to need to be coated every year or two,” he says. The Sioo:x enabled him to achieve the look the clients were after, “but at the same time, the coating protects and preserves the timber.” Similarly, the product’s compatibility with concrete was an important consideration. “With traditional hardwood battens for example, you’re going to have unsightly staining no matter what you do. With this product, there’s no leeching – so you’re comfortable to use the product directly above finished concrete surfaces,” he says.

As a builder, the useability of Abodo products was important to Hamish. He explains that the product is incredibly stable “and very easy to use in terms of fixings, such as screws, nails. You don’t have to pre-drill it. With a comparable product like a hardwood, there’s a lot more labour.” The company’s environmentally responsible ethos was also appealing to Hamish. “As I went right through their process and what they were doing, I was onboard very early,” he says of Abodo’s comprehensive approach to sustainability, with innovations such as 9.74kg of carbon stored in each square metre of Vulcan timber.

Dark grey walls and minimal fixtures and furnishings contribute to a quiet, cool feeling indoors.

Hamish also describes the role the timber plays in bringing balance the design. He explains how the steel and concrete of the exterior, so favoured in contemporary builds, needed to be “offset with something to soften it. And that’s timber, natural products. Timber decking, timber cladding, just really soften [the building].”
 Inside the home, it is easy to imagine feeling put at ease by the cool slap of the polished concrete underfoot and the sea breeze blowing in through floor to ceiling louver panels that run the length of a wide hallway. Dark grey walls and minimal fixtures and furnishings contribute to a quiet, cool feeling indoors. That is not to say, however, that the house possesses a quality of coldness. The interior is made to feel warm and lived in with touches like the Abodo Vulcan Panelling in the lounge area and along the stairway wall, both in a teak finish.

In the kitchen, wood cabinetry and warm lighting continue to offset the sleek surfaces that are as aesthetically satisfying as they are practical for the climate. There is an ease with which the kitchen flows to the lounge space and on to the outdoor dining area, a fluidity between indoors and outdoors that is typical of tropical homes. To balance the concrete ceiling of the ground floor, Abodo Vulcan panels in teak line the ceiling of the first. This finish is carried into the bedroom, which looks out through operable timber batten screens onto the waterfront. The benefit of such screens is the ability to close the south-east facing house up in the face of unruly weather that blows in off the coast. Hamish describes a recent and particularly bad weather event with strong winds and driving rain. “With all the timber screens shut up, there was hardly any rain getting through. That skin, that façade around the building is doing what it was designed to do and that’s to create a barrier from those elements.”

The ensuite bathroom floor and walls are tiled in a patchwork of blue hues with a high gloss glaze. This envelopment, and the way the skylight above illuminates the tiles with a ripple-like effect, give the feeling of being underwater. Even the towel rack seems to reference a ladder, suggesting serene submersion and the possibility of venturing upwards for a breath of fresh air. The similarities between the bathroom and the pool outside are uncanny. The pool, too, is tiled in an assorted array of blues. It is nestled in the crook of the house, skirted by hardwood timber decking and lush greenery with the concrete and timber cladding of the building hovering above.

With design, construction and materials all aligned in purpose, Culbara is a residence that can breathe with its climate. It enables adaptability, through its capacity to open up, receiving sunlight and air when conditions allow, and to be closed off, protecting its inhabitants against the elements when they turn. A true sanctuary, offering a sense of relief from the balmy humidity, the biting sun and the tropical storms.