Pages

WELCOME

Welcome to our Enviroarch Beach House
This is a knock down and rebuild in the Lake Macquarie City Council Area.

After extensive research we approached architect Paul Zaia of Enviroarch Australia.
We found Enviroarch through simple web searching for environmentally minded designers and builders - I can tell you they are few and far between.

In their words "Enviroarch represents the shared vision of quality builder Luke Hall (LJ Hall Builders) and architect Paul Zaia (Zaia Architects) to create sustainable, architect designed homes for the wider housing market."

Paul was the only architect/builder we contacted during our initial investigations and after our first meeting on site we felt comfortable with our choice and didn't bother contacting any other architects or builders.

The design brief was pretty simple - although our extended "Wish List" was 7 pages long and nominated by Paul as "the brief is outstanding. The best I have ever seen form a client and it gives me a complete understanding of your lifestyle, functional and spatial requirements." We are pretty thorough!

  • The block is ~12m wide and 40m long and has rear lane access, it has a nice outlook across a park to a lovely beach, we wanted to maximise this outlook and also utilise the rear lane for a second garage.
  • We wanted adequate, not extravagant in size, simplicity and minimal design trumps excess for us.
  • Open and airy, we wanted to avoid a house that required a lot of heating and cooling, after initial site meeting Paul indicated an air conditioner would not be required at all.
  • Double story (we did look at Triple), living upstairs for outlook, bedrooms downstairs
  • Single garage at front
  • Front upper and rear lower decks
  • No front door - to avoid having to have a hallway or foyer taking up frontage, so door at side of house
  • Oh, and an outdoor shower!

Most importantly:
  • We wanted the house to be "minimal" in it's use of resources
  • Environmentally responsible building products
  • Low maintenance

And the kicker:
  •  On a budget.

Our budget was ~$450k! This may seem like a bit beyond the average budget, but keep in mind, this included all costs, fees, demolition of existing building, all internal linings, joinery and fittings (plumbing and electrical). The only thing we have to do when we move in is furnish and get a few window coverings.

One way of meeting the budget was to engage Enviroarch for the entire project, from design, construct, handling all council and trades etc.

Meeting all that was going to be a challenge, but Paul thought certainly possible.


So that is how we started!

We hope you enjoy the blog and that it provides you with some inspiration to explore alternatives to the stock standard "project slap up" homes that are dominating the new building landscape. It is possible to have an outstanding architecturally designed home that is environmentally responsible, all on an average budget.