Collendina House

This project started out life as a simple renovation for a family keen to make the move to the coast for retirement and beyond, but soon turned into major surgery once we discovered that the existing house was built below the flood level, and needed to have the whole floor raised.

A covenant on the title required bricks as the main construction material, and we specified a beautiful dry-pressed brick from Bowral Bricks in an appropriately sandy tone that combines well with the cypress boards and Barestone cladding.

While retaining the original concrete floor slab and building profile as a starting point, we re-planned the house to open up to the north-facing garden, and created a generous pitched volumes internally that encourages cross-ventilation and allows soft southern light deep into the plan.

A new second level fits into the gable space created by extending the pitched roof which makes for a perfect loft-retreat for reading, music or just watching the cricket on the adjacent recreation reserve.

This project won the 2022 HIA Western Victoria Regional Housing Award in the ‘Best Renovation/Addition up to $500K’ category for Cromer Builders.

BUILDER                                Cromer Builders
JOINERY                               Allan Cabinetry
BRICKS                            Bowral Bricks
CEMENT CLADDING          Barestone by Cemintel
PHOTOGRAPHY           Nic Stephens Photography