Graham's Place

Peter and Claire Graham describe themselves as water people. They love to swim, walk barefoot on the beach and paddle at the water's edge, and keep an eye on the ever changing moods of the ocean. Every day is like a holiday to Peter and Claire, who live close to the centre of Port Douglas in a fabulous tropical beach house overlooking the Coral Sea. Don visited the Grahams and chatted to them about the award winning design of their house.

Resort-style living

The luxurious three-bedroom house is an Australian interpretation of a Balinese villa. It has been carefully designed to maximise the potential of the narrow, steep site, and comprises multiple hipped roof pavilions connected by suspended walkways. Masonry columns support the pavilion roofs, removing the need for bracing walls and allowing windows and doors to be placed at any point. This gives a very open feel, and blurs the boundaries between indoor and outdoor living areas. Louvres provide cross ventilation and no part of the house is any greater than one room wide, so no matter which way the wind is blowing there is always a breeze in every room.

Peter and Claire's favourite 'room' is an open sided dining pavilion that seems to float in the wet-edge swimming pool. Claire also loves the little jetty leading to the edge of the pool, and enjoys standing on it and looking out to sea. At night stainless steel gas flares around the pool add a whole new ambiance to the dining area and adjacent living and sleeping spaces.

The lush, tropical garden is filled with cattleya orchids, cycads, heliconias and palms. Although the garden was only established a year ago, the plants have all grown very quickly in the warm Queensland climate and now provide total privacy from the neighbours.

Further information

The house was designed by Gary Hunt and Angus Crowe. It received the Regional Commendation in the Far North Queensland Architecture Awards 2000.
Gary Hunt and Partners
Architects
Phone: (07) 4099 5625.

Further reading

The Graham beach house is featured in the August edition of the Burke's Backyard Magazine, on sale at newsagents for $4.60.

Copyright CTC Productions 2000