Project: Lagoon House
Architects: Robin Payne
Location: Bribie Island, Queensland, Australia
Photographs by: Phill Jackson
Lagoon House by Robin Payne
The Lagoon House by Robin Payne is a contemporary seafront house located on Bribie Island in Queensland, Australia, at the very entry to the main canal at the Pacific Harbor.
The brief for this house was very simple. The clients told the architecture studio that they wanted a home with facilities typical for a 5 star resort, including a view towards the sea from every room in the house.
The building design was to reflect its subtropical location and allow for the provision of lush tropical gardens.
The home has been designed on a radius to allow transition from the street alignment to the canal frontage. This has the added benefit of visually shortening the passage from the garage to the main living areas.This splay has allowed for the provision of a lagoon which wraps around 3 of the 4 guest bures and separates the home from the public parkland to the west. Each room has a private terrace overlooking the lagoon and passage beyond.
The living, kitchen and entertaining areas are surrounded with frameless glass walls which slide away to remove the ‘edge’ between internal and external spaces. The lagoon at this edge invites you to grab a drink and slip into its cooling water.
Large cantilevers to the upper floor provide protection to the living spaces.Cantilevered stairs lead down to the glass enclosed basement cellar from the large kitchen and butler’s pantry. The cellar is also serviced with a dumb waiter to the upper levels.
A glazed box breaks through the 2-storey spine of the home and houses the stair to the upper floor master suite. This provides the owners with a view down the lagoon the guest rooms and southward down the passage.
