Project Description – BULAHDELAH RETREAT
Location of Project – BULAHDELAH
Year Project Commenced – 2006
A family country house doubling as a corporte retreat inspired by the clients vision of camping in a paddock. A large landscape wall protects the building while providing a sense of scale and arrival within the landscape. Bedrooms nestle behind the wall and are separated by a sub-tropical courtyard to the main pavilion which is treated as a large verandah.
TESTIMONIAL
I have worked with Mark and his team on three very distinct and different projects.
The first was a family home on a special coastal site that needed to respond to our emotional connection to place as well as satisfying our functional requirements on a difficult site. The design we created with Mark more than met our expectations.
Our rural retreat at Bulahdelah had to provide space for extended families, work asa conference facility and still feel like a private, personal space. This was our second time creating and building a facility like this, so we knew what we did and didn’t want, it had to be different from anything we had seen or stayed with. It has outperformed my expectations which were very high to begin with. The building allows people space and time and positively impacts everyone who visits.
For our new manufacturing facility we went to a budget “pop up” industrial shed builder. Mark was able to work with their building system to achieve the best looking factory I know of. This was achieved by lots of little things – colour and proportion that transformed a pop out building into something special. We wanted a great work environment for our factory and office workers as well as creating a great impression on our customers. The building has been successful on all counts.
Debate with architects often ends with toys being thrown out of the cot – while Mark defends his ideas it is not to the death. He allows and encourages you to be involved in the process of design and retain ownership of the project. The result is an enjoyable, engaging process and outcome that you look back on as valuable in every sense of the word.
Peter Law