CONSTRUCTION
Re-imagining of a 1967 beach shack
As a creative producer I bring a range of skill sets to projects. Design, practical application, management, problem solving and rolling up my sleaves and getting dirty. In 2018/19 I got to do something I’d been wanting to do for a long time – build my own house. In this case its wasn’t a total build but a re-imagining of a 1967 beach shack.
The property on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, about an hour south of Adelaide, over looks a conservation park and is set back from the coast by sandhills. It was an asbestos clad rectangle on posts, which gave it an extraordinary vista.
I’m a re-user by nature, so keeping the existing frame, which was in great condition after all these years, was a must. What was required were new services, new accommodation wings and a re-design of the existing structure. In the design I wanted the new building to reflect and merge with the environment it sits in (effectively a tree house while giving a nod to the shacks of yesteryear. I was also required to build at a BAL 29 bushfire rating. I approached the project like a low budget film – hand selected small crew, multi skilling, sourcing affordable material, recycling, making decision both creatively and practically every day and of course being on the tools from go-to-whoa.
