Natural selection
Nosing into the bushline, this home is designed along strong, uncomplicated
lines – keeping visual interest high and budgetary costs down
Above: Fresh angle – this home by
house designer Cameron Grindlay of
Dwelling Architectural Design has a
strong, simple roofline, a reflection
of the design philosophy behind the
architectural yet affordable design.
Facing page: The back of the home
culminates in a double-height
living space and expansive deck.
It’s this deck side of the home that
maximises the cedar cladding and
the stepped finishes that give the
understated home visual interest.
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The complex balancing act between meeting
a budget and your quality of home and lifestyle
starts right from the outset. When architectural
designer Cameron Grindlay drew up the plans
for this home he engaged a quantity surveyor to
ensure the design was affordable, and so viable.
“The budget influenced the evolution of this
house in several ways,” says Grindlay. “The
bush-covered site is a generous 3000m 2 but the
ground slopes away steeply, with only about
400m 2 of buildable land in the area where the
owners wanted the home.”
With feasibility assured, Grindlay designed
the home’s garage area to sit on a concrete slab
on the buildable area, but set much of the rest of
the home on poles. This was not just an afford-
able construction method, it also allowed for
sheltered storage space under the house.
“Designing an architectural house on a close
budget requires strategic choices along the way.
Part of the principal here was to spend more
on prominent features and slightly less where
things were of a lower emphasis,” says Grind-
lay. “The warm-look cedar cladding was not
cheap, but it sets up the character of the whole
home, not to mention being in keeping with the