6
Vision Magazine
R
e-invention of Sydney’s Avalon Beach Surf
Life Saving Clubhouse might have taken an
elephantine, slow-mo, eight years, but the
wait has paid off.
Hatched back in 2006, club members (and
architects) Richard Cole and Robert Hopton began
the task of tackling the treacherous and decrepit.
The result of their exhaustive and occasionally
inspired labours – and those of countless club
members – is a remarkable new home to more
than 1,000 club members and countless
community groups.
Architecture can lose its way in pursuit of
the eye-catching form for passers-by but failing
to deliver for occupants. Grounded in the realism
of function, Cole and Hopton ensure that much like
a slender, skeletal surf-boat, their design is every
inch the lithe, athletic performer.
If the architects needed reminding, their
clubhouse credentials were resting on the result.
Both were instrumental in the conception generation,
design, approval, funding, documentation and
construction of the $3.15 million facility made
possible with the goodwill required of a volunteer
organisation.
In desperate need of rescue from the ravages
of time and tide, the previous clubhouse was a sad,
badly weathered brick box with few redeeming
qualities. The original club-house, circa 1933
with ad hoc additions and renovations over the
intervening years, was weather ravaged, dilapidated
and fraught with council planning overlays.
Beach Culture