Embracing the elements: Las Palmas

Las Palmas, Byron emerged from an exceptional set of circumstances, embedded in the rolling hills of the Byron Bay hinterland and linked to the iconic Fenner House in Canberra, designed by modernist architect Robin Boyd. With such an enviable brief, Sydney architecture firm Duo Architects in association with Davis Architects aspired to create a home that could be both public and private, sheltered from and open to the landscape, where memories would be forged by family, friends and visitors.

The architecture was inspired by the owner’s vivid recollections of time spent in the home of her grandparents, Fenner House. Like Boyd’s famed design, Las Palmas, Byron adopts a “binuclear” plan, whereby living rooms and bedrooms are housed in discrete pavilions joined by a central vestibule. Both living and sleeping pavilions benefit from narrow plans and open sides that draw in air, views and sunlight. In this way the architecture espouses the ambition of its mid-century kin: to achieve spatial fluidity between interior and exterior realms.

In the living pavilion, a fluid edge condition is strengthened by the design of the kitchen and fireplace, solid elements bookending the otherwise open plan. The kitchen occupies a place of optimum prospect, a perfectly symmetrical object in the centre of a living pavilion open on both sides. From the kitchen bench, views open out to the patio, pool and landscape to the west and the garden to the east, ensuring that all who dwell in the kitchen feel part of the activity of the outdoors. Concrete benchtops and splashbacks appear to be a continuation of the concrete floor, while timber cabinetry and brushed brass echo the warmth of finishes explored through all rooms. Designed for functionality, the kitchen is purposefully unadorned, with the exception of playfully oversized pull handles and basket-weave pendant lights.

Bathrooms also benefit from strong landscape connections due to their prime positions on the northern edge of the bedroom wing. An openness to the setting and the balmy climate creates an interior of repose and radiance. Venetian plaster and finger mosaic tiles bring tactility to the palette of concrete, timber and brushed brass seen elsewhere. However, the moodiness and tranquillity are ultimately the result of a building envelope that seemingly dissolves into nature. While the material and spatial qualities of Las Palmas, Byron are strongly influenced by modernist ideals, the architecture has firm roots in the idyllic landscape of the Byron Bay hinterland.