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Vision Magazine
What is the bushfire risk and response here?
You would have noticed the contrast between the
size of wall openings to the west versus the rest of
the building. That is a direct response to privacy,
but it also faces the national park on that side. It was
designed to level two in the bushfire construction
category. We had to use a certain class of hardwood
for anything external which is why we chose Jarrah.
There is a very large water capacity on site that the
fire-fighting services now have access to.
Wasn’t there a big fire through here recently?
In October 2013 a bushfire started at Lobster Beach
just to the north, across near Palm Beach. Before
long it was threatening homes at Pretty Beach.
The authorities made everyone evacuate, except
for my client who decided not to take their advice.
No-one was allowed to access it by car or anything
so he walked there. Talk about a resident trying to
defend his property. We were on the phone insisting
he should leave: “Don’t do this. Come home.”
He ended up being on the evening news chatting
with the fire-fighters and hosing the roof and those
of his neighbors and getting right into it. He had one
of those sub-titles that said, “And some residents
chose to stay.”
He’s obviously quite an advocate of your
architecture.
I think so. It was really lovely that he went
to those lengths to protect the house.
A suitably unobtrusive pool ‘fence’ reinforces the
architect’s desire for transparency where it matters.
Transformer