The Bundjalung of Byron Bay Arakwal people, the Minjungbal people and the Widjabul people.
NSW
Lighthouse explores how domestic architecture can amplify the inherent qualities of place. A modest suburban site has been re-described to celebrate a life lived outdoors in northern NSW’s coastal climate. Family life revolves around a central garden court where the landscape of Byron Bay is drawn into and over the spatial composition.
This celebration of living outside is intensified through the distribution of overhead lanterns across the plan — including over kitchen, living, bathing, working and garden spaces — manifesting in the sense of being outside throughout the entire house. The plan and section are conceived to support multimodal occupation over a lifetime, including the immediate family unit, independent living by family and guests, work-from-home and a potential sublet arrangement.
The needs of a coastal home where surfing, yoga, meditation, entertaining, work, and play are embedded rituals are supported over three floors, each connected visually and physically to cultivated and wild landscapes.
Set on a typical suburban block, challenged by a steep slope and a sideways orientation, Lighthouse is a response that is anything but typical. Beyond a defensive front wall, punctured concrete floor plates draw the landscape through the house and dissolve traditional boundaries between inside and out. An open, central garden forms the entry and heart of the home with overhead lanterns above, casting daylight deep into the interior and reinforcing a sense of open-air living. Despite its spatial innovation, the house retains the practicality required by a large family, maintaining strong connections between zones across three levels.  Ìý
Lighthouse is a home deeply attuned to its climate and setting. In Byron Bay’s coastal conditions of heat and humidity, it performs with quiet confidence – shading, cooling, and enclosing where needed and celebrating openness elsewhere. The material palette is both nostalgic and forward-looking, referencing the region’s vernacular while reassembling it into something entirely new. With precise and considered spatial sequencing and masterful detailing, this home feels both familiar and wholly original. A poetic and practical achievement. Ìý
Brian Donovan, Project Principal
Ivan Tejada Navajas, Project Leader
Danika Nixon, Project Team
Nick Flutter, Project Team
Apollo Property Group, Construction Manager
Apollo Property Group, Project Manager
Westera Partners, Structural Engineer
Steven Clegg Design, Landscape Consultant
H Design, Hydraulic Consultant
Cudgera Electrical, Electrical Consultant
The ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
