Architectural: Marellan Drive, Red Beach.

With construction commencing in late 2009, the home under construction at Marellan Drive, Red Beach, is not only breaking new ground in the field of architecture but fully exploited the capabilities of CAD software and CNC technology in order to create a totally unique architectural experience.

Now complete, the house clearly demonstrates the potential of using CAD and CNC machining together to create innovative, spectacular architecture.

With the overall design created by Ignite Architects, the individual shapes and components that were to comprise the structure of the house were created using using Styrotech CNC's range of software packages, in particular Solidworks, and subsequently manufactured using the CNC technology which is at the core of Styrotech CNC. By using this approach, it was possible for the architects to create an architectural concept featuring unique, interesting and organic shapes, yet the builders found simple to construct. Relatively speaking, the components were often quite straightforward to assemble given the manner in which they were designed and cut - essentially the house was a huge kitset. The images below show a sample of the Solidworks CAD models created.

Because the components, and hence the parts that together combine to make each module were designed in Solidworks, it was possible to treat each CNC machined module as a ready-to-assemble kitset that could be easily assembled, saving time and money.Because each module was designed individually, yet was part of an overall design , all modules would fit together and thus combine to create the finished house. As such, despite the design of the house featuring complex internal structures and unique external shapes, the accuracy of CNC machining enabled construction of the home to proceed quickly and efficiently.Consequently, the overall structure was cost effective to create - completing a house such as this using more traditional house building techniques would have been exceedingly difficult and very expensive.

The commitment to CNC technology extended to the interior fittings of the house, including for example the kitchen bench (pictured below). The bench was made using CNC cut profiles, which were assembled and used as a basis to form and mount the stainless steel that would create the surface of the kitchen bench. Likewise, the staircase (below right) made extensive use of CNC cut profiles to not only create the circular shape but also ensure that each step fitted perfectly.

Due to the house being built using a combination of modern construction and boat-building techniques, the house is exceptionally durable. It will require a minimum of ongoing maintenance, which will reduce ongoing costs. Given the location of the home – overlooking Red Beach, Hibiscus Coast – the house will be exposed to the ocean environment. The salt air would – for a more conventionally built house – mean that by using construction methods reflecting techniques used to build boats, the strength and long term durability of the home will be dramatically enhanced, a feature that will certainly become a significant asset.

COMPLETION

Now complete, the house has demonstrated the possibilities of what can be achieved through the use of CNC machining for architectural applications.  

To learn more about the way that the Red Beach property was imaginatively designed and subsequently built by Coastbuild, and how the benefits of CNC could be used in your next building project, please feel free to contact us. In the meantime, please see below a selection of images taken during the ongoing construction of the house.

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