Innovative Prefabrication by CplusC Architects & Builders in Palm Beach’s Balmy Palmy Home
CplusC Architects & Builders are renowned for their distinctive approach that merges architectural design with in-house construction. This integrated model streamlines communication between design and site teams, ensuring seamless project delivery from concept to completion. It offers greater control over timelines, costs, and construction quality, providing clients with a simplified and efficient process.
In Balmy Palmy, CplusC addressed the challenges of building on a steep, rocky site in Palm Beach with an elevated timber structure that blends into the landscape. Prefabrication played a key role in streamlining construction, reducing costs, and preserving mature trees like the protected Port Jackson fig. The article also reflects on broader challenges in Australia’s construction industry, particularly the limited adoption of prefabrication despite its clear benefits. With more investment and focus, innovative systems like CplusC’s could pave the way for a brighter future, increasing the use of prefabrication across the sector.
Insights and responses by Clinton Cole of CplusC, photography by Murray Fredericks, Renata Dominik, Michael Lassman Photography , published with bowerbird
CplusC architects & builders are known for its unique approach, combining architectural design with in-house construction. Could you start by introducing your practice and explain how this integrated approach benefits projects like “Balmy Palmy”?
The construction sector in Australia has long been suffering from the onerous and protracted consequences of compartmentalising of skills and expertise within the industry, increasingly complex contractual relationships, risk allocation and shifting due to ever changing insurance and statutory impacts on the relationship between architects, projects managers, clients and builders. The process of building a forever home does not need to be as complicated for clients as this.
As the architects & builders, project managers, interior designers of most of our projects, our clients and their projects benefit from the efficiencies of direct communication between our office and site teams. This allows us to have complete control and to take all responsibility over every aspect of our clients’ projects. In our unique business model, we’re with our clients all the way – from the first concept meeting through the statutory approvals process, to building the project and ultimately handing over their home. There are no hand-offs or buck passing even after completion where we are there to address any post occupancy teething issues swiftly and directly, in fact our reputation relies on this. Seeing each project from end to end and beyond provides a level of experience to ensure realistic timelines and cost expectations are communicated to our clients even before commencement of any work and ultimately allows our team to solve any conceptual or technical challenge in bold new ways.
We have trained and are continually upskilling our site team on BIM software used by architects and consultants, so that we can better communicate our designs between all parties. Similarly, our architects benefit from visiting construction sites whenever they need to, and frequently partake in site work. This helps to improve the efficiency and quality of our designs, as our whole team can understand and plan for each other’s needs.
Building on a steep, rocky slope comes with significant challenges, particularly regarding stability and landslide risks. How did CPlusC architects & builders approach these issues while ensuring that the design remained simple and cost-effective?
It was a challenging site, we had to ground the house on a rocky escarpment and dance around five mature trees. For us, carving the house into the hill wasn’t an option – why excavate the very landscape we’re celebrating? So, we proposed a simple timber structure floating above the steep terrain, which was a simple gesture to simplify the design and celebrate the landscape below it. Oversized hardwood timber columns and beams (twin 290x45mm) contrast to the thin, lightweight roof and stilt legs. We decided to plant it proudly in the ground on bored concrete piers. This contradicts one of architecture’s most famous sayings: that ‘buildings should touch the earth lightly’. But of course, buildings don’t do that – the construction industry produces about 40 percent of all waste globally.
The decision to use a partially prefabricated system for this project was pivotal. Can you elaborate on how this method helped streamline the construction process and reduce both time and costs?
The prefabricated system streamlined the construction process by being quick to assemble and repetitive in nature due to its simple design. This minimised site visits, requests for information (RFIs) to the architecture team, and onsite labour costs.
Balmy Palmy incorporates an innovative ‘Meccano set’ approach to construction. How did the prefabrication process affect the precision and execution of the build, and were there any notable surprises during assembly?
Prefabrication has the advantage of precision and accuracy, so the construction process worked like putting together a puzzle. Our builders simply assembled all the prefabricated components that were delivered straight to the site. This included joinery, doors, windows, structural members and panelling. The owners were amazed at the speed of construction, saying: “It was super efficient.”
With all components prefabricated in advance based on our drawings, there was no site measure to confirm dimensions during build which posed the risk that they might not fit together perfectly at assembly time. Yet it was a calculated risk where success is contingent upon the skill and attention to details of the site team and our team did not disappoint. Accountable end to end for design and build, we were confident we could work to the exactitude needed. In the end, it all came together exactly as planned.
The preservation of the council-protected Port Jackson fig tree and other mature trees posed an interesting challenge. How did this influence your design decisions, and what steps were taken to protect the natural surroundings during construction?
We started by taking a 3D point cloud survey of the site, which means we scanned the tree’s exact form into our Building Information Management (BIM) software. This gave us the exact position of every branch and every leaf, and therefore we know where to best locate the post and beam portal frame system so that we are not out there chopping off limbs and mutilating mature trees.
Our approval documentation included our survey and the steps we would take to preserve and celebrate the Port Jack fig. Convinced that the proposed design would not impact the tree, the council gave approval in just seven weeks.
So once the home was built, all that natural texture and beauty of the trees is fully preserved for the people living there to enjoy. Preserving and celebrating the tree meant it became a major architectural element in itself. The tree is with you as you’re walking up the spiral staircase to the house and it’s always present through the living spaces and when lying on the cargo net.
Sustainability is central to the “Balmy Palmy” design, from using low-maintenance materials to implementing rainwater systems and solar power. Could you highlight some of the key sustainable features and how they enhance the home’s connection to the environment?
The building system itself keeps a lid on the embodied energy of the project. We combined structural steel and timber to create the bones of the building where the timber also acts as both structure and finish. That’s an instant win because timber’s embodied energy is among the lowest of any material. Prefabricating all the parts in advance reduces waste and transport. Construction is quick so everyone is onsite less – it is fewer car trips daily to a semi-remote area of Sydney. The steel and timber ‘flitch’ structure provides a durable combination of materials that will age beautifully with the landscape. The vision was to keep the house modest, unassuming and receptive to its environment.
Blackbutt hardwood beams and columns and the spotted gum internal wall lining harmonise with the protected Pittwater spotted gum forest all around.
The outdoor flooring is made from low-maintenance fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP). With a permeable grid structure, bushland grit and rainwater simply fall through the holes, reducing the need to spend getaway time sweeping. And unlike timber decking, FRP is not perishable so using harsh chemicals like deck cleaner and petroleum-based oil coatings to maintain the decking every year is completely avoided.
The house is environmentally aware in other ways. As a rule across all projects, our office designs with standardised lengths and sizes of materials to minimised waste and environmental impact. It is carefully oriented to bring direct sunlight inside in all seasons. Large sliding doors and highlight louvres provide cross-ventilation. Four Haiku ceiling fans reduce the need for air conditioning with one in the kitchen/dining space, one in the living room, and one in each of the bedrooms. A Tesla car charger at the base of the stairs supports electric vehicles.
The house conserves water with all fittings meeting strict AAA rating flow rates. A rainwater tank captures water for use in bathrooms and irrigation systems. Supply to plants is adjusted automatically based on weather conditions.
Although rooftop solar panels were considered, the roof is overshadowed most of the year by the beautiful mature canopies, so they were ruled out as too inefficient.
The house’s modest two-bedroom design contrasts with the trend of maximizing views on scenic sites. What was your design philosophy behind creating a more humble structure, and how does it still allow residents to feel deeply connected to nature?
The home is humble in scale, celebrating a simple way of life immersed in the ocean view and the natural bushland surrounds. The design was all about firmly planting the home in the canopy, opening it up to the sunshine, leaves, breeze, and birdlife…. a design that celebrates the simple pleasures with modesty.
The residents are in constant connection with nature through the feel of the breeze, the nuances in temperature, the sounds of the birds and the leaves moving in the air. It’s the opposite to homes where everything’s so well-insulated and sealed you barely interact with the outside world. In our concept, the home is permeable and receptive to the elements. You accept thermal nuances – temperatures are not static, and you feel wind and rain. And the landscape is not just stuff outside a window viewed through super sealed glass: it’s a living breathing part of the home. The home is formed around natural land features, and every room partakes of it.
Your work at CplusC architects & builders seems to blend innovative design with hands-on building techniques. Where do you see the future of prefabricated architecture heading, and how do you think it can evolve to further benefit sustainable, cost-effective housing?
There have been many decades of attempts to get some traction of prefabricated architecture into the broader housing market forward but unfortunately the unique expertise of the construction industry and the architecture industry operate in very different knowledge silos. Simply put, you cannot program a robot to lay a brick unless you know how to lay a brick. Therein lies the first of the two main issues with the numerous attempts by architects all over the world to develop a housing system or product that can be delivered en masse.
The second and arguably the most significant issue is the fact that architects do not design projects for the broader public general consumer. They seem to consistently design prefabricated prototypes that clearly look like they have been designed by an Architect for a client of an Architect. This polarises the most significant portion of the market – consumers that would never use an architect or buy an architect designed home.
Our research into the above phenomenon and the general consumer market over the last decade has been exhaustive and extensive. In Australia, the overwhelming majority of consumers want the following in the homes they buy: Gable rooves, brick facades & double garages.
What don’t they want? Flat rooves, lightweight cladding and anything that looks prefabricated.
I find it quite astonishing that so many in our industry have invested so much developing prefabricated housing systems and products without first asking the consumers what they want. Our largest single prefabricated home building company (more ‘off-site’ fabricated) in Australia sells less than 50 units a year.
The benefits to sustainability and cost effectiveness are obvious, but this can only be achieved at significant scale. While we have developed a research-based housing system for the mass market ourselves, we would need to produce a minimum 500 units per year for that system to be profitable and it is unlikely that there are any investors willing to take that risk at this sort of scale and up-front cost. Until this happens, I don’t see the market getting any traction but if you know any investor we would be happy to talk about a housing system developed with unique and unrivalled expertise architects that put their money where their mouths are – architects that build.
Project Team
Clinton Cole – Architect
Hayden Co ‘burn – Project Architect
Carmen Chan – Project Architect
Barry Bradley – Foreman
Nathan Krstevski – Foreman
Urban Arbor – Arborist
Damian O-Toole Town Planning
QS Plus
Witt Engineering
Hill and Blume Consulting Surveyors
Elite Surveyor
D2E
JH Gordon
Landforms
Windoor
Tenze
Orange Painting
Flash Metal Roofing
Staircare
Balmain Glass
Tensile
Sydney Kitchen Co
Building Certification Approvals
C Plus C Architects & Builders
