Open Space with Rolldown Walls

A high-ceiling open-plan two level interior comprises a 6.4m X 12m main area and a 6.4 X 5m mezzanine. Tongue and groove sustainable native hardwood flooring gives wall to wall coverage to facilitate future changes in interior design. The only enclosed area is an upstairs toilet. Useful timber from site clearing was milled, dried and treated on-site. It is recycled for zero footprint interior wood features. Drop down "wall" screens held on the beams with "C" clamps permit us to infinitely reconfigure the interior to suit the our design whims of the moment. As there are no interior structural walls you may reconfigure the interior spaces as you wish.

Removable Kitchen

The kitchen was sourced from local restaurant suppliers. The stainless steel had a previous life, contains 60% recycled content, will never decay in the humidity, can be rearranged or replaced as required in minutes. We treat our kitchen like furniture. When you move, it moves. It may require a polish every decade or so to keep looking good. At the end of its service life, many decades from now it can be 100% recycled. The island counter is on castors and can be rolled out of the way for cleaning. Its stone top is bolted on and easily removed or replaced. Undo the sink drain and the sink counter can be removed. The microwave stand is self-standing. The kitchen "out of the box" to completed plumbing takes about ten minutes to set up.

Simple Standard Colour Scheme

Our palette for interior design consists of colourbond "Surfmist" white, sky blue and light coloured timber. We also use colourbond "Windspray" grey on the exterior balconies. The sharp angles and colours contrast with the soft rounded green shades of the surrounding rainforest. Daylight LED lighting and white interior paint maximise interior light levels under the rainforest canopy. The use of a small number of standard colours means we can get replacement steel panels and replacement paint in a number of formats (acrylic, oil-based, spray) from a number of manufacturers.

Spiral Stair Design

Spiral stairs were used because they optimise useful floor space and have an architectural aesthetic. I designed them using the on-line program at www.blocklayer.com. The program permitted me to adjust and tweak and for Studio Nimbus I chose 270 degrees with 4 steps every 90 degrees and three normal steps at the top to give extra head height. When I had my measurements I put the design on SketchUp 8 and used the little person provided to check that head heights really were OK.

Rebar was used for the uprights of the handrail. As it turns out the spiral stairs look really good and cause minimal disturbance to airflow but they did cost a lot more than paddle stairs. The 900mm width of the stairs made it easier to move furniture upstairs but to move larger items the section of mezzanine railing nearest the stairs can be unbolted and removed in order to lift bulkier items up by sliding them up a ladder if necessary using the assistance of a pulley "C" clampred to the nearby ceiling I-beam.