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Coolamon House is a 2020 residence by DFJ Architects on Bundjalung Country in New South Wales’ Byron Hinterland. Its defining move is a protected central courtyard: the garden shelters the home from exposed conditions while the outer rooms remain visually connected to the escarpment and coastal landscape.
The primarily one-bedroom house adds two guest suites, service rooms and a pool along a covered route around the court. Concrete, blackbutt timber and brass establish a deliberately raw palette, while daylight, cross-ventilation, thermal mass, solar generation, planting and water storage are integrated as part of the architecture rather than added as separate equipment.
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What Coolamon House is
Coolamon House is a private residence completed in 2020 by DFJ Architects. DFJ identifies the setting as “Bundjalung Country / Byron Bay, NSW,” while ArchDaily places the project in Coorabell, Australia, a locality in the Byron Hinterland. Those descriptions refer to the same regional context but use different geographic levels, so the most precise description is a Coorabell house in the Byron Hinterland of New South Wales.
The project is not a conventional large family compound. Its principal accommodation is a one-bedroom home, supplemented by two ancillary guest suites. Laundry and powder-room facilities, as well as a pool, are linked by a covered, cloister-like circulation route that follows the courtyard. A garage and office sit away from the main dwelling near the drive, making the approach to the house part of the experience rather than an immediate transition from car to front door.
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At its core, the design negotiates two apparently conflicting demands: the site’s broad views and its exposure to weather. The plan keeps the distant escarpment and hinterland visible, but folds the everyday life of the house around a garden that provides shelter, privacy and a more intimate centre.
Why the courtyard is the project’s organizing idea
Protection from an exposed position
The house occupies a position associated with the edge of the Tweed Caldera and the Byron Hinterland. The project descriptions identify prevailing northerly winds as a reason shelter was necessary, even though the owners wanted a strong connection to the landscape. Instead of turning its back on the view, DFJ places a protected garden court in the middle of the plan. Rooms can open toward that calmer interior while selected glazed edges continue to frame the larger horizon.
This arrangement creates a spatial “prospect and refuge” strategy. Prospect is the outward view toward the escarpment and coastal landscape; refuge is the sheltered court, where planting and water establish a more contained microclimate. The Australian Institute of Architects’ 2020 NSW Country Regional Awards jury described the result as “an oasis in the landscape,” praising the way the plan offers both prospect and refuge within one compact residence. The full award listing is available in the NSW Country Regional Awards booklet.
A garden rather than a leftover space
The courtyard is not a residual void between buildings. It is the visual and circulation centre of the house. The covered route around it connects the main bedroom, guest accommodation and service spaces, allowing movement through the home to include changing views of planting, water and sky. This also gives the small primary program a legible centre without requiring a large internal hall.
By concentrating the garden inside the plan, the design makes a sheltered outdoor room available from several parts of the house. The court can be read from private rooms and circulation areas, while the larger landscape remains available at the outer edge. That distinction lets the residence feel open without making every room equally exposed.
How the plan separates openness from privacy
The transparent outer layer
DFJ and ArchDaily describe a transparent outer shell that keeps the long view present. Glazing is used where the landscape is an asset, so the residence reads as a frame for the hinterland rather than as an object that blocks it. The openness is selective: the house does not rely on uninterrupted transparency on every side.
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Screened rooms behind timber
Private spaces are concealed behind hardwood or blackbutt cladding. The timber screens reduce direct exposure and give bedrooms and other intimate rooms a more protected edge. This layered envelope—open toward chosen views, screened where privacy matters—allows the plan to combine a visual connection to the property with a sense of retreat.
A second outdoor relationship
Beyond the central court, a more sheltered eastern outdoor area provides another connection to the site. It is distinct from the outward-facing view and from the inward-facing courtyard: residents have a protected side garden as well as the central room and the broad landscape beyond the glazing.
Arrival, circulation and the cantilevered slab
The approach is deliberately separated from the practical functions of the drive. The garage and office are positioned off the driveway, while residents continue toward the main house on foot. That sequence slows arrival and establishes the courtyard house as a destination within the property rather than an extension of the parking area.
Architectural concrete gives the approach a strong horizontal gesture. The architect describes a finely tapering slab that projects toward the view. ArchDaily records the slab as tapering from 275 millimetres at its deeper portion to 150 millimetres at the cantilevered edge in its 24 June 2024 project feature. The changing thickness makes the projection read as lighter at the extremity while retaining the mass and thermal qualities of concrete closer to the occupied rooms.
Once inside, circulation repeatedly returns to the court. The covered route links the principal dwelling to the two guest suites, laundry, powder room and pool. Guest rooms can therefore operate as ancillary accommodation without forcing visitors through the private heart of the one-bedroom residence.
The material palette: concrete, blackbutt and brass
Materials selected to age visibly
Concrete, local blackbutt timber and folded brass are the principal materials identified by DFJ and ArchDaily. The architects say they chose materials for their raw quality and for the way they would weather and age. That is a different objective from making every surface remain visually unchanged: the detailing is intended to let time become part of the appearance.
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Concrete supplies structural mass and a relatively calm background for the court, glazing and planting. Blackbutt brings a warmer, tactile layer to screens and interior surfaces, while brass introduces a controlled metallic accent at details and fittings. The awards jury also noted steel alongside concrete, timber and brass, recognising a restrained palette rather than a collection of decorative finishes.
Why the palette suits the site
The palette places durable, manufactured elements beside a landscape that is expected to change. Concrete and metal can register weather and use; timber can deepen in colour; planting can mature into a canopy. The result is designed to become more integrated with its setting over time, not to imitate the landscape with artificial finishes.
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Landscape regeneration and the courtyard microclimate
ArchDaily reports that the property had previously been a banana farm and that substantial regeneration work was undertaken. New planting is intended to grow into a canopy while retaining a view back toward the escarpment. The landscape therefore has two jobs: it repairs and develops the broader site, and it shapes the immediate experience of the house.
Within the courtyard, planting and a body of water are described as devices for creating a cooler summer microclimate. The court’s sheltered geometry makes those elements perceptible from the rooms and circulation path, so environmental moderation is experienced as part of the garden rather than hidden in mechanical infrastructure.
Published environmental systems—and what they do not prove
ArchDaily’s 2024 feature lists the following environmental provisions for the project:
- Natural daylighting and ventilation: the house is described as operating without air conditioning. This is a design description, not a published record of indoor temperatures or comfort hours.
- Thermal mass: the concrete slab is used for thermal storage and is paired with underfloor heating.
- Solar generation: the project includes a specified 21 kW solar system. That figure identifies installed system capacity; it is not a measured annual generation, emissions or operating-cost result.
- Bushfire planning: a defendable Asset Protection Zone is included for bushfire conditions.
- Rainwater storage: ArchDaily prints five 22,500 kL tanks plus one dedicated 10,000 kL bushfire tank. Those units are reproduced exactly as published. They appear unusually large for a residence, and no second primary source in the cited material independently verifies the capacities, so they should be confirmed with DFJ before being used for engineering, planning or water-budget calculations.
No source cited for the project reports audited annual energy use, household emissions, water consumption, indoor-temperature data or measured performance of the solar and rainwater systems. The environmental features are therefore best understood as documented design intentions and specifications, not as a verified post-occupancy performance study.
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One bedroom, two guest suites and a compact footprint
The program’s small primary footprint is central to the project’s character. The house is principally one bedroom, but the two guest suites make it capable of hosting visitors without expanding the everyday living area into a large multi-bedroom plan. The guest accommodation is ancillary rather than presented as a second equal wing, preserving the clarity of the main courtyard arrangement.
The jury’s award citation praised the modest footprint and the way the residence sits within the landscape. Compactness here is not simply a matter of floor area; it is also a planning decision. By putting circulation, guest access and outdoor rooms around a central court, the architects obtain several distinct experiences without multiplying enclosed corridors or disconnected gardens.
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| Design question | Coolamon House response | What the response achieves |
|---|---|---|
| How can the house keep the view? | A transparent outer layer frames the hinterland and escarpment. | Long views remain present without making every room equally exposed. |
| How can it provide shelter? | A protected planted courtyard forms the centre of the plan. | The home gains a calmer outdoor room and a more intimate internal focus. |
| How are private rooms screened? | Hardwood and blackbutt cladding conceal selected spaces. | Bedrooms and other intimate areas receive privacy while public edges stay open. |
| How does the plan accommodate visitors? | Two guest suites sit alongside the one-bedroom primary residence. | Guests can be hosted without turning the main house into a large family layout. |
| How does the building relate to time? | Concrete, timber, brass and steel are detailed for visible aging. | Weathering and landscape regeneration become part of the architectural character. |
Builder, landscape designer and photography credits
The Local Project credits Cedar Creek Constructions as builder and Fig Landscapes for landscape design. DFJ Architects is credited for interior design as well as architecture in that feature. Christopher Frederick Jones is credited for photography on DFJ’s project page. These credits distinguish the design authorship from the construction and landscape work that made the courtyard, planting and material detailing possible.
Recognition in the 2020 NSW Country Regional Awards
The Australian Institute of Architects’ 2020 NSW Country Regional Awards booklet lists “Coolamon House / DFJ Architects” as the winner of the Award for Residential Architecture—Houses (New). The jury highlighted the project’s restrained response, its relationship to the site, its prospect-and-refuge planning, modest footprint, craftsmanship and palette of concrete, timber, brass and steel.
“Coolamon House, located in Coorabel NSW, is an oasis in the landscape, demonstrating a refined simplicity in its plan that offers both prospect to the landscape and refuge within the central courtyard.”
Australian Institute of Architects, NSW Country Regional Awards, 2020
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The citation is useful because it identifies the project’s architectural achievement as a combination of planning and restraint. The award is not presented as an energy-performance certification; it recognises the house’s site response, spatial clarity, material execution and craftsmanship.
What is firmly established—and what remains qualified
The four published accounts agree on the 2020 date, DFJ Architects’ authorship and the courtyard as the central design move. They also consistently describe the one-bedroom primary residence, two guest suites, concrete-blackbutt-brass palette and strong relationship between sheltered interior spaces and outward views.
Geographic wording varies: DFJ uses Bundjalung Country and Byron Bay, ArchDaily uses Coorabell, and the project is commonly described more broadly as being in the Byron Hinterland. Use the more specific locality when discussing the site, while retaining the cultural and regional labels used by the respective sources.
The sustainability information should be read with similar precision. Natural ventilation, no air conditioning, thermal mass, underfloor heating, a 21 kW solar system, an Asset Protection Zone and rainwater tanks are all published project features. None of the cited pages supplies a measured annual energy or water result. The printed tank capacities also require confirmation before they are treated as verified technical data.
The takeaway
Coolamon House is most clearly understood as a courtyard house that turns exposure into a planning problem and then into an architectural advantage. The central garden supplies refuge, the transparent perimeter preserves prospect, and screened timber rooms provide privacy between the two. A compact one-bedroom program with separate guest suites keeps the plan efficient, while concrete, blackbutt, brass and steel give it a material language capable of weathering alongside a regenerating landscape. Its recognition in the 2020 NSW Country Regional Awards reflects that integrated response: a small, carefully crafted residence whose environmental ideas are embedded in its section, courtyard, planting and orientation.
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