Amaroo Drive, Buderim

Mount Coolum, the Sunshine Coast hinterland and the ocean create the backdrop for this stunning single storey home perched on the edge of Buderim Hill. Featuring high ceilings and large open spaces surrounded by glass walls and clerestory windows, this brand-new home has uninterrupted views of the coastline from every room in the house, not to mention the infinity pool.

We were engaged by Alexandra Buchanan Architects to provide the structural engineering services for this project in the early months of 2020. The design and location of this build provided a couple of challenges for our engineers, which resulted in working closely with the builder and client Xceed Building Solutions to use framing materials that are not typical for a residential-style build.

To cater to the extreme winds that come up over the hill and the side of the house, industrial-style steel portal frames were used to brace the structure. Additionally, the glass clerestory window that wraps around the high ceilings meant that our engineers had to get creative with how to brace the structure, by once again using industrial-sized window heads to span between the portals and steel purlins to span the wide distances along the roof.