Dave & Robyn's Sideways Verandah, Middleton, SA, 2009

AIA (SA) Small Projects Commendation, 2010

Dave & Robyn bought a very-white 2-storey shack, behind and broad-on to the dunes at Middleton. Very enclosed but then again, it is front row, wind and salt-blasted. But no excuses for not opening to the northern front-as-back-yard with Hills views.

In these conditions, sea-side, white paintwork quickly turns orange as fixings corrode.

A northern verandah was an easy answer to these issues - but there would be limited sea-views.

Slotting into a skinny, boundary-edged 3.3m strip of land to the house’s West, is Troppo’s answer - the Sideways Verandah. This cranking, sea-creature-of-a-verandah connects between sunny, sheltered north and wild, salty sea. It also acts as a giant sun-control-device to western living areas, opening up Island and Bluff views, off to the south-west.

We ascertained on the first site visit that the summer sou-easter rapidly diminished as it wheels around the south-west house-corner; and screens/ blinds would always confound the winter sou-wester.

And so the Sideways Verandah responds, affording shelter and sun, whilst giving new views to both sea and hills. Its roof sweeps up northward, beginning as translucent-polycarb, gaining slats beneath and to the west, then becoming solid as it hunkers down southward

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