Living Shade put some sparkle into the Golden Mile with Ingenious
Super smart home consultancy Ingenious was
called in to weave its magic into the ubercool Wai Cocos
property in the middle of the so-called Golden Mile on the
picturesque Noosa River, and they were dazzled by the
expanse of glass.
A previous Ingenious client owned this riverfacing block
and coincidently another previous client of Ingenious
owned the block behind. The neighbour behind had no
river view but he was a developer, so in a meeting of
minds they decided to pool their assets and build three
luxury apartments at the front and one duplex at the
back and fill both blocks. As both of them had independently
used Ingenious on previous projects, there was no argument
about who to talk to about enhancing the building's value.
The result is a virtual jewel of a contemporary building
that really does shine out from the clapperboard fascias
of the older buildings on this delightful strip. The word
shine is used deliberately as from the terraces you get a
stunning sunrise over the river mouth, and in the evening
you watch the sun sink into the languid waters of the river
upstream.
"Our starting point was the home's expanse of glass," said
Ingenious' Alan Lawson. "We obviously needed a blind
strategy. Now many people don't take blinds seriously
enough and that includes me. However, do you realise
you can reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 65 per
cent? Luckily, Ingenious started working with some very
clever people from Sweden earlier this year called Svensson."
Svensson has evolved the most sophisticated technical
textile-producing facility in the world. In summer,
the aluminium in its space-age blinds will reduce internal
temperatures by up to 12 degrees celcius and so reduce
the cooling loads on your air conditioning (and wallet!),
and then in winter help reduce heating costs by up to 41
per cent. These blinds are available in a range of colours
and opacity to fulfill the desires of any design diva.
Ingenious contracted local blind manufacturer House of
Drapes to craft all the blinds.
Ingenious also designed a distributed audio/video system
and home theatre system for each apartment that allows
for flexibility and expandability, while giving the
apartments' occupants the added feature of being able
to relax on the balcony to enjoy the sunset and watch
whatever is playing on the home theatre screen.
For the audio-video distribution, Ingenious
installed the Speakercraft MZC66 which has a
capability of six zones but only four zones are
in use for phase one, with the two extra zones
allowing for expansion in the future.
The only challenge in the home theatre
was the screen size and the integration of
the speakers in a non-intrusive way to match
the clean lines of the living area. For the
speakers, Alan Lawson chose Infinity. "I must
confess I had these speakers in the study in
my home in England and I like the look and
sound," he said. "They have what the more
didactic interior designers call an organic design.
Ladies particularly tend to prefer this shape as
well as the soft metallic sheen. Not only do they
look and sound good, but also the stands give
you an infinite variety of fixing options. Full
marks to the engineers in matching form and
function so well."
Of course, the building has smart lighting, a
video intercom and full security system. Given
the relationship with these clients, Ingenious
was asked to supply some of the new large
art selection (see the website). IDesign was
commissioned for the Interior Design.
Now the people at Ingenious, being super
smart home designers, get to design systems for
the upper decile of homes all over but Lawson
maintains, "In terms of styling, the Wai Cocos
has it. You could walk round it, squint, go crosseyed,
do whatever you want but you won't find
a single angle from which it looks even slightly
wrong."
For further information contact:
Living Shade
phone: 61 2 9477 6955
fax: 61 2 9477 5506
web: www.livingshade.com.au
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