Brick style

What your home is made out of has a long-term effect on the security and comfort of your family and your surrounds so it’s well worth the time to explore the options for your exterior walls. Boral can help you find the balance between style, beauty, function and practicality.

Now that you’ve decided you are going to start from scratch and build your home from the bottom up, research and explore ideas to establish the type of house you’d like to build. Does it reflect you and your family’s personality and needs? The type of house style you prefer can impact the design of your home as well as the type of brick you choose. Here are some examples of house styles that can be reflected inside and outside the home.

Contemporary

Originality, imagination, ecology and energy conservation are the driving forces of Contemporary architectural design.
The distinguishing feature of the Contemporary-style home is its deliberate use of geometric shapes and angles. The attractive sculptural forms they present are often quite abstract, and can be created effectively using blocks and bricks or contrasting brick colours, for example neutrals and darker tones.

To create variety, different sections of Contemporary-style houses may be finished in materials which contrast or counter-point one another to stylish effect. Visual drama is generated by the juxtaposition of two contrasting varieties of exterior cladding: brick homes with a timber feature for example.

With emphasis on natural light, other features include wide eaves to protect the extensively glassed-in areas from the elements and masonry walls because they are easy to build and are an effective form of insulation. Outside, clean lines and practical surfaces can be created through clever arrangement of pavers or blocks. Flat profile roof tiles provide a sleek line to the roof.

While external features are generally structural or sculptural, the internal features are distinguished by their minimalist look.

Modern

The Australian Modern home draws on many major architectural styles – particularly those that offer practicality, functionality, stylish and cost-effective construction. From the formal to the rustic, inside and out, the Modern home is tailored to your individual taste and needs because it has been built with your dream in mind.

Modern homes offer the freedom to design and build the house that best suits your lifestyle. You can build the rooms you want in the shapes you want and arrange them to meet your individual requirements. Modern styles reinvent the familiar in response to the requirements of modern living – the keynote is attainable functionality. This style can be translated into many different urban environments. Design approaches are influenced by comfort levels and the demands of modern family lifestyles. Modern design incorporates the clean lines and functional styling of contemporary architecture but also embraces some of the comfortable aspects of traditional Australian home design.

Beach

Traditionally the sizes and forms of Australian Beach houses have reflected their owners’ respect for their surroundings. The basic idea is to design and build a structure that will meet your needs and complement the local environment. For many, one of the greatest attractions of a Beach house is its lack of pretension, with the primary objective being relaxation.

Beach houses are simple but comfortable. The apparently ad hoc feel to the Beach house design gives it a back to basics appeal, with natural colours adding to the breezy, low-fuss look. By selecting the right walling, roofing and landscape materials and colours, a bit of imagination can bring that Beach-style feeling to your home.

In the 1950’s, a Beach house was defined by its coastal location. Today it is a coastal aesthetic. Owners, builders and architects are taking a very individualistic approach, using bricks and roof tiles instead of fibro and corrugated iron as the materials of choice, largely because of their durability, resistance to the elements and colour choice.

A Beach-style home – synonymous with casual living, cleverly works with the shapes, textures and colours of summer. The idea is to create a colour palette that satisfies your aesthetic tastes and complements the surrounding environment of your home, whether that is a wind-swept headland covered in low but sturdy native shrubs, or a row of coastal dwellings.