The Love Shack

The Love Shack is a built prototype for material reuse, design for disassembly (DfD), and small-scale functionality. Its conceptual framework is governed by resource efficiency and experimentation. The core philosophy centers on minimizing waste while maximizing lifespan in an effort to reframe predetermined conceptions of how salvaged materials should look and perform. Functionally, the studio space can transform from a bedroom to a living room to an office, providing a flexible extension to the existing family home. The façade facing the main house includes operable solid doors that ensure privacy when closed and, when open, allow the pavilion to feel like a true extension of the backyard. Highlight windows provide year-round natural ventilation and even, indirect light throughout the day. A rigid modular grid imposed by the triangular corner site resulted in an irregularly shaped leftover area, which became the bathroom. A trapezoidal column at its center houses all services and creates programmatic delineation within the compact footprint. Waste-minimization strategies guided every design decision: material reuse, DfD, modularity, reduced material types, and dry-fixing details. The 1.2m grid and 2.1m datum were derived from standard sheet sizes and formed the logic of both plan and elevations. Construction began with concrete over-pour dry-placed footings — one at every grid intersection — allowing flexibility in timber member sizing. Timber joists and beams were sourced from second-hand marketplaces and left rough, eliminating embodied carbon from milling and transport. After the structure was erected, prefabricated doors, windows, and façade panels were installed. Interior and exterior finishes were developed by transforming local waste materials into high-quality, fit-for-purpose surfaces. The exterior render, created in collaboration with the renderer, is textural, thin, outdoor-appropriate, and incorporates a high percentage of locally salvaged and crushed marble. Inside, the timber lining boards were upcycled from tallowwood flooring salvaged from a Sydney home slated for demolition. The boards were carefully lifted, refinished, and installed as wall cladding. Offcuts were turned into custom lights. The joinery was designed as loose furniture—easily removable, minimally invasive, and reusable—constructed from leftover sheets of veneer. While some salvaged materials came at a lower upfront cost, the overall cost/value reality was that the project would have been more cost-effective if built with standard construction methods and virgin materials. The industry remains optimized for linear processes; designing with reclaimed materials requires more time, often increasing labor costs beyond material savings.