Shipwreck Cove, Golden Bay Foreshore

Amenity that helps sell a community

In a new residential estate, public open space is never just a box to tick. It's a planning requirement and a sales drawcard at the same time - prospective buyers visiting a new development judge it on its parks. That puts real pressure on every element within them.

It's why the amenity building couldn't be an afterthought. A tired, generic toilet block would undercut the quality of everything around it. The building needed to:

• Match the design quality of the playground, pump track and landscaping it sits among
• Feel safe and welcoming for families spending the day at the beach
• Hold up for decades in one of the harshest environments in the country

Get it right and it disappears into the experience. Get it wrong and it's the first thing people notice.

A design direction drawn from the coast

Working alongside EPCAD, the building took its cues from the beach on its doorstep and the wider Shipwreck Cove theme. Two ideas drove the design:

• Waves. The Capricorn's signature curved roofline reads as a breaking wave - a subtle nod to the ocean just beyond the dunes, and a form that lifts the building well clear of a standard block.
• Driftwood. A coastal material palette pairing soft sand tones with timber-look battens for warmth and texture.

The finished colour and material scheme was chosen to match the surrounding park infrastructure and settle into the coastal setting:

• Dune - roof sheeting, roof trims, wall trims and doors, a soft sand tone drawn from the dune landscape
• Black composite external panels for contrast and definition
• Timber-look Modwood battens in a driftwood finish - adding natural warmth without the maintenance of real timber

Built for a beachfront site

At just 60 metres from the water, this building faces constant salt-laden air, wind-driven sand and relentless UV - conditions that will find the weak point in anything built to a standard spec. It was manufactured to a full coastal specification:

• Hot-dip galvanised steel framing as the structural backbone
• Colorbond Ultra sheeting, formulated for coastal and marine environments
• Stainless steel fixings throughout, to resist corrosion at every connection
• A two-pack epoxy paint finish for a tougher, longer-lasting surface

It's the same approach we apply to every beachside project - and there are some common traps worth knowing about when designing public toilets for the coast.