Family home, NSW South Coast

When a NSW South Coast couple found the large block of land that suited their needs for a family home in the hills below the Illawarra Escarpment, it was all about the views. Their chosen spot inspired an architect's design which included panoramic areas of glass as well as LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB® sheeting in the COLORBOND® steel colour Night Sky®.

"The brief we gave to the architect we commissioned was simple," homeowner Eddie Pieszko said. "Surrounded by fantastic views we wanted to live inside, but live outside.

"Other people in the district come home and sit out on their verandahs to admire the views, but we wanted to be able to enjoy the views all the time without needing to go outside unless we wanted to."

The couple's architect achieved the desired outcome by designing an open-plan, pavilion style home with external wall areas consisting almost entirely of glass, including 31 largely glass doors.

Metal roofing company Lidoran Architectural Roofing, a specialist in high-end residential work, carried out the fixing of sprung curved CUSTOM ORB® roof sheeting in the COLORBOND® steel colour Windspray for the roof.

Despite the need for careful installation of custom flashing sections supplied by Lysaght to suit the junction of curved roof areas, the exterior provided few challenges.

It was the interior of the house which provided less conventional fixing requirements, with CUSTOM ORB® sheeting in the COLORBOND® steel colour Night Sky® selected as the ceiling material throughout.

"Because the house is open plan with white floor tiles, white interior walls and largely glass external walls, there is a lot of reflected light," Eddie Pieszko said. "If we had used conventional white ceilings you would have needed sunglasses even inside.

"The advice we received from lighting specialists was to use black to absorb the excess light, so we decided to use CUSTOM ORB® sheeting in the COLORBOND® steel colour Night Sky®."

Lidoran Architectural Roofing project manager Wayne Podlich admits he was unsure whether the ceiling outcome would meet expectations, but the Pieszko family is thrilled by the result.

"The corrugated profile and the black colour give exactly the effect we wanted," Eddie said.

"We enhanced the contrast by installing white light fittings and ventilation fans which are suspended well below the ceiling level.

"During the day the ceiling helps maintain exactly the right level of light in the house and at night when you look up past the lights it's like looking up into a void, as if there's nothing there at all."