Tucked into the coastal landscape of Cape Schanck, this project by mckimm reveals a secret home that dissolves into its natural surroundings with quiet confidence. Designed to engage directly with the site’s steep topography and dense vegetation, the residence is hidden from view, protected by the land and framed by distant views of the ocean and rolling hills. The result is a home that privileges stillness, shelter and seamless integration with its environment – a secret home crafted to be discovered, not displayed.
Responding to the elevation and contours of the land, the home is positioned for maximum privacy and exposure. Its placement above the streetline and golf course below ensures uninterrupted views while offering protection from wind and weather. This deliberate siting transforms the property into a retreat – a secret home that maintains visual and physical connection to the outside without sacrificing comfort or quiet. The topography itself becomes a collaborator in the design, shaping how the home opens and withdraws across the site.
The material palette reinforces this approach. With a restrained use of darker-toned timber and a cohesive interior scheme, the house takes on the hues of the surrounding bushland. These textures and tones were carefully chosen to soften the architectural form and allow it to sit low and quiet within the landscape. Internally, the design continues this narrative – favouring tactile materials, clean lines and minimal detailing that foreground the changing light and outdoor vistas.
At the core of the home is a voluminous communal space that combines kitchen, dining and living under a sculptural wave roof. This central room opens fully to the horizon via floor-to-ceiling glazing, while a highline window adds an upward connection to the sky. These gestures elevate the experience of the space, allowing movement, cloud cover and natural light to animate the interior. It’s here that the essence of a secret home is most strongly felt: grounded in place yet expansive in spirit.
To the rear of the property, a conversation area and barbecue zone provide a sheltered alternative to the ocean-facing entertaining space. This duality supports year-round use, offering sun-drenched openness and wind-protected seclusion. The elevated pool, built by Grange Pools, is both an architectural and engineering feat; its height eliminates the need for intrusive fencing, preserving the uninterrupted sightlines and reinforcing the seamless connection between house, land and sky.
Through collaboration with COS Design, Measure Engineering and Grange Pools, mckimm has delivered a secret home that responds intuitively to its context. Every element – from the curve of the roof to the depth of the pool tile – supports a larger vision of architectural humility. This is not a home that dominates its landscape, but one that retreats into it, leaving room for silence, reflection and sensory engagement. In Cape Schanck, a secret home reveals the power of design that listens first. 00:00 – Introduction to A Secret Home 01:22 – Designing and Engineering the Pool 02:17 – Walk through of the home 03:15 – Material Palette Inspired by the Landscape 04:34 – Final Reflections
I remember the first day we came down to Cape Shank as a team. We met the clients here,
we parked in sort of a convoy at the base of the property and we immediately were drawn to
how beautiful the area is and the views of the golf course, the ocean beyond, the rolling hills.
The site is incredible. It's really tucked away behind the Australian native vegetation and
the topography provides a really protective nature as well. I'm Danica Gorizio. I'm an architect and
one of the directors at McKim Architecture and Interior Design. Cape Shank is known for its
steep slopes and topography. That is something that we wanted to design in harmony with. It's
something that we didn't want to challenge too much. So once the position of the house
was confirmed and the driveway was resolved, yeah, we really found that balance between
celebrating the view and being protected by the site and by the slope as well.
I'm Daniel Price. I'm the founder of Grange Pools and we construct bespoke concrete pools
in Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula. This site in particular was extremely difficult with
the sandy terrain, the steepness of the block. All materials had to be brought up mechanically.
Like it was just, yeah, it was one of the most difficult sites we would have had to work on.
So the pool's actually on level one. There is a ground floor. There is some board piers that
is required to support the pool. The pool is freestanding. It has to be formed well before
the house is ready for completion. So with the pool being 1200mm out of the ground, it also acts
as a pool fence or a pool barrier, a safety barrier. So there's no need for the pool barrier
to be along one side. So it doesn't obstruct any view of the golf course and the ocean.
The elevation and the positioning of the house was integral in finding that balance of privacy
and of being able to view the incredible surrounds. As we're elevated here above the
street and above the golf course, there is a natural sense of privacy that's given to us by
the topography and by the site itself. One of the factors as well here was protection from some of
the harsher elements like the wind. And in addition to having entertaining spaces outside that face
that view and face the golf course and the ocean, we also created a separate area, a conversation
area connected closely to the barbecue, which is actually at the back of the property. We really
wanted to create something that complemented the landscape and that was nestled within it
without taking away too much from what it is. Material selection played a very important role
in creating that sense of calm and stillness. The design intent was to select materials that
complemented the natural landscape and vegetation. Having the darker colour tone for the timber
was important and drove a lot of the direction of the interior design. So we have a 23mm ceramic
tile. It's a dark grey. It really matches what the guys have done with the home. It matches in with
the black speck in the concrete surrounding the pool and also the rural trees and surrounds.
A dark tile is always very nice for reflection in these areas. The part of the home that I'm
most proud of is the kitchen, living and dining space that features the wave roof. That feeling
that it gives us when we're in here, that extra height, that connection. You've got these full
height doors and windows that overlook the view, but then you've also got these opportunities to
look up at the highline window and watch a cloud drift by. So that feeling of infinity is something
that is really special in this room. I guess it's always rewarding to see the finished product and
that is why I love what I do. We always get to see the end product between the house, the garden
and the pool and to see it all come together is always amazing. We pride ourselves on our attention
to detail and that is why McKim continue to use us. The client loves the pool, we love the pool.
It is in the small details that matter and we're very proud of the job we've done.
For somebody who's visiting in this home for the first time, we hope that they feel a connection,
that they feel like they're in a home that is celebrating its surrounds,
that they feel relaxed and that they feel comfortable and calm.
