Inside a Coastal House That Feels Settled, Not New

Our first impressions of the site was how calm and layered it was. It was surrounded by shrubs and coastal ecology and we felt really immediately that we had to tread quite lightly. And so a lot of the decisions that were made, whether it was the layout, the materiality, the connection with views, connection with nature, a lot of that was driven by this sense of trying to create something that felt like a real sanctuary, felt really calm. We are in Point Lawnsdale. We are on a site that is relatively rectangular. One of the most unique aspects to it is that it overlooks the Ballarat Estate. What's unique about that is it's protected with heritage controls and was actually owned previously by Australia's second Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin. What's unique with this site is that at the south of the property you've got the estate which has those beautiful views and then you've got some views to the water as well which is more towards the south east. And then you've got north which is the front of the site which is where you get that beautiful natural light throughout the day. So the early decision making was where we wanted our external spaces, where we wanted our entertaining zones. And for us, one of the things that really unlocked this project was this idea of flipping the idea of the backyard having to be at the back, we actually put it to the front and we put that entertaining zone to the front which spills out from the meal space. And what that does is it creates a really nice engaging area at the front that gets basically a bunch of northern light throughout the day. For the client, they'd lived in the area for a long time and essentially looking for a home that would service them for the next phase of their life. They were a couple who really loved entertaining. They had adult children who were building their young families and for them it was really about creating something that would support the ability for a house that could have a lot of people, entertain a lot of people but also contract and feel like a really practical home, have moments of intimacy, not feel like a really big house or anything like that. For us, simplicity really means clarity in the decisions that we make and in our practice we spend a lot of time working through what might seem like really simple decisions but a lot of those simple decisions have a huge impact. When you say the word simplicity, it's really about thinking what's the view that you get when you're walking along a hallway or how does the light shine across a bench when you're potentially doing the dishes at a certain time of day. It's about these little moments throughout the house and for us it takes a long time to get those things right but when you're aiming for that sense of calmness and sanctuary and retreat, it's about getting those little things right. One of the key parts of the brief was any potential future mobility challenges that may be there and so for them that meant a layout that had the main bedroom, all the services etc and entertaining living spaces on ground floor. It's also important to note that you can actually close off the meals and living area from the rest of the house and there's a thermal advantage to doing that, there's also a functionality. Whilst this house can feel quite generous I suppose in terms of the quality of the spaces, it also has the ability to contract as needed and that flexibility was really important to the client. You walk up the stairs, you arrive at the top, you're greeted with this beautiful view of the estate and you can also get coastal views when you look south-eastly. You've also got a fairly extensive rumpus room up there which has the ability to open right up to the balcony and what the client has told us is that they spend quite a lot of time, particularly in the summer months, the sunset light that sort of shines across that facade and also across the estate. So that's a real win for the house and something that we really love to hear. And then you've also got the guest bedrooms up there and bathroom. We wanted to create something that felt like it was meant to be here so a lot of the decision making around materiality, particularly you've got the block work which is obviously somewhat uniform and grey in nature but it feels really grounded and then you've got that tension between that and the much finer timber elements which we have throughout the interior of the house obviously and then obviously the facade as well. There's a fineness that we were trying to create a dialogue between and a lot of the conversations that we had with the client and also in the team in the early days was about what is a beach house and how will it look over time and how will it look in the sense that we don't want something we want to have to recoat every five years. It had to be durable but it also had to patina and change the way that local site does. The coastal cues were really important in terms of the sort of weathered, muted tones and that informed certainly our use of timber but also the grounded nature of the block work which sat really comfortably against the tones of the local area and particularly the sort of shrubs and the trees that sort of sit on the site and around the site when it came to heating and cooling. The block work which is all insulated provides a really nice amount of thermal mass and the ability for the extensive glazing to open right up has been huge for the client just in terms of that sort of cross-flow ventilation. And then on top of that we have solar panels on the roof that's all captured by a battery. Recycled rainwater is used for greywater throughout the house. I would say that there's a certain level of understatedness about the house and also restraint. A lot of time that went into figuring out a lot of the finer details where certain views are, what tree or shrub you see when you walk past a certain window or how the light shines across different nooks and staircases etc. throughout the day. So I think that was something that was really important. There's just a real layering and depth to this house which I really love and the client really loves as well. It really does what we set out to achieve. The house is about balance, light and shade, openness and retreat, practicality and warmth. I think as a result we've been able to create a home that is super adaptable for the client and really suits not only their needs at the moment but their needs for the next 20 years.