An Ongoing Exploration – St Andrews Beach House by Woods Bagot

Carefully placed above the sand dunes of St Andrews Beach, the understated holiday home of Nik Karalis, CEO of Woods Bagot, was always understood as an incremental project that would evolve and grow with its occupants over decades.

Almost 25 years since the first structure was built in 1997, the initial form of the house – two small volumes separated by a breezeway – has remained legible across three subsequent stages of development, which transformed the building from a simple shack to an expansive villa on a fragile, exposed coastal site.

Nestled behind the foredune and tracing its long, low form parallel to the coastline, St Andrews Beach House is clad almost exclusively in short lengths of weathered jarrah.

The area now known as St Andrews Beach is situated on the unceded lands and waters of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, near the middle of a long stretch of coastline at the bottom of the Mornington Peninsula that looks out towards Millowl (Phillip Island). Nestled behind the foredune and tracing its long, low form parallel to the coastline, St Andrews Beach House is clad almost exclusively in short lengths of weathered jarrah. On approach from the street side of the property, the textured variation of the grey hardwood generates a shingle-like texture to the surface of the building. These aged edges sit in sharp contrast to the extensive glazing to the southwest, which captures uninterrupted views of the ocean and surrounding landscape and, in turn, reveals the rich auburn palette of the house’s interior finishes.

In contrast to the peninsula’s more densely populated northern edge, the exposed and rugged conditions of the back beaches impart a more extreme, secluded quality to the sites in the region. Travelling down the protected western coastal roads through Mornington and other smaller coastal towns such as Rosebud, Sorrento and Portsea, the land curls around the bay, with buildings and other signs of settlement regularly meeting the edge of the foreshore. Further south, however, ocean beaches like St Andrews and Gunnamatta unfold out into long, unflinching views. The rolling surf is punctuated by rock formations and pools, but the architecture of the place recedes, sensibly ducking for cover between the vegetation of the sand dunes.

St Andrews Beach House is an unfinished, ongoing architectural exploration that centres the continuous and evolving interrogation of site and occupation.

Since the first phase of St Andrews Beach House, the number and size of houses in the area has grown considerably. The project has followed this trajectory, evolving from a single-level, three-bedroom holiday house into what is currently a two-story, five-bedroom villa, which features a cellar, an office, a lap pool, a glass house undercroft generated by a set of grand stairs, as well as a separate greenhouse structure near the entry to the site. Despite these additions, the house retains something of the sensibility of its beginnings. As Nik Karalis explains, the initial concept for the project respectfully deferred to its surroundings. “In 1997, there were two simple shacks elevated off the ground connected by an open breezeway,” he recalls. “We surrendered ourselves to this concept, given the enormity of the context of the sand dune landscape, and instead focused on the detail. There was no need to be in competition with the landscape; it would win every time.”

The project revels in these apparent contrasts – that is, in the considered push and pull between the ‘simple shack’ and the ‘villa’ that has emerged over the last two-and-a-half decades. Time is heavily implicated in this process, with the project having incorporated and absorbed the language of its own weathered materials while being expanded and refined. For Nik, the “deliberate juxtaposition of eroded and resilient surfaces of mundane and exquisite materials reflects a sensitivity of a beguiling nature, celebrating the temporal nature of decay.” It is a quality that emerged gradually across the life of the project, as the structure and its spaces were occupied and further understood over a number of years.

Across the building’s interior, more luxurious finishes – such as stone and stainless steel – have been combined with the aged, complex patinas of rusted and galvanised steel, as well as weathered timber.

Across the building’s interior, more luxurious finishes – such as stone and stainless steel – have been combined with the aged, complex patinas of rusted and galvanised steel, as well as weathered timber. These spaces are well-designed but not self-conscious. Fixings and structural elements are expressed and considered on their own terms, without attempting to hide the robustness of the building’s construction or its history. Leaving room for the slow unfolding of the project has proved crucial to its design development. “The house both at once dominates and then recedes. The original emotional response was vulnerability and frailty. This over time has shifted and its weathering of materials and patina comforts one like an old favourite blanket,” Nik reflects. Beloved pieces of furniture – such as the Poltronova Joe armchair, a well-worn leather ‘mitt’ that has been a favourite fireside spot for two generations of children in the house – further reinforce project connections to the passing of time, resilience and growth.

The more recent addition of a ground floor level contributes a new set of site experiences and interactions to the project. Unlike the upper level, the undercroft zone within St Andrews Beach House moves away from visual connections to the broader landscape, responding instead to a more immediate microclimate, generated by the space underneath the grand stair that runs the length of the 25-metre deck on the ocean side of the house. Referencing Adalberto Libera’s Villa Malaparte in Capri, the stair is an over scaled gesture of connection between the private interior of the house and the dunes. Unlike the solid brick and concrete stair of Malaparte, however, here at St Andrews the element is rendered beautifully porous through the use of timber decking treads and steel stringers, which combine to deliver lines of sunlight to the protected terrarium space below. A retreat from the expansive views of the upper level, the contained and intimate spaces of the ground floor facilitate new relationships to site. Framed views are offered at either end of the space and the terrarium garden displays a series of limestone boulders unearthed during excavation.

Time is heavily implicated in this process, with the project having incorporated and absorbed the language of its own weathered materials while being expanded and refined.

St Andrews Beach House is an unfinished, ongoing architectural exploration that centres the continuous and evolving interrogation of site and occupation. Afforded the opportunity to design for himself and his family, the architect’s approach prioritises iterative “adjustments to context” over finite, fussy or fixed interventions in the landscape. As such, at each stage of its development, the design response has worked to connect the needs of its occupants with a thoughtful interpretation of the qualities and atmospheres of its context. An irreducible accumulation of moments defines the project, imbuing it with a sense of timelessness.