A Honed Vision – Allan Street by Webster Architecture & Interiors
Reaping the rewards of an integrated and close connection between disciplines, Allan Street allows an optimised outcome to be realised. Webster Architecture & Interiors, Nathan Burkett and Simone Haag collaborate to redefine the coastal holiday home, emphasising an openness between inside and out.
In its removed locale, Allan Street is positioned amongst the popular Mornington Peninsula area as a secluded retreat for its owners. As his own occasional home, landscape architect Nathan Burkett wanted to bring a trusted team together to formalise his vision for the site. While a more traditional response would be to douse the home in light and white tones, darker and textural approach was taken instead – one that responds sympathetically to the unique Australian landscape. With architecture by Webster Architecture & Interiors and styling by Simone Haag, every element of the home comes together through a considered lens. While still referencing the gabled forms of rural and coastal homes from approach, the darkened cloaking of the form offers a recessive gesture, with the landscape highlighted as the focus.
As a close collaboration, Allan Street sees elements of contrast come together across the site. While the darker tones lessen the overall form externally, internally, the approach is reversed. Creating an expanded sense of scale, light tones ensure the home feels generous and restful as a departure from the surrounds. As a holiday escape, there also needed to be a level of low maintenance in how the assemblage of parts came together. Robust finishes are combined with the elevated detailing expected in any urban residential home, ensuring comfort and familiarity are never compromised.
Celebrating the connection between inside and out, the architecture and landscape aim to support and reinforce one another. Generous openings allow for free-flowing movement across the traditional building edge threshold, encouraging a pull out into the landscape. Throughout, further openings created framed and curated views that bring the natural elements into the interior and soften the architectural elements. Both relaxed and simplified, the overarching approach is one that expresses texture and anchors the home in place, and by drawing in natural materials, combined with refined details and junctions, the home feels the result of meticulous contemplation.
