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Anderson House by Tecture
Located in coastal Torquay, Anderson House by Tecture was designed for a retired couple relocating from Ballarat who envisioned a permanent home where their children and grandchildren could gather.
The brief called for a coastal-inspired residence with two living areas, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a pool, an alfresco area and a double garage, all on a compact 275-square-metre block. Delivering on this required spatial ingenuity and clever use of materials to suggest scale beyond the site’s physical boundaries, with the resulting 295-square-metre home spanning two levels. “Being an exercise of trying to achieve so much on what is not a large site, it is the space planning that becomes the success in this project,” explains Ben Robertson, director of Tecture. “In the very beginning, and knowing we wouldn’t be able to laden the home with windows, we needed to consider all the skylights in relation to upper-level setbacks and how we really could maximise as much light and illusion of scale as best we could.”
Set on a subdivided block, where the front yard is technically the backyard, the design flips expectations. The facade addresses the street with openness, using glazing to capture northern light while protecting privacy from neighbouring lots. This orientation also allowed the team to rethink typical layouts, relocate the garage and negotiate a two-storey wall on the boundary. A curved pool set against the fence line adds an architectural moment, breaking up the rectilinear geometry of the façade with a sculptural softness.
“Being located in the more urban centre of Torquay, we wanted to embrace the materials as a juxtaposition of urban and coastal,” says Robertson. “We also wanted to use materials and a design ideology that would psychologically manipulate the sense of scale.”
Inside, the material palette enhances the sense of volume. Oak joinery and travertine surfaces bring cohesion, connecting spaces both vertically and horizontally. “Vertical oak nib walls frame elements of kitchen joinery to elevate the proportion and exaggerate height and length,” Roberston notes. “But these nib walls also help to create zones, such as the dining room stone credenza, so the lines of spaces are subconsciously divided, even though the joinery between spaces is continuous.”
The bathrooms continue the home’s tactile and cohesive material language with timber cabinetry and screens echoing the grey-formed concrete elements outside. In two of the spaces, concrete vanities recall coastal textures, while travertine in the main bathroom anchors the material palette. The ensuite takes a more atmospheric turn, where a deep blue mosaic adds richness and mood, an intentional contrast suited for the space.
Furniture was selected to mirror the tones and textures of the interiors, with an emphasis on minimalism and comfort. A custom travertine sideboard, integrated into the joinery between the kitchen and living area, adds visual weight and continuity.
Even close trade partners appreciated the results. “From the many houses of ours they’ve worked on, this one was their favourite,” Robertson shares. “You don’t need to create an oversized home, you just need to work every scale and material, and understand the context on a deeper level.”
Architecture and interior design by Tecture. Build by Biviano Builders. Landscape design by Luma Landscapes. Joinery by SCLK. Timber flooring by Made by Storey. Stone by Signorino.
