Coastal House
With a sun-bleached palette and an adaptable, flowing program, this Mornington Peninsula house by Rob Kennon Architects is at one with its coastal surroundings.
Much like the sand dunes that once dominated this landscape, there is a sense of easy, shifting movement between spaces at Coastal House, which begins with its positioning on the site. With a public reserve in front, the architects decided to push the home to the rear of the site and create a front garden with native planting that merges with that on the reserve. In casual coastal fashion, the openness of this frontage is accentuated by the sliding doors and bi-fold windows on the home’s front elevation. A basement garage accessed via a ramp prevents this visual flow from being interrupted by vehicles and utilities.
The communal areas and master bedroom overlook the garden to the front of the house, with servery windows connecting the kitchen with the front deck. To the rear, further bedrooms, rumpus room and bathrooms are linked by landscaped courtyards and covered walkways, providing plenty of natural light and ventilation throughout the home. This also provides flexibility, with the homeowners able to create private quarters for guests within these rear spaces, or to allow for independent access for teenagers if required.
In terms of materials, the exterior is wrapped in rendered brick walls, which lend a subdued, textural outer layer that is also thermally efficient. At the front elevation, this is met with a section of vertical timber boards below the kitchen’s servery windows, alluding to the aesthetic of beach boardwalks and casual, hole-in-the-wall food outlets. Rather than providing a sense of exclusion from the outdoor world, the outer walls seem to simply define the boundaries of the home, with a light touch that is emphasised by the home’s many openings.
Internally, pale timbers, olive greens, sandy browns and muted mustard connect with the tones in the native planting outdoors while also linking to the coastal landscapes beyond. Floaty curtain fabrics shift in the breeze, while linen and upholstery provide pops of singular toned grey, pink and green. As the basement was constructed in concrete, it made sense for the flooring, fire hearth and kitchen benchtop to use this cool, hardy material, which also connects visually with the rendered outer walls.
With lush green planting punctuating the voids between spaces, there is a sense of being outdoors at all times here, while the beach house palette of timbers and pale, ambient colours helps to create calming, uncluttered interior spaces that are conducive to the movement and malleability of modern life on the coast.
Architecture by Rob Kennon Architects. Build by Bartlett Architectural Construction.
Landscaping by Renata Fairhall Garden Designs.
