Refined Rural – Dam House by Pleysier Perkins

Dam House focuses on the beauty of the surrounds, with the architecture responding in an elemental and linear way that frames views outward. Pleysier Perkins communicates a robust and honest approach through materiality and form, whilst elevating the traditional country home experience with heightened detailing and refinement.

Overlooking its inspiration, Dam House directs views out towards the surrounding landscape, with water playing a significant role in its placement. Immersing itself amid the natural elements, the structure is deliberately low-lying and linear in its silhouette, enfolding and aligning itself to a natural ridge within the terrain. Located in Main Ridge, on the Mornington Peninsula, the generous family holiday home needed to both feel intimate for smaller groups and welcoming when a larger group of guests are taking residence. The integration of flexibility within the open plan home allows for adaptability over time without compromising on the familiar rural feeling within.

The integration of flexibility within the open plan home allows for adaptability over time without compromising on the familiar rural feeling within.

Pleysier Perkins deliberately evolves the idea of what makes a successful country home through adopting a more modern approach and overlaying a certain rigour. With its own integrated pool and spa, the home combines a textural and immersive feeling among the less tame landscape features, together with the nuances and conveniences of a traditional urban home. Weighted in place, the use of masonry and encompassing walls solidifies the home’s permanence, whilst the heft of the material expressed both externally and internally is a reminder of the resilience needed for the location.

Arranged as three cascading pavilions that follow the fall of the site, the residence features blade walls that define those stepping motions whilst ensuring a consistent connection to the surrounds. Each pavilion then creates a natural hierarchy and zoning between dedicated spaces for the guests, adults and children. Views outward are prioritised with generous glazing on either side of the home, framed by the polished concrete floor running throughout and the dark timber lining of the internal ceilings. Deep reveals at the outer edges of the home allow for natural light yet help deflect the incoming sun in summer and capture heat in winter.

Pleysier Perkins deliberately evolves the idea of what makes a successful country home through adopting a more modern approach and overlaying a certain rigour.

Deeply connected to the idea of place, Dam House exudes a feeling of calm disconnection. As its own retreat, the mix of texture and a muted tonality throughout grounds the home in the landscape, seeing Pleysier Perkins create an enduring legacy for the owners.