Interconnecting Opposites – Flinders Horizon by Mim Design and BH Architects
As an offer of balance to the landscape, Flinders Horizon brings both raw tactility together with an interior softening to create an immersion in place. Mim Design and BH Architects propose a generous home of grand proportions, playing with shadow and light to animate the experience of engaging with the architecture.
Over multiple levels, Flinders Horizon reaches out from a solid anchoring to the site below, endowing the feeling of floating above the landscape while being protected from within. Located amongst the popular Mornington Peninsula, with both coastal and undulating terrain views, the focus of the home is to sit as an elevated shelter for its residents. Combining luxurious sensibilities that sit comfortably within its rural siting, the challenge was to ensure the home felt appropriate to both its place and to those who would be residing there. The raw and honest materials of the coast are used as inspiration for the robust withstanding exterior shell of the home, while the interior opens as a more delicate and softened series of layers. With architecture by BH Architects and interior design by Mim Design, the resulting home is formed from subtleties.
Built by Williams Group, Flinders Horizon is named from the likeness of its long linear horizontal bands that form the architecture and allow for naturally occurring outdoor terraces to be dotted throughout the home. The focus of views out and the expanse of glazing integrated to ensure the landscape is a key element of the home then completes the shell. In breaking down the scale of the overall mass of the home, smaller compartments and zones are created, with an emphasis on connection. Internally, with the landscape, and between the occupants, the role of the home and the way in which movement occurs is inspired by a feeling of connection.
Curved forms bring an organic nature to the home, while also dissolving edges. A consistently palette of lightness is then carried throughout, allowing the surrounding natural elements to remain the focus. An engagement with the surrounding natural elements is further expressed through openings that direct light and shadow throughout the day, acting as a reminder of place. The duality between open and closed, and between the more weighted elements and lighter ones, allows the home to breathe and connect with the landscape.
Internally, with the landscape, and between the occupants, the role of the home and the way in which movement occurs is inspired by a feeling of connection.
BH Architects and Mim Design’s Flinders Horizon beautifully navigates its site. The result is a truly immersive experience from within and a respectful connection with nature.
