Refined and Textural – Portsea by Chamberlain Architects

Interlocking on site, Portsea sees two complementary dwellings sit in unison with one another, navigating a challenging sloping topography. Chamberlain Architects together with developer De Luca and Heidi Build collaboratively propose a refined and considered contemporary coastal home.

Paving its own path, Portsea sees a duo of residences come together on the same site, optimising the location and aspect while redefining the traditional approach to access and frontage. As a close collaboration between parties, Chamberlain Architects aligned with developer De Luca and builder Heidi Build to ensure a cohesive result, tapping into each of their areas of expertise. In an enviable position along one of the more popular streets of Portsea, the twin residences are situated lengthways across the depth of the site, intercepting in the middle.

In its enviable position along one of the more popular streets of Portsea, the twin residences are situated lengthways across the depth of the site, intercepting in the middle.

While traditionally each residence would present with its own front along the streetscape, Portsea takes another approach. The previously undeveloped site provided a unique opportunity to create a personalised expression of each of the owners. Located on a steeply sloping site, the focus lies on intersection, both across the site and between the forms themselves. The residences sit at the front and back of the site, connected in the middle, with a separate and private driveway for rear access.

The selective planning and spatial separation allow for an optimisation of natural northern light into both homes. While centrally located, the emphasis on passive design principles was an important part of the brief, allowing an embrace of the natural elements and surrounds. Although each has its own differing footprints, a long and curving organic wall binds them as a gesture of connection and unification cross the site. As its own textural veil, the front-most home features a thin timber screen, which through its operability encourages natural ventilation to fill the interior spaces. As the ground plane changes across the site, steps up and down adjust internally and, in doing so, create a variation in the journey of moving through the spaces. A similar warmth used in the exterior is brought inward, with timber used liberally and masonry as a connection to both the coastal location and design language of the area.

As a reminder of place, and of the home’s connection beyond its bounding walls, openings direct views outward and allow for the natural elements to become part of the experience of the homes.

Through a balancing of the textural and the smooth, Portsea is a place of calm retreats. Chamberlain Architects has created the ideal escape along the Mornington Peninsula, maximising the potential of the idyllic locale.