Portsea Beach House

by Pipkorn Kilpatrick

Being a CHI (Consolidated Homes Industries) home designed by Boyd in 1955, this gem of a beach house was obviously designed for a budget but it still very much embodied Boyd’s principles of restrained materiality and a sympathetic engagement with the natural surrounding landscape. Our approach was to embrace the humanity of the house and further enhance the way of living it encouraged, improving function and connectivity in a way that complemented the existing house without (we hope!) destroying any Boyd design intent. The majority of the house was retained while we focused our attention on pivotal areas whose reinterpretation would support and embrace the charm and fabric of the existing home and further enhance its interactions with the outdoors.