Monolithic Modern – Peninsula House by Carr

Sitting almost in opposition to its rural setting, the clean and precise lines of Peninsula House conjure a refined calmness as it crisply engages with its site. Carr has proposed a bold monolithic reinterpretation of the modern farmhouse through a deliberately contemporary lens, resulting in a residence that invites the outside inward as much as it invites views outward.

Located along Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Peninsula House sits overlooking an enviable and uninterrupted vast landscape, stretching across rolling turf and out toward the coast. In its heightened position, a sense of calmness is felt from every corner of the internal lived experience, where the architectural response and its engagement with the terrain play a large part in that intended tranquillity. As an embracing destination, the home is a place of respite and rest, and the deliberate restraint aids in reinforcing the spaces as an opportunity to reset. Utilising monolithic gestures and bold, generous sweeping volumes, the resulting home is comprised of clean lines and a well curated approach. Carr reinterprets the traditional farmhouse through a crisp contemporary lens, bringing a knowing elevation of experience through spatial and material engagement.

Utilising monolithic gestures and bold and generous sweeping volumes, the resulting home is comprised of clean lines and a well curated approach.

Built by Shielcon, Peninsula House sits nestled as its own independent entity into a protective ridgeline of the coast and takes form as a measured rectilinear expression. The formal response offers a counterbalance to the rugged coastline it shares, where the mass is spread lengthways across the site, maximising views and creating long connection avenues. The play on contrast sees an open and closed play on form and glazing. On approach, the largely masonry envelope is punctuated only slightly with openings, creating a sense of privacy and protection from the elements. On the alternate façade however, full-height glazing offers an inviting immersion into the surrounding landscape and coast, encouraging a shared experience. The ideas of journey are expressed through an engagement with the landscape as it takes form across the site is built, as a reminder of the site as the hero within which the building resides.

As a single pavilion, the form references the agricultural vernacular of the farmhouse and is disguised behind a cleverly rigorous approach. Embedded into the design are laboured experiments and analysis of the site, understanding the impact of the prevailing wind and solar influences, resulting in a form oriented to maximise views and create a passive level of comfort. The apertures carved into the form focus on specific views and become portals between the built and the natural, connecting the two. As a considered whole, the ideas of compression and release are carried from exterior to interior, with spatial planning afforded a similar sequencing. Elements and spaces open and close throughout, with one half of the home designated for guests, and the other for the day-to-day. The encasing materiality then reinforces these same ideas of contrast, brought together through a muted and honest expression of raw and highly refined finishes.

The formal response offers a counterbalance to the rugged coastline it shares, where the mass is spread lengthways across the site, maximising views and creating long connection avenues.

Peninsula House offers itself as a private and protective home for its owners, while beautifully engaging with its unique site. Carr’s reinterpretation of the farmhouse as a modern and refined home of considered and curated proportions ensures the resulting pavilion will continue to endure, remain relevant and respectfully engage with its incredible surrounding setting.