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Located in Lorne, this site has hosted holidays for many generations of the owner’s family.
For more than 30 years, they’d drive down the Great Ocean Road and stay in the original home, an old 1950s weatherboard.
That is, until the family decided it was time to replace the ‘disintegrating’ abode with a new coastal retreat designed to see them through the next three decades of holiday fun.
‘Our client wanted a house that could harmoniously accommodate many generations holidaying under one roof,’ says architect Georgiana Quinn, who worked on the project alongside Builders of Architecture.
‘It was important [to them] that it felt you were in Lorne — and not Melbourne. Lorne is a special town where you can simultaneously feel like you are in the bush and on the beach.’
‘The house was to take advantage of the beautiful views of Louttit Bay and feel like a tree house nestled in the existing gumtrees and other natural features of the site.’
On the exterior, concrete, steel, and timber in neutral colours like grey and charcoal ensure the build recedes into the environment, with Georgiana being cautious not to challenge the colours of the natural environment.
‘We didn’t want the house to dominate the landscape but rather sit back and let the landscape shine around it,’ she adds.
The three-level floor plan is carefully shaped around a central courtyard, a space where the many guests of the family can gather together.
Following the natural slope of the site, bedrooms are located on every level, while the main living areas at the heart of the home frame serene ocean views and leafy gumtrees.
Builder of Architecture co-founder Craig Bullen says building on the steep site during ‘one of the wettest winters’ was no small feat, but embracing the incline means the house can maximise coastal breezes through the sliding glass doors — keeping the interiors cool in summer.
The concrete structure’s thermal mass also provides passive warmth in winter, in addition to helping manage the bushfire requirements of the location.
Now, its a place that can be enjoyed all year round — designed for outdoor dinners after a day at the beach, snuggling around the fire at night, or watching the pink sunset skies through the trees.
