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Sometimes, the best things — or diamonds, as the saying goes — are formed under pressure.
This Mount Hotham holiday home is such a case. With a fixed deadline to complete the alpine new build before the snowfall season arrived, a collaborative effort between the owners, Toppo Architects, Van Heek Construction and Scaffold, and interior designer Kim Kneipp of Kim Kneipp Studio saw it come together in just nine months.
‘The builders operated with incredible efficiency due to the pressure of completing the home before heavy snowfall arrived,’ says Kim. ‘There were many moments where we would propose an adjustment only to discover construction had already progressed beyond the point of change, which meant the interiors evolved through a constant progress of adaptation and responsiveness to live site conditions.’
‘Decisions were made intuitively and collaboratively in real time, creating a home that feels grounded in both the realities of alpine living, and the daily rituals of how the clients wanted to live.’
Inspired by their love of ski and onsen life in Japan, the owners briefed Kim Kneipp Studio to create an alpine retreat that would enable adventurous ski holidays, aswell as space to unwind and relax.
With this in mind, Kim conceived a layout that challenged ‘conventional planning hierarchies’. Most significant was the positioning of the kitchen and dining area to enjoy the home’s prime mountain outlook – with spaces for gathering, food prep, and jigsaw puzzles, amongst the stunning landscape.
The lounge, on the other hand, sits in a more inward facing pocket of the home, where ‘reduced glazing and lower ceilings create a softer, more cocooning atmosphere, removed from neighbouring properties,’ says Kim.
A custom-built sofa sits snuggly in the corner of the lounge, with a pop-out window designed specifically to connect as an extension of the in-built seating.
The ground floor, which was initially planned as an ‘apres-ski zone centred around a pool table and entertaining space’ evolved instead into a ‘wellness level’ combining bathing, heat, rest and recovery, inspired by onsen culture and alpine retreat rituals.
The interiors also came together in response to the landscape, rather than a thematic reinvention of it. Kim explains, ‘We focused on tonal restraint, tactile depth, and sensory atmosphere.
The changing qualities of light, snow, mist and timbered national parkland became important references… During winter the landscape outside becomes intensely bright and exposed, so we wanted the interiors to feel cocooning and protective by comparison.’
Many of the finishes, therefore, were selected for the way in which they absorb light and soften acoustics. They also needed to be durable enough to withstand snow gear, moisture, temperature shifts and large groups moving through the house.
The resulting palette of smoked timber, natural stone, textured tiles, oxidised metal finishes and deep tonal spaces achieves this with a grounding sense of warmth.
‘The project feels successful because it resists becoming overly polished or performative,’ says Kim. ‘There is a quietness and honesty to the interiors that feels deeply connected to both the landscape and the rhythms of alpine living.’
