This beach house in Rye on the ocean side of the Mornington Peninsula is set within a site bordering the Mornington Peninsula National Park and ocean to the south and public reserve to the north, all covered with ti-tree and other native vegetation synonymous with this coastline. The house sits in the middle of the site to allow for the retention of the natural landscape at the front and rear of the block in spite of the clearing for defendable space either side of the house to meet the requirements of the bushfire overlay.
The retention of vegetation at the front and rear of the block provided privacy from the street to the front and reserve to the back and allowed the lower level living space to extend out to include the cleared defendable space, creating a strong link between the building and the natural landscape. The ti-tree to the front and back of the site merges with that on the neighbouring Crown land so that the site appears to extend well beyond the front and rear boundaries. The linking of the built form and natural landscape was a consistent theme through the design.
The ground level concrete floor steps down as the natural ground level falls to link the internal and external space while differentiating living, dining and kitchen areas through changes of level without obstructing views. The angle of the roof, pitched on both north-south and east-west axis, also reflect the site gradient to further link building and landscape while maximising the internal volume within the allowable height limit. The same angles are used for the retaining wall to the terrace to emphasise this relationship. The ground level living space is fully glazed and this glazing slides away to open the interior to the defendable space around the house. The terrace is detailed to appear as an extension of the internal ground plane when the sliding doors are open.
The interior is lined in plywood with no visible fixings and the flooring to the first level is timber to create a warm and comfortable internal space. The exterior is Colorbond steel and concrete block to withstand the harsh coastal environment. The eave to the ground level north facing glazing and retractable west facing roller blinds means that heat from winter sun can be captured by the thermal mass of the concrete slab to warm the house and summer sun is kept out of the building. The central stair void and small, secure openings to the ground level allow for stack effect cooling in combination with bedroom windows upstairs.
