Set within coastal vegetation, on an elevated site on the Mornington Peninsula, the Holiday House presents a low slung, nondescript street presence. The site is accessed via an unsealed road from which adjacent properties are generally set back behind a natural green buffer, lending the surrounds a distinctly informal character.

Eschewing local trends towards ever increasing house size, at 240m2 the Holiday House embraces the notion of the family weekender as a quiet place where interaction, intimacy, and flexibility are celebrated.
Photography: Peter Bennetts
The project brief called for a strong connection between the house and its coastal environs, especially in terms of the local ecology and the site?s undulating, sandy topography. As a house for a young family, the design approach sought to strike a balance between the needs for privacy and togetherness; the linear house plan reveals itself as a sequence of complex spatial experiences that each have their own distinct quality, with principle living areas arranged as connected rooms that can be zoned off for individual use or opened up for more communal activities. Photography: Peter Bennetts
Direct and varied connections to the surrounding landscape were critical, providing direct access to a Northern courtyard embedded within the site?s natural contours, and a more discrete Western connection to the rear of the site from a secondary living/children?s playroom.

Sleeping areas within the house have been zoned to pro...