The Portsea beach house is our design response to a wonderfully simple brief to create an elegant and practical family beach house. This beach house is located on a compact site in Portsea on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Our design celebrates the simplicity, clarity and natural beauty that emerges when form and function come together.

The home is a spatially and structurally efficient building that makes the most of a deliberately compact footprint. Free flowing communal zones are combined with a range of separable private spaces and configured to allow occupants to either engage or retreat as they need.  Expansive full height glazing brings natural light into the interior and extends views out to a landscaped garden. The building is externally clad almost entirely in a single material to emphasise its form and remind us that simplicity can be dramatic and beautiful at the same time.

Our design approach was based on our client’s desire for a simple, practical and elegant beach house for themselves and their extended family.  Set on a relatively compact site, a key design focus of this project is to create relaxed and open communal spaces that are contrasted by a range of private spaces that allow occupants to retreat from the noise and chaos that comes with families holidaying together. This balance is key to creating a beautiful and functional home away from home that adapts to the varied needs of its occupants.