Windmill House

This contemporary farmhouse on the Mornington Peninsula is robust to withstand the harsh environment, yet soft, comfortable and beautifully detailed.

This contemporary farmhouse on the Mornington Peninsula is robust to withstand the harsh environment, yet soft, comfortable and beautifully detailed.

Designing a new house on a greenfield site requires a great deal of forethought and care, but designing a new house on a site as beautiful as this takes design considerations to a different level. Views of the ocean needed to be maintained from the road, meaning the positioning of the site and the height of the home were especially critical.

Through 3D modelling, we were able to determine that the best site was as close to the water as possible, ensuring the building’s form hugged the natural landscape.

We carefully considered the journey to and through the home. Firstly, the new laneway from the road to the home was designed as a meandering pathway that introduces visitors to key features like the reconditioned windmill and the newly constructed stables. Upon approaching the home, the ocean view is deliberately concealed by monolithic concrete walls which symbolise the robust structure needed to withstand this exposed environment. It’s only upon being invited through the huge driftwood door that the visitor is rewarded with their first framed view of the ocean.

The program of the home is laid out in a linear fashion, stepping up and staggering outwards as it rises to match the natural terrain with almost all rooms facing the water. As a consequence of this arrangement, access to each part of the home is via a wide corridor which changes direction at the edge of each building block. This change of direction coupled with a change of scale and materiality in each segment allows the visitor a new view and spatial experience at each turn.

With the ocean side of the home being largely south facing and exposed to the elements, it was critical to create a calm counterpoint. We did this by placing the alfresco seating area and pool on the north side, sheltered by the stepping form of the building. Even this zone has uninterrupted ocean views through huge glazed walls.

Photography: Fraser Marsden