Splinter Society uses "warm, natural palette" for coastal home in Australia
Australian architecture studio Splinter Society has completed Coastal House, a minimalist home in Victoria finished in a palette of concrete, limestone, copper and hardwood designed to "age beautifully" in the harsh coastal weather.
Designed for a local builder as a development project, the family home is located in the town of Ocean Grove and occupies an elevated position that is set back from the beach.
Organised on a relatively narrow, deep plot, Splinter Society designed the layout of Coastal House to balance panoramic, south-facing views of the ocean with protection and privacy for its bedrooms.
This informed the creation of a courtyard on the home's western edge, hugged by a bedroom block to the east that is clad in hardwood and patinated copper panels to shelter it from salty sea winds.
"This house was very much about responding to context. It was about balancing the knockout southerly views over the ocean, whilst providing warm, north-facing protected spaces for a family to enjoy," Splinter Society director Chris Stanley told Dezeen.
"Of equal importance was creating a warm, natural palette that would age beautifully in this harsh coastal environment," he added.
Facing the street, the entrance of Coastal House is deep-set into a lower level clad in hardwood timber, where a passage leads between garage and storage areas and up a staircase to the living areas.
This upper level is housed within a slightly cantilevering concrete volume, where a full-height glazed facade is set within a deep, chamfered opening that provides the areas with panoramic sea views.
A rough limestone wall divides the living and dining areas, and projects outwards to form a pilaster above the entrance on the home's facade.
Connecting these living spaces to the bedrooms is a central glazed corridor overlooking the home's courtyard, where a small swimming pool is surrounded by a timber terrace.
"Our client has a love of natural materials and a passion for purchasing auction timbers and milling them himself. With a strong local knowledge, he also understands the wind-driven salt environment and was keen to collaborate," Stanley said.
"The house was designed to be quite minimal in execution to the street, and its simple form and natural palette allow it to be simultaneously bold, but also sensitive and recessive to its emerging dry climate landscape," he added.
The main bedroom and a rumpus have been tucked at the back of the site for the most privacy, where they overlook both the central courtyard and an additional strip of planting to the north.
Based in Melbourne, Splinter Society is an architecture and interior design studio led by Stanley alongside Asha Nicholas.
Previous projects by the studio include the extension and renovation of a home for a pair of avid gardeners, which maximised space and views for a lush collection of plants, and a black timber extension to a Melbourne cottage.
The photography is courtesy of Splinter Society.
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