Set on a steep coastal site overlooking Mornington Peninsula, the owners of House MT – a retired couple – wanted to make the most of the amazing bay views and to have a home that was comfortable and intimate when occupied by just the couple – but also able to adapt and expand to host their extended family or when their adult children came to stay. In response to this, the design for the house avoided the open plan and was built around the idea of a “connected plan” – creating a series of distinct, flexible indoor and outdoor living spaces, which are connected visually when closed but which could be opened and connected when required.

Following the topography of the site, the project employed a whole-of-site strategy, organising the house and landscape as a sequence of connected terraces which setup a range of captured and framed views. The roof opposes this natural slope, opening up the main living spaces to the bay on the south, but at the same time is cut and folded to allow northern light deep into the house.

From the street, the house presents a restrained, humble single storey volume clad in dark, standing seam metal. A timber lined awning is created by pushing the entry and bedrooms into the main volume to create a compressed, framed glimpse of the view beyond without giving too much away before moving inside. Internally, the controlled entry moves into a larger, timber lined double height circulation space which cuts through the house, bridging interior and exterior spaces, connecting different levels, and opening out to the vast view of the peninsula and bay beyond.