Anglesea Beach House by Andrew Maynard Architects

For Andrew Maynard Architects, a holiday home in Anglesea VIC, the clients’ requirement was simple: more space for their growing and aging family. The design response to the home was a series of “finely-crafted multi-functional timber boxes” nestled around the existing house.

A new trafficable roof extends the top floor living spaces out into the treetops in an attempt to connect the house with the site. Below the roof, the wood continues downward to create a deck for the first level. Parts of the structure are carved out creating “a multi-dimensioned element” that provides shelter as well as habitable areas for the children to play.

A “Northern box addition” allows winter sun to penetrate deep within the home’s interior, warming the concrete slab provided for thermal mass. Bright colour finishes at the ground level enliven the interior to create a “playful, leisurely and carefree characteristic that such a house should embody.”

Elements strive to perform a variety of functions as a bed serves as a recreational seat, a play platform for children, an access point out to the trampoline, a storage space & (when the large black curtain is extended dividing the area) a private bed. ”This multiplicity in function, allows the spaces to have increased versatility, and allows the plan to respond to many different demands simultaneously reducing the overall footprint of the design.”

More frequently holiday homes are becoming little more than transplanted suburban ugliness; the great Australian tradition of the ‘shack’ is in danger of being superseded by bloated mansions with four bathrooms and all the trappings of modern life.
With this project we wanted to celebrate the shack and have kept close to the original building’s footprint to avoid taking over the rugged coastal block.

Our clients came to us with a brief for ‘much more room’ for their aging family holiday home. Our response was a series of finely-crafted timber boxes nestled around the bulk of the existing house. The bedroom addition opens up the northern façade of the house to the rugged bush block, doing double duty as the roof becomes an expansive deck to extend the living space out into the treetops. Other additions include extra storage space and a glass-ceiling shower for more of those precious tree-top views

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