One of the owners of Sandy Point House has been holidaying in the beachside hamlet of Sandy Point all her life. She spent her family vacations there as a child, and continues to do so today with her husband and three teenage kids. Located on the edge of the quiet coastal community, Sandy Point House looks out across tea-tree scrubland and white dunes to Wilsons Promontory in the distance.

“The underlying aspiration of the design was to imagine an idealized coastal experience and make a house that reflects and amplifies a genuine connection to place,” says Patrick Kennedy, director of Kennedy Nolan Architects. “Deeply embedded in its landscape and derived from memories of family holidays past, it’s somewhere new memories can be nurtured.”

The house is arranged like a pinwheel, with bedrooms and living areas located around an inner courtyard. The courtyard provides an outdoor space that is sheltered from Sandy Point’s famous prevailing winds and, as the means of circulation between rooms, it also connects these spaces with the rugged environment. “There is a sensory experience of place as you move from room to room; a view of stars, a burst of cold air, the sound of the ocean crashing,” says Patrick.

With colour, texture and materiality inspired by the landscape, the house is at one with its setting. The greying timber exterior will become camouflaged among indigenous plantings, and the muted, natural colours in the interior are drawn from the surrounds. The intensity of colour and texture is subtly varied between rooms to influence the atmosphere and mood.

The kitchen is discreetly integrated into the dining and living area, with olive-green panelled joinery extending up the cabinetry and walls to meet the timber slats that roll across the undulating ceiling. This space looks out to the courtyard, with the kitchen window framed by the hardwood benchtop and recessed surround. Slate floor tiles and leather pulls harmonize with the colours and textures, inside and out.

The tonal green palette, timber ceiling and cocooning curves continue in the bathroom and ensuite. The shower wall in the shared bathroom is a curved alcove enveloped with tiles of varying shades of green, while the ceiling in the ensuite wraps down the wall to the vanity window, creating a sense of protection from the turbulent weather.

Designed for the informality of beach holidays and the family’s traditions, Sandy Point House supports a shift in state of mind: from busy city life to relaxed and laid-back holiday mode.

This article was first published on architectureau.com.