Burraworrin (‘Magpie’) House, on the coastline of the Mornington Peninsula, is for three generations of one family. Many country residences are detached and isolated, this house, however, melds with the undulating landscape and explores, through its spatial arrangement, the physical need for attachment within the family unit. Burraworrin House expresses an interest in creating spaces that can delight, challenge, heal, calm, even excite. It has been brought forward right to the edge of the ridge. It’s just starting to emerge out so it seems this could be a hang glider, on the tip.

The Burraworrin House has got a sense of movement and an almost rotational quality that dances. There’s a sense of anchor, too, that is reinforced by the long stone wall that leads in from the carport. That long straight wall turns into a circle and there is vertical connection to the lookout. The main living arranged space around the kitchen and the fire pit. External curved elements are rescaled and repeated internally, resonating in the details of the kitchen bench, the undulating elliptical ceilings, and the rising and falling floor levels.

There’s a sense of community of those three spaces. Rather than wall to wall glass, there’s a breaking up of the view into vignettes. Then the tail of the bedrooms is quite tightly organized. This organic collection of forms, as demanded by client, is conceived as a family of related spaces. Two curved wings of interlocking volumes splay out from the central entrance. They establish intimate internal niches and enclose a series of north-facing terraces protected from prevailing coastal winds, reinforcing the house’s primary role as a place of shelter. Staggered lights allow varied viewpoints and capture views to the coast.

Above the vestibule, the lookout rises 8 m into the air, offering panoramic views. It is much more connected back into the site on the north side, where the sun penetrates and gives more private spaces. Then the second floor tucked down into the southern side of the site. This project suggests a dynamic relationship between its physical isolation and the communal nature of its inhabitation. The configuration creates a sense of place that draws as much from its relationship with the environment as from the familial relationships contained within.

It is a humanized environment that celebrates and supports the activities that happen in the house. The cladding is a Victorian hardwood stringy-bark. You can use small diameter logs that have been retrieved from the forest floor rather than cutting down big trees. Parabolic curves, projecting rooflines and bow-shaped hulls are clad in radially-sawn timber, which is more efficient than normal sawing. Burraworrin House’s richness has been worked in a way that radiates the craftsmanship and the imagination.

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