PRACTICAL magic

Designed to provide sanctuary from busy lives, this new build on Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula delivers peace, practicality and style in spades.

- Georgia Madden

When you’re building in a location like Barwon Heads, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, it’s easy to give in to standard beach-house tropes of weatherboards and lashings of white. But that’s not what these homeowners wanted. Instead, they favoured clean lines and a monochromatic palette of concrete and black.

“We wanted the house to feel both coastal and urban, sleek but not cold,” says one of the owners. “We lead busy lives, so we wanted our home to feel calm and be easy to manage. Practicality and functionality were also key.”

The couple enjoys an active outdoors lifestyle, surfing, cycling and cafe-hopping in the local area. And, with a baby on the way, the finishes needed to be durable enough to cope with wet, sandy feet and young children, and the layout flexible enough to adapt to the family’s changing needs. A pool and light-filled entertaining spaces were other items on their wish list.

Architect Ben Robertson, director of Tecture, came up with a clever solution: a triple-peaked design with four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, clad in charred timber that speaks to the home’s beachy setting, with elements of concrete and black steel for those sophisticated, urban vibes. Two outdoor entertaining areas – a larger, north-facing one at the front of the house that steps down to a pool, and a smaller, more intimate deck with banquette seating at the rear – provide spaces to barbecue on a hot day or enjoy cocktails with friends after dark.