Heron House

Heron House was conceived as part of a larger landscaped masterplan precinct just a short walk to Mt. Martha’s Birdrock beach.

The floorplan is arranged around a central garden courtyard which provides an outdoor retreat with a sense of refuge and privacy. With seasonal living in mind, the garden courtyard with its mounded informal soft landscaping is connected to the house via a light filled dual aspect living, kitchen and meals open plan area. In addition to all year round considerations of light and solar access, the house plan is laid out with secure cross ventilation high on the agenda be it the living quarters, bedrooms or the entry gated breezeway.

By design the dwelling is intended to recess and blend into the bush, only emerging to create height and half volumes experienced internally in the living room and main bedroom. Instead of the typical high fences which are perhaps more appropriate in inner city settings, the house is bounded by post and wire fencing in places to permit leafy trees, hedges and shrubs to permeate the site and soften the lot title boundaries.

In an ode to the Mt. Martha beach house tradition, the skin and bones have been carefully selected with the robust masonry offsetting the weatherboard cladding building vernacular of the local area.

Completed December 2019

Designed by Wolveridge Architects