A Hillside Peninsula Retreat - House MT by Kart Projects

“When the clients first came to us, they had a huge list of rooms, the area was over 500m2, and each room had just one purpose”, says Martin. While their children were grown up and no longer living at home, it was important to the clients that they host large family gatherings, so the house needed to perform two very different functions. When hosting family, it needed to expand and comfortably accommodate a large group, while for the majority of the time, it needed to be appropriate for just two people.

The design process for House MT by Kart Projects was extremely deliberative.

The challenge for the architects was to work with the clients to distil what was most important to them, creating a program that made sense architecturally and fulfilled the clients’ needs. “I feel that this project benefited from a really long briefing period”, reflects Martin. “It was a process of helping the client get into the idea of what it could become”. They began by drawing up the clients’ initial plan to visually represent how large it was, and proposed some strategies for a more efficient use of space. Several months later, the clients returned and expressed their appreciation that Kart were willing to risk losing the project to be honest about their design approach.

In order to create a home that functions for both a couple and large groups, Kart created a ‘connected’ plan, that is capable of opening up but that can also become more ‘cellular’ as needed. They focused on robust natural materials to design a welcoming, warm home that could withstand the exceptionally harsh coastal climate. Steel cladding protects the home from the salty sea winds, while timber is used at the human-scale to enliven and encapsulate the spaces.

“I feel that this project benefited from a really long briefing period”.

Martin says they see architecture and interiors as “integral, not separate disciplines”, explaining they were fortunate to select the furniture and lighting in the project as well. “We think of it as a continuous set of ideas, the interior is not separate from the architecture in our approach”, he says. Along with the natural timber, the interiors take their cue from the changeable blue ocean in the distance in the form of deep blue kitchen cabinetry and custom tiles for the kitchen splashback. “The dark blue elements denote the service spaces, with the garage, laundry pantry and storage all condensed into corner of the house”, says Martin. “Because quite a light space as well, we wanted to create a contrast to hold it all together in one darker column”.

Steel cladding protects the home from the salty sea winds, while timber is used at the human-scale to enliven and encapsulate the spaces.