Living in the Landscape (Marysville House)

Marysville House replaces a three-bedroom holiday home destroyed in the Black Saturday Fires of 2009, designed as a year-round retreat for a family of four. The brief was initially ambitious: a double-storey residence with three bedrooms, a generous communal dining and living area, two bathrooms and a detached studio. The planning process steered the project somewhere quieter.

Restraint became the design strategy. The early scheme was pared back to a single enlarged studio comprising one communal room, utilities and a mezzanine sleeping platform. The form takes its cue from a remote mountain lodge, sitting at ease within its bushland setting rather than competing with it.

A compact footprint reduced material wastage and construction labour, and it has continued to pay back through better thermal performance across the building's life. The result reads as effortless: a small holiday house that connects to its environment with simplicity and ease.

Designed in conjunction with Damien Thackray of terminus studio. Photography by Brendan Finn.