The FUN House on Point Lonsdale, Bellarine Peninsula Home Photos, Architecture Project Images

The FUN House on Point Lonsdale, Victoria

Australian Residential Development design by Nine Muses Design

9 Dec 2019

The FUN House

Architects: Nine Muses Design

Location: Point Lonsdale, Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria, Australia

Small footprint, small budget, BIG impact!

Keen to build a vibrant, compact and affordable home in the tightly held seaside enclave of Point Lonsdale, a young family saw potential in a vacant battle-axe block and engaged Nine Muses Design to help bring their vision to life.

The FUN House is home to Emma and Louis, their two energetic young sons and much-loved dog Pip. With creative backgrounds in furniture design and videography, it was never going to be an ‘ordinary’ house for Emma and Louis.

Architect, Jane Macrae explains, “Pink’s song, ‘House of Fun’ provided the soundtrack for this gift of a project. Its not often that clients can’t be challenged enough! The budget, site constraints, clients’ design acumen and their trust gave birth to a fun, collaborative and creative process. The result really reflects this and designing it never felt like it work. It was so much FUN!”

The site is located at the rear in a suburban subdivision with the desired northerly aspect facing to the street. The challenge was to maximise solar gains and garden area on a small site. The solution was three pavilions that tightly hug the rear and side boundaries with minimal setbacks.

The house form literally turns its back on the idea of a ‘’backyard.’ Instead it embraces a sun-drenched front yard with easy access from living areas. and the rear location ensures it’s private and secluded.

“Once we had settled on the best footprint for spatial and solar benefits we then had fun carving out character moments to reflect both Emma and Louis.”

An angled piece was sliced out of the central living area to create an expanse of glass facing true north. Bright coloured box gutters separate the three forms, lime green wrap around fascias frame the gable ends, windows are staggered in height, internal walls are at angles and a circular window provides a vista from their working kitchen to the front door. The formal plan was shaken and stirred!

“When I visit the doors are open, the house is warm and full of light, the boys are running, playing and using every available space and Pip is curled up in a sunny spot. The house is doing its job.”

The conventional idea of a ‘backyard’ was abandoned in favour of a larger sun-drenched, north-facing front yard. The location to the rear in a battle-axe subdivision meant this could still be a well-used and private space for this active family.

We also abandoned giving over space and budget to a carport or garage and just provided the required allocated ‘off street’ carspace. Although the footprint is small, all ceiling heights are over 3m to make the house feel more spacious.

The clients, Emma & Louis Royer are both creative people so were really engaged in the process. They didn’t want a ‘normal’ house and were incredibly keen and willing to make their home a true reflection of their creative and colourful styles!

They’re a beautiful and connected family too so were keen to keep the footprint down and to really make the spaces compact and multipurpose.