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Architects: Tom Robertson Architects
- Area: 390 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Tom Ross
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Lead Architect: Tom Robertson
Text description provided by the architects. Courtside House is a home that’s serious about being fun and welcoming in every way. It was designed for a family of three as a coastal holiday home where they can escape the city, relax, and entertain friends by the waters of Mount Martha. it is a place to entertain friends, gather around the fireplace, soak in the sun, and, as its name suggests, enjoy a few hits of tennis. The brief was to maximize city views, connect the house to an existing tennis court, and provide multiple outdoor areas to capture or hide from the sun. Strategic planning would allow for separation between parents, children, and guests while also allowing everyone to come together for a tennis viewing.
The house has a humble and concealed presentation to the street. Once inside, a natural and inviting grandeur opens up. The robustness of the exteriors similarly contrasts with the interiors’ refined detailing and textured richness, from the warmth of the timber floors and ceilings to the dappled light filtered through pocket gardens. A timber spine/axis extends from the entrance to the living room feature window with hero vistas across the bay. Pocket gardens articulate the ground-level mass and provide filtered light throughout.
The design integrates with the terrain’s generous slope and exploits the bay views and city beyond. Northern orientation maximizes light, and a refined composition features brick to the grounding elements and black timber cladding and battens. Inside, the bold black timber kitchen features a granite benchtop, black porcelain, and a feature mosaic to the splashback. The island bench is mid-grey granite above white 2pac joinery, designed to double as an informal meals area. A generous walk-in pantry provides extensive storage.
The living area sits below the grand timber ceiling and huddles around a free-standing fireplace. The hero of the space is the expansive window, which connects the living space with an incredible vista of the bay and CBD beyond. A dining area to the side of the kitchen offers a lowered ceiling for a more intimate atmosphere. The extensive glazed facade is operable and allows effortless flow onto the upper terrace.
These spaces are countered by quiet zones where parents can find peace, such as the spacious master bedroom with an oversized window to the lush courtyard garden and ensuite basking in the glow of a generous skylight. The hero of the house, however, is the expansive window framing vistas of Port Phillip Bay, made all the more prominent through the architecture’s embrace of the sloping site. Courtside House is both fun and serious. Rich with unexpected moments, it plays out as a rally of grounding mass, refined detailing, natural light and multiple spaces inside and out to relax by the bay.
