The initial plans were drafted in 2018, but the home they envisioned took shape slowly across the years that followed. Situated on Port Phillip Bay, the iconic horseshoe-shaped marine embayment along Victoria’s central coast, the project was originally conceived as a bustling family hub. Then came delays, lockdowns and shifting needs. By the time construction was underway, the children had grown up and moved out, and the brief quietly changed: a retirement base for the parents, a place for family to come and go.
“The project evolved quite a lot over time,” founder and lead architect of Melbourne-based firm Travis Walton says. “A lot of the decisions came back to how the owners wanted to live. There are large spaces where the family can reconnect and host guests, such as the kitchen and dining areas, and then there are quieter moments where they can truly retreat.”
From the street, the home presents as one unified form despite comprising two separate townhouses joined by a façade of textural limestone, travertine and single-pane glass accents. On entry, a double-height ceiling draws light from the skylight above to the ground floor below, illuminating a collection of furniture and art, among them an abstract tufted mirror by Swedish designer Alfhild Kulper and a cast Murano glass lamp by Hannes Peer for 6:AM Glass.
