Project: Moat’s Corner
Architects: Vibe Design Group
Location: Dromana, Australia
Year 2018
Photography courtesy of Vibe Design Group
Moat’s Corner draws on an inspired vision and a commitment to its established setting, refined to reach tranquil precision, an interactive haven, with which to experience the life and energy that surrounds it.
The sites layered history began with a pioneering family, after whom Moat’s Corner was named. Next came almost 70 years of a gardeners cultivating and collecting, resulting in a diverse array of flora across 5 acres of the 53 acre stretch. A new phase now and the owners’ commitment to create a home over the existing footprint set the tone for the design challenge – to respond to the integrity of its setting.
The entry elevation is one of protection, intrigue and interaction. From outside – black panels are appreciated at a sensory level, where they fill with the reflected silhouette of the established west gardens. From inside – the panels take the form of bookshelves to the bedroom wing and bench top to the kitchen, recessed and raised. They are framed with deep-set glass above, below and between ensuring natures moments are never missed.
Raw galvanised steel appears as an offset frame to the intermittent reflective panels, while floor and roof structures adhere to the depth tolerances that the steel members prescribe. A natural stack stone fin is the grounding element below a completely cantilevered bedroom wing, projecting the roots of the design inspiration – a mid-century modernist ethos encompassing honesty to materials, structural innovation and minimal ornamentation.
Moat’s Corner is as much functional as it is observational. Perched respectfully, the modernist inspired style opens itself up to the garden at every opportunity. There is not a space within the home deemed principal or secondary that does not acknowledge the life that surrounds it, reflecting nature’s mood, unpredictable but always in a synchronised sway.
