Merricks Farmhouse by Michael Lumby Structure with Nielsen Jenkins is positioned on Victoria’s picturesque Mornington Peninsula, set among the many area’s amiable wineries and charming seaside hamlets. The elevated, fifty-acre property is on a rustic lane that’s delicately hid from the passing visitors transferring alongside the arterial thoroughfare close by. From this facet highway, the serpentine, wooded shoreline and the calm waters of Western Port Bay are hidden at first after which glimpsed within the rear-view mirror of the automobile as you slowly transfer uphill. The commodious hilltop dwelling comes into view throughout a frisky grassed paddock, anchored on the prow-like website by a copse of established timber. The structure of Merricks Farmhouse is a thought of response to this very particular place.
The commissioning and building of this residential compound is a world story. The structure is a collaboration between the South African follow of Michael Lumby and the Queensland agency led by Lachlan Nielsen and Morgan Jenkins. The panorama has a parallel bilateral authorship, bringing collectively Cape City-based, worldwide backyard designer Franchesca Watson and Melbourne-based panorama architect and horticulturist Robyn Barlow. The purchasers are international residents who transfer between international locations for enterprise and household. The genesis – and basis – of this prodigious community is deep friendship. The story started in 2011 when Michael and Morgan met in South Africa, when the latter was travelling as a latest graduate of structure. The pair stayed in contact over subsequent years as they progressed of their careers and went on to determine their very own practices. In 2017 the chance to collaborate on a big venture in Australia introduced itself. The architectural workforce energetically embraced the alternatives and challenges of delivering Merricks Farmhouse and are actually working collaboratively on different tasks, each in Australia and South Africa. Michael, Lachlan and Morgan have blended their numerous social, architectural and environmental experiences, bringing a singular richness to a venture that may be a landmark within the inventive and organizational improvement of each corporations.
Thick concrete block partitions outline views and direct circulation round the home.
Picture:
Tom Ross
The practices converse of their shared want to create an “abstraction of a typical Australian farmhouse,” and this aspiration is authoritatively delivered. The smooth, black silhouette of the capacious roof sits very comfortably inside the productive viticultural panorama of the Mornington Peninsula. In an archetypal farmhouse, the roof could be the first generator of expertise and enclosure – however right here, it’s the concrete block partitions. Elegant however sturdy, these partitions have a big compositional heft: some are as thick as one metre and venture out into the panorama as jardinières for verdant greenery that cascades down their sides. The plan is organized utilizing a sequence of discrete courtyards, every with a rigorously calibrated character – from the grand backyard courtyard on the centre of the home and an expansive pool terrace whose periphery is outlined by a belt of current timber to intimate retreats adjoining to the bedrooms. The crisp define of the roof conceals a jagged part. Skylights carry mild into the rooms, and the cavity of the roof has been carved out to nuance and distinguish inside areas, transferring the size up and down, out and in. The bottom aircraft displays an identical stage of poise, exemplified by the easy connections between inside and out of doors – constructing and panorama. Inside areas are skilled as a refined juxtaposition to the hardy character of the constructing’s construction, with the astute detailing and the heat of charred timber, plush leather-based, metal fixtures, oak joinery, slate paving and in-situ concrete creating excellent home settings.
Strong and refined interiors characteristic oak joinery, metal fittings and charred timber.
Picture:
Tom Ross
Merricks Farmhouse confidently references probably the most subtle colonial farmhouses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and picks up on the meticulous detailing and spatial configuration of the enduring late-modernist interpretations of the kind. Rigorous associations might be made with the oeuvre of Kerry Hill Architects, significantly the follow’s resort tasks in Japan, and there’s a scrupulous nod to Guilford Bell’s late masterwork, the 1986 Grant Home within the Melbourne suburb of Officer – noting the connection between Guilford, Morgan and Lachlan as Queensland-educated architects.
The expertise of Merricks Farmhouse is completely cinematic and profoundly linked to the setting. The structure has an uncomplicated luxurious, and the home presents its inhabitants with the right backdrop to each side of day by day life – from the purposeful intimacy of the principle courtyard, the place one is immersed within the collage-like planting and shielded from the coastal weather conditions, to the framed vistas of the panorama that invite moments of contemplation because the morning solar animates the bucolic panorama. These poised moments are contrasted with areas designed for ebullient gatherings: the right spot for a summer time lunch on the northern terrace; a refreshing dip within the round pool; and a well-contested sport of charades beside the open fireplace within the sunken formal lounge room. Michael Lumby Structure and Nielsen Jenkins have created a brand new house for his or her purchasers that completely melds home utility and architectural magnificence.
