the Bunurong people of the Kulin nation
Victoria
Richly experiential and playful, The Apple House was designed for a landscape architect and family of avid collectors as an addition to their existing Alistair Knox house on the rolling farmland of the Mornington Peninsula. It has become an assemblage of competing ambitions; a study retreat, repository for an extensive book and furniture collection, a lure to attract the grandchildren to visit, a private sanctuary for regular visitors, an exemplar of local craftsmanship and refined detailing, and a home for the local Boobook owls.
The addition has been treated as a separate outbuilding, forming a walled garden that connects and creates a counterpoint to the main house, providing structure to the existing collection of house and outbuildings on site to form a cohesive compound. Sited in the old apple orchard, the tall gabled form creates a dialogue with the low horizontal lines of Knox’s classic mud brick forms.
The Apple House is a wonderfully sensitive and innovative extension to our mud brick home. Intended as an “adventure” setting for our grandchildren’s growth, it offers them a secure world of their own with bunks, rope nets and ladders to climb, and bird nesting box where they have this year viewed Crimson Rosellas raising their brood. Downstairs my office and library have added enormously to my capacity to use my country home while a guest’s bedroom allows us to entertain while giving visitors seclusion, quiet and privacy. Overall its benefit to us as a multi-generational family has been immeasurable.
Sally Draper, Project Team
Vicky Griffith, Project Team
Ambrose Zacharakis, Project Team
John Patrick Landscape Architects, Landscape Consultant
Clive Steele Partners, Engineer
KWA Building Permits & Inspections, Building Surveyor
Town Planning & Co, Town Planner
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
