Mays Point House

2022 National Architecture Awards: Residential Architecture – Houses (New) – Shortlist

Mays Point House | Tanner Architects

Traditional Land Owners: paredarerme

A coastal retreat for family and guests.

A durable, tectonic structure enables subdued spaces that bring focus to the expansive seascape location. Industrial components are utilised to create an architecture of tactility and resilience. The project continues the exploration of architecture as a simple, unadorned vessel by which you experience the landscape.

Light forever changes across the undulating grassed hills and headlands. Fredrick Henry Bay below shifts with mood, placid or ferocious. The sound of restless sea and wind resonate through the main space on a stormy evening. A broad eave hovers over the periphery to shade and protect. Understating the formal response to allow the landscape to remain at the fore; the subtle curation of landscape through space making that doesn’t compete with place.

The result is a heartfelt response to site; combining an awareness of the significance of its location and its influence on the broader milieu.

Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?

The brief to Tanner Architects was to provide a relatively large family home, yet we are extremely happy with the way the house feels humble in its setting, sitting back within the hill, like it has always been there. When you travel through the house the surprise element intensifies as you progress further within. The landscape beyond as the focal point is captivating – we will never tire of watching the colours change outside, the sea eagles hovering above the grass or the waves crashing on the rocks below.
We could go on – to us it is close to perfection.