Great Ocean House
Great Ocean House
The Great Ocean House, Aireys Inlet, 2011- 2013
Set into the coastal contours of Aireys Inlet, this home is a quiet, sculpted response to a dramatic landscape. Designed to create an immersive experience of place, the house unfolds in layers—offering protection and prospect, intimacy and outlook. Whether nestled into the earth at the lower level or elevated above in the living spaces, the building offers a shifting relationship with the land and sea.
A honed Bluestone path leads visitors through a break in the dense vegetation, gently revealing the house beyond. The entry is transparent and open, creating early glimpses of the site’s topography and light. From here, a folded steel stair lightly rests on a polished concrete platform, drawing the eye—and the body—upwards. At the top of the stair, the sea comes into view, anchoring the upper level and forming the backdrop to everyday life.
The living spaces are arranged to embrace this outlook. A long, open plan gathering zone is lined with daybeds that stretch along the perimeter, blurring the edge between inside and out. Here, the building feels as if it floats above the landscape, its carefully framed views allowing the site to become part of the interior experience. To the east, the kitchen extends to a modest breakfast deck that catches the morning sun. Positioned directly above the entry, this outdoor space serves both as a lookout and a quiet place to begin the day.
A more intimate dining area is nestled within a pocket of rammed earth and timber, its warm, enclosing surfaces creating contrast with the openness beyond. Glazing throughout is considered and restrained—each opening treated as a lens to the landscape, not a wall of glass. A walk-through study bridges the social areas with the private wing, offering a moment of retreat and focus. Bedrooms are tucked into the quiet end of the plan, where the ground plane rises and the house begins to anchor itself more deeply into the site. At the lower level, rooms are set within the landscape, with tactile materials and filtered light reinforcing a sense of enclosure and calm.
Materially, the house is grounded and robust. Rammed earth, steel, concrete, and timber work in concert—durable, low-maintenance, and embedded with thermal performance. The architecture makes deliberate use of thermal mass, passive solar design, and cross ventilation, contributing to the home’s long-term environmental sustainability.
The roof forms respond to prevailing winds and solar orientation, with eaves and overhangs providing shelter and seasonal modulation. Views are revealed with care—never overwhelming, always balanced. The home is both refuge and outlook, shaped by and for the rhythms of the coast.
The Great Ocean Road House is a quiet place of occupation—where the built form is in constant dialogue with the land, and the changing light of the ocean sets the pace of the day.
