Mossman (Noosa Heads)

2021
Traditional lands of the Kabi Kabi and Jinibara people

The Mossman House is a north facing, waterfront block on the noosa river, that embraces the very best of life in the sub-tropics. The form of the house is a simple, considered, and robust concrete skeleton upon which a warm skin of timber has been applied. A rigorously curated palette of materials underpins the restraint that this house is all about; the focus always on the landscape, the water and the memories being created through occupation.

The board form concrete soffits form a necessary “brow” to the sun-drenched lawn, poetically shaded by the mature melaleuca trees, whose presence defines the edge of the domain and threshold to the waters edge. Minimal aluminum doors stack away to create a seamless indoor-outdoor experience that is reinforced by a single floor finish - an idea developed further on the first floor where the operable façade mediates between enclosure, privacy, and extroversion, blurring the lines of formal occupation.

The animation of the northern façade is a personal triumph with the clarity of the façade a milestone along the studio’s pursuit of “silence” within the overall story of our architecture. This is a house whose greatest achievement is the rigour and restraint that the clients thankfully believed in and supported from the outset. It is a house about the landscape, the shadows, the deep winter sun, and the joy of arriving back by boat to wash off in the pool. A complex act to create a place of aspirational simplicity.

Collaborators

Shaun Lockyer, Neva Wethereld, Lucy Hyndman, Jen Negline and Kevin Li for SLa
JW Construction
Westera Partners
Conlon Group
Hong Henwood Interior Decor

Brock Beazley Photography