Honey House by Wolveridge Architects

Feature

Nov 2

Honey House by Wolveridge Architects

In Mount Martha, Honey House gives a speculative coastal brief a specific sense of place by turning inward, with a sunny courtyard and organising space and light along a masonry spine.

Location

Mount Martha, Victoria

Architecture

Wolveridge Architects

Development & Build

Ongarello

Landscape

Bethany Williamson Landscape Design

Film & Photography

Anthony Richardson

Production

Simple Dwelling

‘First impressions arriving at the site were just turning off the main road onto a dirt road, and the immediate sense of wanting to kick the shoes off and put the thongs on and the boardies on, and it's amazing how that just immediately settles you into the idea of you're at the beach. How do we bring that same dirt road relaxation and weave that into the design?’

— Will Smart, Wolveridge Architects

A beach house is often imagined as an outward-looking building, its plan organised around a horizon, water view or stretch of landscape. Honey House by Wolveridge Architects had no such external focus. Located in Mount Martha and developed and built by Ongarello, the new home instead turns toward a courtyard of its own making. The decision allowed an otherwise broad speculative brief to acquire a clear centre: shared rooms face sun and planting, a masonry spine gathers the rest of the plan, and coastal character is constructed through proximity, texture and light rather than distant scenery.

"We didn't necessarily have an external view of water or parkland," Will Smart explains. "So, pretty quickly we resolved that this was going to be a courtyard-style house." The kitchen, dining and living spaces occupy the more private rear of the allotment and open to the courtyard. Along the route toward them, secondary bedrooms and living areas are arranged off a central spine. A guest suite near the front can be used separately, giving the plan a flexibility suited to purchasers whose household structure was not yet known.

Timber-lined living and dining room beneath the pitched roof of Honey House, a contemporary beach house designed around a private courtyard.

The spine provides more than access. Concrete block blades line part of its western edge, screening afternoon sun while allowing light to remain perceptible. Their shadows move across the passage at different times of year. Smart notes that hallways are often treated only as links between important spaces, whereas here "the hallway and the spine is a space in itself and it's a place you're happy to pause and stop and enjoy." Movement becomes one of the ways the house encounters garden and weather.

At the front, a raised roof and steel-framed window shroud give arrival its principal volume. Internally, this brings light and a view toward tree canopy into the guest suite; externally, it establishes an identifiable address without making the entire dwelling announce itself at once. The shift in height is repeated in the larger living spaces, where timber lining increases the sense of enclosure even as glazing opens toward the courtyard.

Timber-lined guest suite in Honey House, with a kitchenette, window seat and dining table beneath high-level light in the coastal house.

Central corridor of Honey House, where concrete block blades cast rhythmic shadows across crazy paving in the coastal courtyard house.

This inwardness should not be mistaken for withdrawal from place. Wolveridge Architects spent time reading surrounding Mount Martha streets, identifying weatherboard and concrete block as persistent parts of the local building fabric. Honey House brings those materials together with crazy paving, timber and natural stone. Instead of relying on an all-white coastal palette, the interiors use neutral tones and tactile surfaces to produce warmth. The local reference is therefore not a copied facade but an accumulation of familiar cues, adjusted for a contemporary house.

The landscape begins before the front door. Loose gravel announces a change from the main road, while crushed rock and planting soften the approach and appear again in glimpses from inside. Bethany Williamson's landscape work helps the courtyard read as the home's principal outlook rather than simply an outdoor amenity. The architecture and garden establish each other's scale.

Curved concrete block wall framing the entrance to Honey House, a modern beach house by Wolveridge Architects on the Mornington Peninsula.

Private pool courtyard with an outdoor shower, coastal planting and pale concrete block walls at Honey House by Wolveridge Architects.

Honey House was conceived for sale, and its openness to an unknown buyer is essential to understanding the plan. The house provides recognisable comforts and generous shared areas, but its identity comes from how those elements are ordered. Space is used to replace what the site lacks: an internal garden becomes a view, a passage becomes a room and a roof lift supplies canopy and sky. The result is coastal not because it faces the sea, but because arrival, material and atmosphere have been made to recall the particular ease of Mount Martha.

Project Details

Project
Honey House

Location
Mount Martha, Victoria, Australia

Completion
2025

Project type
New house

Context
Coastal suburban

Site area
761m²

Architecture
Wolveridge Architects

Project team
Jessica Corbett, Jason Pitts, Qutaibah Al-Atafi

Builder and developer
Ongarello

Landscape architect
Bathany Williamson Landscape Architecture

Structural engineering
JMD Structural Engineering

Styling
Arch Melbourne

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Honey House by Wolveridge Architects, a contemporary Mount Martha beach house with white weatherboards, concrete blockwork and a landscaped gravel arrival.

Main front elevation of Honey House, a coastal house in Mount Martha with a projecting steel-framed window and weatherboard cladding.

Honey House’s street elevation, combining weatherboards, timber-framed glazing and coastal landscaping in a contemporary Australian beach house.

Projecting upper window and steel shroud on the weatherboard facade of Honey House, a contemporary Mount Martha coastal house.

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Full feature

Compact timber kitchenette and dining area within the front guest suite of Wolveridge Architects’ Mount Martha beach house.

Warm timber-lined guest bedroom with stone paving inside Honey House, a contemporary coastal house on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Built-in window seat and sheer curtains bringing soft coastal light into the front guest suite of Honey House in Mount Martha.

Self-contained guest-suite living area with timber joinery, kitchenette and window seat inside the contemporary beach house.

Timber-lined doorway framing the guest-suite ensuite within Honey House, a warm and textural Mount Martha coastal home.

Detail of softly Japanese bathroom tiles within the front guest suite of the Mornington Peninsula beach house.

Guest bedroom with timber lining, built-in joinery and a low garden window inside Honey House, a contemporary coastal house by Wolveridge Architects.

Powder room in Honey House featuring a cylindrical stone basin, veined benchtop and timber-framed mirror within the Mount Martha beach house.

Bedroom view past built-in wardrobes and a concrete block blade toward the pool courtyard of Honey House, a modern coastal home.

Top-lit bathroom with a built-in bath, pale tiles and dark tapware inside Wolveridge Architects’ contemporary Mount Martha beach house.

Cheminees Philippe fireplace set against pale concrete blockwork beneath the timber roof of the Mount Martha coastal house.

Built-in timber shelves and joinery set against pale concrete blockwork beneath the pitched roof of Honey House by Wolveridge Architects.

Kitchen in Wolveridge Architects’ Mount Martha beach house, with a curved island, timber joinery, crazy-paved floor and timber-lined roof.

Open-plan kitchen, dining and living room beneath the exposed timber roof of Honey House, a coastal house by Wolveridge Architects.

Timber roof structure, concrete block hearth and black fireplace defining the warm interior of Honey House, a contemporary Australian beach house.

Pool courtyard and sheltered outdoor dining area at Honey House, Wolveridge Architects’ contemporary beach house in Mount Martha.

Living room of Wolveridge Architects’ Mount Martha beach house, centred on a black fireplace beneath an exposed timber gabled roof.

Main bedroom suite in Honey House by Wolveridge Architects, with built-in joinery, crazy paving and filtered light through sheer curtains.

Detail of timber-framed woven joinery set between concrete block walls in Wolveridge Architects’ contemporary coastal house.

Double bathroom vanity with timber cabinetry, mirrored storage and small-format tiles inside Honey House by Wolveridge Architects.

Honey House by Wolveridge Architects viewed from its gravel approach, with mature trees framing the weatherboard and concrete block coastal house.

Floor plan of Honey House by Wolveridge Architects, showing the front guest suite, central masonry spine, bedrooms, rear living spaces and courtyard pool.

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Honey House by Wolveridge Architects