Aireys Inlet House by Pop Architecture

When Pop Structure’s Kat Sainsbery was requested by a retired architect to show an unconventional two-bedroom seaside home in Aireys Inlet right into a everlasting abode with lodging for visiting offspring, she explored all the choices earlier than finally succumbing to the inevitable.

Tucked into an elevated web site with sweeping ocean views, the unique steel-framed, Cedar-clad home was constructed within the Eighties by the editor of a design journal and a structural engineer, each fascinated by fractal varieties. The constructing is a unusual native landmark: a cluster of hexagons – two bigger and two smaller – with a spacious, uplifting, light-filled inside topped with vaulted ceilings and skylights that draw the gaze.

Because of their spatial effectivity, hexagons abound in pure varieties like flowers, snowflakes and hives (bees create hexagonal cells as a result of they maintain extra honey). The stability and concord of their interlocking triangular varieties has represented the interconnectedness of all dwelling issues in sacred structure for millennia.

In up to date structure, nevertheless, hexagons are skinny on the bottom. Kat concedes that the mission group exhausted each geometric different earlier than including a brand new hexagon to the “bonkers” combine. “In the long run we had been like, ‘What are we doing? We’re simply preventing the tide,’” she laughs. “It’s clearly a modular design – simply add one other hexagon. We wouldn’t add a Victorian extension to a Victorian home. However as a result of it is a more moderen design and since it’s so bananas, it was enjoyable to do it.”

To accommodate the extra program, a single-storey hexagon on the rear of the block was rebuilt throughout three ranges. A brand new and extra rectilinear type on the bottom ground homes a storage and workshop, and two visitor bedrooms, a rest room and an ensuite on the principle degree. It’s topped with a raised hexagonal front room, rotated 90 levels to nestle into the roofline and seize views to the north-east. The house is a hive of exercise when youngsters and grandkids keep, but may also be closed-down to minimise vitality use when the couple is dwelling alone.

For all their spatial complexity, hexagons “really create nice areas,” Kat says. “It may be barely bizarre for furnishings arranging, however on the entire I feel the truth that it’s so uncommon means it takes you out of that home, day-to-day mindset and makes you’re feeling such as you’re in a particular place. The proprietor says she walks in and feels immediately relaxed.”