“I spent a year of weekends drawing the Opera Home and realized that the continuity and rhythm of the podium is what makes the sails float and dance…The identical strategy is used in this house,” explains Australian architect Alexander Symes, who, along G+V Architecture, conceived of this jaw-dropper of a property on the southern coast of Australia. Austinmer Beach Home, named for the suburb in which it resides, stands tall, elevated on huge concrete columns to take full benefit of the seascape to the east and the mountains to the west.Symes, who cites both Denmark’s Jørn Utzon and Sweden’s Sigurd Lewerentz as architectural influences, has clearly expressed those influences in a liberal use of timber, both inside and out an exacting emphasis on craftsmanship and eco sensitivity and, most substantially, in the sweeping curves that define the house’s principal volume—a nod to Utzon’s masterwork (see our current piece on the Sydney Opera Home right here). Currently feted with awards and accolades, Austinmer Beach Property is, nonetheless, described by Symes as, “just a beach house.” And, in so performing, he may really nicely have redefined the word ‘just.’
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