The client's brief discussed their love of Quaker furniture and cape cod houses in something that exhibited a strong country aesthetic. Located in a small beach-side town on the Mornington Peninsula, a stone's throw from a foreshore reserve, the design reflects the surrounding rural nature of its environment.The approach to the house has been engineered to take the visitor from down the hill, up a winding path where the house is glimpsed from below and only fully revealed on arrival at the heart of the house. Conceived as two interconnected barn structures, the design allows the private sleeping quarters to be housed in one building,while the communal living quarters are in another. The two are linked by a glazed walkway suspended above the gardens that envelope the house.The horizontal timber cladding painted jet black contrasts strongly with the white timber shutters, built to protect the windows from harsh onshore winds. Internally, the pitched roof design allows for high ceilings, while the restrained use of oiled timber floors and white painted timber lined ceilings and walls deliver a contemporary country feel.