Golf Course Retreat: Flinders House by Sharif Abraham, Victoria, Australia

Clad in timber on the outside, luminous and spacious on the inside, the Flinders House by Sharif Abraham is an outstanding example of modern house design. There is an interesting story behind this project, completed in 2007 in Flinders, Victoria, Australia, by Melbourne-based design practice Sharif Abraham. Building the home proved to be quite a worthy challenge for the architects, who found themselves faced with a nearly-impossible task. The brief had them build a home on a small stretch of cliff-top land, with a wonderful view of the ocean, at the end of a residential cul de sac. On both sides of the plot stretches the Flinders Golf Course. The owners asked for a retreat and the lady of the house asked for a home that would reinforce her childhood connections with the area.

The concept which got the design team’s creative juices flowing was to capitalize on the remoteness of the location and its sense of seclusion, caused by being located on a putting course. There was green all around this modern house design, which the architects eventually decided to integrate into the home itself. In doing so, they created a home with ample glazed surfaces, which allow a free flow of communication between indoors and outdoors. They also built an ellipsis-shaped living area, which recalls the shape of the golf course, while also maximizing use of space and sidestepping budget constraints. The luxurious outside veneer is made of a single Victorian eucalyptus tree, prompted by the concept of “pioneering economy” that encourages one to use every single bit of a given material. To quote the design team itself, “from inside the house one observes the life of the golf course as if looking at a “cinematic scene”- a movie. There is calmness to this scene as the golfers drift past with rhythmical consistency.”

(Source: SharifAbraham.com)