Camillo House

Boon wurrung/Bunurong Country

design: Blair Smith Architecture & CS Studio
builder: LUBU Building Group
photography: Kate Shanasy

completed: 2022

We were approached by our clients to transform a recently purchased 1980’s beachside home into boutique short-term accommodation.  Their brief was to create a unique escape that fostered meaningful connection and contemplation. So, we set out to create a seaside getaway that would become a complete departure from the everyday. 

The home was purchased from a family who built it as their holiday home before the parents eventually retired to it.  Our clients’ spoke about respecting the spirit of the original family home, while creating new spaces and moments that could tap into the romantic nature of a coastal escape. The design was conceived as a series of design interventions that would revitalise the building, with individual moments of sensory delight.

The key planning gesture involved reconfiguring the bedrooms, bathrooms and the kitchen in the middle level of the home. Private spaces were organised to give the layout a sense of clarity and better serve the needs of multiple couples or groups.  The refurbished kitchen was edited to allow for direct access to a north facing deck area and an established Moonah tree, as well as improved views of the Bass Strait to the south.

The interior palette of the original home was oversaturated with texture, with brown brick walls and diagonal pine lining boards. The approach was to soften the “louder” surfaces in order to enhance and celebrate others, like the retained slate floor and the newly stained timber beams.  This process was conversational and resolved practically on site via input from trades and suppliers, rather than being dictated by an architectural schedule or drawings. 

The original slate floor has varied maroon and brown tones, so in a way it formed the basis for most material choices, particularly the kitchen.  We wanted the kitchen to respond to these colours in a way that was more overt and playful, so that the slate would feel like a backdrop to each detail. A curved quartzite island was conceived as a sculptural piece of furniture that riffs on the tones of the original floor, reading as a centrepiece to the kitchen. The island is flanked by a long kitchen bench supported by a series of timber legs, which are playfully interpolated with floating timber cabinets. 

In the main bedroom, the ensuite was redesigned so that is formed part of the bedroom.  A timber vanity also serves as a bedhead, allowing views out to the dunes and tea trees from an open double shower. The remaining portion of the quartzite stone slab was used to create an oversized shower niche – appearing as a panoramic piece of art within the space.

Camillo House is a short-term hideout that exemplifies a joyful approach to adaptive re-use. Unhindered by the functional requirements of an everyday home, the response to the brief embraces the transient nature of the home’s occupation, imbuing a sense of theatre and joy into each lived experience.

Enquiries: www.camillohouse.com

Read more about this project on The Design Files here.

Camillo was featured in Issue 18 of Houses Kitchens + Bathrooms. See below.