Moffat Morphing House, Sunshine Coast — Arcke

A house behind the shop

Moffat Beach, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, has long mixed small shops and dwellings along its main streets — homes above or behind retail tenancies, a pattern ArchitectureAU’s Kirsty Volz traces back to the 1940s. Moffat Morphing House extends that typology. Its owners bought a mid-century fibro building one block from the surf break; the front building carried an existing commercial lease. Rather than wait for the lease to end, they commissioned a compact second building in the backyard.

That starting point set the constraints. The new house could not detract from the street presence of the existing building, interfere with the tenant’s use of the site, or swallow the garden — and it had to leave open a future option to connect with and develop the front building. The result is a 75 m² (internal) house, physically detached from the shopfront, that Volz reads as a twenty-first-century version of the horizontal shop house and, in scale, close to a contemporary secondary dwelling.

A brief written around the outdoors

The clients — Sandy and Scott, who grew up on the coast and planned to return in later life — came to Arcke with a brief rooted in camping. A strong connection to the garden was essential. They wanted storage for surfboards, sleeping space for visiting friends and family, and room to pitch a five-metre bell tent. The house had to be easy to use, simple to heat and low in maintenance, and they liked the look of weathered, untreated timber. They also knew it would be let as a holiday rental when they were not using it.

Arcke’s plan prioritises the living spaces and lets them run into the garden; bedrooms and the single bathroom are deliberately modest. The main bedroom looks over the garden, and two recessed bunk rooms act as private nooks for guests, each with generous operable windows. Outdoor showers serve swimmers returning from the beach. Volz connects this planning to Queensland modernists such as John Dalton, Graham Bligh and John Railton, for whom family life happened in the shared rooms and, above all, in the garden.

Screens that let the house breathe

The defining element is the north-eastern elevation of operable slatted timber screens. Lifted, they shade the outdoor spaces along the perimeter and extend living into the garden; lowered, they give privacy, security and filtered light while doors and windows behind can stay open to the breeze. Volz likens the effect to an expanding and contracting rib cage.

Arcke describes the space behind the screens as an “extended threshold” — an interstitial zone along the edge of the house that holds garden, circulation and habitation at once. Circulation is shaded and external, so arrival from the busy town centre becomes a gradual transition into private space. The Queensland jury, commending the house in the 2025 Queensland Architecture Awards, singled out this adaptable use of light, breezes and operable screens.

Climate before machinery

The environmental strategy is mostly passive. According to Arcke, built areas cover less than half of the lot, and the whole house is oriented to catch prevailing breezes and block western sun. Eaves reduce sun penetration, while high ceilings and clerestory windows draw heat up and out. Ceiling fans, all-electric appliances, water-efficient tapware and water tanks complete the picture, with provision for future solar panels. Gardens and grass bricks stand in for hard paving.

Planning added a further test. Zoning limited how close the house could sit to the boundary and what materials could be used on that wall. The owners credit Arcke’s response to the fire and safety requirements with producing a courtyard garden inside the building envelope — now, in their words, one of the most delightful parts of the home. The architects also studied overlooking and overshadowing in relation to the current and future uses of neighbouring sites.

Materials chosen to weather

The palette is plain and coastal. Published specifications list Lysaght Spandex roofing in Zincalume with Ampelite opal sheeting, fibre-cement sheet walls with Abodo Vulcan battens, New Guinea rosewood window and door frames with kwila sills, polished concrete floors, blackbutt trims and hoop pine plywood cabinetry. Arcke notes recycled hardwoods and locally sourced plywood among the natural materials used.

Design and documentation took around twelve months, and construction another twelve, during the COVID-19 years. The owners describe a collaborative relationship between themselves, Arcke and builder Besal in managing price rises and supply gaps — including finding an alternative timber that would achieve the weathered look when their first choice became unavailable. Built-in bunks and window seats helped add capacity without enlarging the footprint or the budget.

Team

Arcke project team: Matt Kennedy (design architect) and John Lim (project architect). Builder: Besal. Engineer: Structures. Landscape: 7b Landscapes and Interiors. The house stands on the land of the Kabi Kabi and Jinibara peoples.

Sources

Research drawn from published project documentation. Photography credits are for attribution only — images on this page are placeholders until rights are cleared.