Cantilevered Wye River stunner named HIA Australian Home of the Year

A rugged hillside in an extreme bushfire zone called for creativity from a builder with a vision to build his family an eye-catching coastal retreat.

A striking cantilevered coastal getaway built overlooking the ocean on a rugged Wye River hillside has been crowned Australian Home of the Year.

More than 1000 tonnes of concrete went into constructing the epic two-storey house on the steep site that could only be accessed by a narrow, dead-end road.

It's the culmination of a 10-year vision of owner David Moyle, director of Ballarat-based BCM Homes to create the ultimate beach house for his own family.

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The cantilevered design maximises the spectacular ocean view over Wye River.

Triangles are a common theme, even featuring under the kitchen island bench.

A suspended fireplace features in the open-plan living room where huge windows frame surrounding bushland.

He encouraged Crosier Scott Architects to come up with a design as challenging as they wanted, confident he could handle the construction, which also had to withstand an extreme bushfire risk.

The resulting engineering feat was recognised with the top gong at 2024 HIA-CSR awards, where it also won the HIA Australian Custom Build and People’s Choice categories.

“We wanted something striking and concrete was the perfect material to create a structure that’s both beautiful and resilient,” Mr Moyle said.

Foundations penetrating 7m into basalt rock anchor the four-bedroom house to the site to maximise Southern Ocean and bush views.

A rooftop garden helps the house fit into the coastal landscape.

The house has three bathrooms.

The rumpus room has a killer view.

Inside board-form concrete walls with a wood grain, burnished concrete floors, timber panelling and signature triangular shapes create a sleek finish.

An open-plan living area, 600-bottle wine cellar and angular deck are geared towards entertaining, while a large rumpus room and games area provides a secondary recreation space.

Mr Moyle said the location of the site made everything more complicated, with 103 concrete trucks negotiating the narrow road during the build.

“Collectively the trucks reversed 25 kilometres to get to the site,” he said.

Commercial plasterboard and acoustically sound lining adds to the serenity by reducing sound travelling across the floors.

Originally published as Cantilevered Wye River stunner named HIA Australian Home of the Year