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Rachel Nolan of Kennedy Nolan Architects designed a weekender for her family called Merricks Beach House. It cleverly redefines the Australian beach house.

Herbst Architects continue their search for the perfect beach bach — Castle Rock Beach House is dramatic in spite of its simplicity…

No, it's not a Clive Palmer/Gina Rinehart franken-baby. It's a suburban beach house with a view.

Everyone loves to get away to the beach for the weekend, luckily this house can accomodate all of the extended friends and family.

In an effort to find more space for a growing and ageing family, Andrew Maynard Architects created a home that has shared space and more private zones.

Beachside towns were once dotted with simple fibro beach shacks. This modern home reinterprets that classic style.

This stunning modern Australian beach house has a whole wall of glass, taking in spectacular views of the beach and headland beyond.

A modern beach house design replaces the ageing cottage on a property that has been in the family for over 50 years.

Living near the beach has its pros and cons. A great beach house needs to embrace the sunshine while protecting from cold ocean winds.

In true glamping style Kurreki Beach Retreat has real beds but opens completely onto a courtyard and uses mosquito nets and shower curtains where necessary.

What if you outgrow the Mornington beach house that's been in the family for years? Architect Clare Cousins designed a 'treehouse' extension for the big kids.

This triangular beach house nestled among the gums and grasses is the perfect slice of beach house living only an hour from Melbourne.

Using the slope to its advantage, this beach house cascades down the hill and focuses your attention on the stunning coastline views.

Like all good beach houses, Marcus Beach House explores lightness, filtering natural breezes and integrating indoor/outdoor spaces.

This apartment renovation in the middle of one of Sydney's busiest suburbs still manages to capture the relaxed nature of a beach house…

Sled House sits in two sleds making relocating it with a tractor a cinch. The whole area is within a coastal erosion zone; All structures must be removable.

Venus Bay Bach is a beach home built on a tight budget, but spacious enough to house family and friends for the weekend. And it doesn't ignore the views...

Can you have too many beds at a family beach house? A reno retains the character of this beloved beach house but maximises flexibility.

This tropical home locks down when it's not being used, but when it's open, it embraces the natural landscape in every direction...

With an incredible site just one street from the beach and close to the city, these architects built their ideal family home.

Just a short walk from the beach and surrounded by Moona trees, a central courtyard is the link between this home and the landscape.

Sweeping views of hills, beach, rocks and ocean inspired the fan shaped plan of Fleurieu Beach House - a model for coastal living.

There's no moat at Fortress House, but this quiet weekend retreat ensures a private, relaxing counterpoint to the owners' busy lives.

You don't get homes much more unusual than Cocoon -- a zeppelin-shaped home lofts above its steep site, nestled in the canopy of Australian native treetops.

With hints of those classic beach houses, but all the modern needs of a family home, living here would feel like an endless holiday.

A house that was once a post office felt frustratingly disconnected from the outdoors has been transformed into a breezy beach house.

This home holds special memories for the architect, Pat Jost, making it important to retain the elements that fill it with character.

This modern beach house wraps around courtyards and open spaces to blur the lines between inside and out - perfect for a beach retreat.

A cleverly designed holiday home enjoys beach views and opens directly to the garden but is screened by a mature Pohutukawa tree.

Architect Will Harkness placed this holiday home carefully among a number of established Gum Trees to take advantage of the view.

Seaview House is made up of a series of pavilions, designed to fit in with neighbouring old weatherboard cottages without sacrificing contemporary appeal…

Designed in a flood-prone area, this modest, sustainable beach house touches the earth so lightly it appears to float!

A combination of materials in their raw state and a humble aesthetic make this New Zealand beach bach simply stunning.

You can't see the sea from this modern beach house. Undeterred by the lack of view, it faces a sheltered internal courtyard instead.

This new shack takes better advantage of the views and has enough space to host this multi-generational family during the holiday season.

Designed more like a sophisticated tent than your traditional home, The Mook can be built on any site with minimal disturbance.

This beach house is all about creating informal living spaces, decks and shelter from the sun and wind for optimum beachside living.

This flexible beach house is the perfect surf trips big and small because it's focussed on the outdoors to create extra living space.

After the bushfire of 2015, Wye River slowly rebuilds. Let's hope all the new homes are as beautiful and sympathetic as this one...

Thanks to some clever new touches, this tired beach house now takes full advantage of its site overlooking lush rainforest.

This off-the-grid home is close to the beach in the Daintree Rainforest — an ancient ecosystem deserving a thoughtful approach to site.

This weekend beach holiday house is a flexible and comfortable home that can expand to host family and friends when required.

The Pohutukawa House stands at the coastal foreshore of a wild beach on a site almost overgrown with mature Pohutukawa trees.

This home is tucked into lush forest on New Zealand’s Waiheke Island. Entry is via a wooden draw bridge! And that's just the beginning…

A single tea tree on the site of this beach house became the focus of the project. The aim became to showcase nature, rather than try to dominate and control it.

The owners of this coastal block enjoyed years of beach holidays before deciding to build. Here's how it shaped their home...

When thinking about how to create a sustainable and affordable home, the 1960s-era fibro beach shack was the perfect inspiration...

This 1980s-era home already had a stellar location. Thanks to an internal reno, it has everything else you'd want in a home, too...

Friends said they were brave to buy their home. But who's laughing now after a breezy makeover transforms this 1970s hot mess.

Sub-tropical climates require a special approach to design to ensure they are comfortable in the sticky summers and the cool winters.

This robust home for a family of six will be knocked about by the young family and accumulate character through the passage of time.

The use of up to 75 per cent recycled timber as structure and cladding brings warmth and variety to this modern beach house.

With a fun colour scheme, humble materials and nooks to while away the day, Field Way Bach reminds us of back-to-basics beach holidays.

This timber-clad four bedroom beach-side family home is perched on a steep dune in a quiet pocket of the Mornington Peninsula region.

Sliding cedar shutters provide this otherwise glass box with shelter, privacy and a camouflage cloak — preparing it for every situation.

Casual House's low maintenance, no frills materials create an affordable yet compelling extension to the rear of a family home.

The Great Ocean Road House proves that extraordinary locations sometimes call for a simple architectural solution.

Going against the status quo in this beach town, sustainability meets style in a thermally-consistent, biophilic, family home.

What does the dream home of a multi-creative look like? Beautiful details, a relaxed beach house vibe and a healthy splash of colour.

These retirees packed up their life in Western Victoria to move to Barwon Heads. What lifestyle would you want out of a seachange?

With a folded roof form and charred timber cladding, Pleated House has plenty of flair for its design-conscious owners.

At the top of the hill overlooking Peka Peka Beach, this location could be hostile, but this home has a few tricks up its sleeve...

Clever thinking achieves a simple timber beach house the client desired while still meeting bushfire and energy efficiency regulations.

This new living space is a sun-lover. Turning to face the sun, it is also a fun and happy space, not to mention a cost-saver.

As Torquay becomes increasingly cosmopolitan with more permanent residents architects are rethinking the traditional Aussie beach house.

A home near Noosa is designed for the area's sub-tropical climate and to maximise the owner's enjoyment of the bush setting.

"There are too many beautiful old shacks being demolished, and Austin Maynard Architects won’t be part of it."

These two homes are built on a pier structure that highlights their unique creek-side location near the Mornington foreshore.

This two storey house near the beach was designed like an arrangement of stacked boxes to create protected balconies and decks.

With a green roof and other sustainable elements this beach-side residence touches the earth lightly physically and metaphorically.

New Zealand home and writer's studio fuses the look of rural farm buildings and the dramatic local landscape into one sculptural form.

This extension continues a tradition of relaxed, colourful and small-scaled modifications which have been occurring for generations.

Previously the site of some outgrown kit homes, three seperate but clustered buildings provide space for all generations of the family.

Seal Rocks House takes the qualities of a family home and distills them down to the basics to suit leisure and the serene seaside site.

Renovating an inner bayside family home to be flexible as the family grows and subtly remind the owners of time spent on beach holidays.

A new studio and a reworking of the original home dramatically improves liveability at South Durras House.

With panels of fibro coloured to match the surrounding area, this 'dune-hopper' home feels modern but relevant to its seaside locale…

This treehouse in Separation Creek enjoys panoramic views, perched on a steep forested hillside above the Great Ocean Road and Bass Strait.

Clad in burnt timber and weathered steel sheets, Pacific House is a beautiful house that takes full advantage of the dramatic site.

A separate gabled guest pavilion adds both space flexibility to an existing weatherboard weekender, making it the perfect family getaway.

A tiny barnacle-like extension creates a sense of camping or sleeping in the berth of a yacht, but with framed views of the landscape beyond.

A stronger connection to the exterior courtyards with concealed sliding doors, for access to light, fresh air and aspect.

Eco-friendly Bruny Shore House reaches out from one of the steepest parts of the site to take in the dramatic Tasmanian coastline.

Tucked away in a subdivided backyard in Melbourne's Inner North, Nest Architects created a delightfully compact two-bedroom home with a beautiful sunny garden.

Like the slow food movement, Pirates Bay House is a reaction against our hectic lives. It's a home for slow living on Australia's Mornington Peninsula.

Responding to its unique landscape and climate, this home is the kind we should be building in Australia, not more McMansions.

Two pavilions offset to capture light and views and create a sheltered courtyard help this home look and feel much larger than it is.

By thinking differently about the floor plan, this modular beach hosue is able to take advantage of stunning ocean views.

While retaining as much of the original house for cost and environmental reasons, this home is completely transformed.

Even a block in a typical housing estate can benefit from an architect's touch, creating a home that's a joy to live in year-round...

The owners of this whole floor apartment in Manly loved the location, but not the dark unfriendly spaces. Luckily, there was a solution!

A beach house doesn't need to feel like a glass box on stilts, this home feels intimate while still celebrating the views.

Designed to make the most of the view, even from the backyard, this prefab modular home is like a viewing scope towards the ocean.

Some clever solutions mean even a home on a long, narrow block can capture scenic, wraparound views of the ocean.

An addition to this mid-century gem keeps the essence of the original while ensuring it's fit for family life in this century.

By using similar colours, materials and proportions as the original home without copying it, this addition fits in effortlessly.

Running the two homes perpendicular to the street allows this dual occupancy design to maximise views and maintain privacy.

With modular, off-site construction you can remove the headaches of extending your home and still end up with a beautiful result.

How do you extend an old cottage which used to belong to the client's mother? By reinterpreting the original cottage, that's how...

A creative design for two new townhouses defies many of the qualities of these types of developments to create bright and breezy homes.

Settling into regular life takes some adjustment for a fly-in-fly-out worker who spends a month away from home. This new home helps.

The good qualities of both old and new are highlighted by creating an addition which is the binary opposite of the original.

A decked courtyard connects this existing home and extension, providing light, breezes and an indoor-outdoor connection to old and new.

With views over the golf course, the architect achieved a mid-century-inspired design, while adhering to local design guidelines.

Perched dramatically on a steep slope overlooking the ocean, this separate studio is the perfect retreat for work, rest or play.

Light and dark, east and west, new and old, Dark Light House's new living pavilion contrasts without simply doing the opposite.

This compact family home uses the power of the sun for heating and cooling, keeping a family of six happy and comfortable.

By opening up to kitchen to the living area and creating a better connection to the deck, this apartment makes better use of its space.

Built for a family bursting with creative souls, this shack needed to be as stylish and as interesting as the people living in it.

An internal renovation which opens up spaces and turns the house upside down to put living areas on the brighter, airier, upper floor.

Inspired by Mid-century design with a touch of Aussie shed, this stylish shack is the perfect combination of cool and practical.

Renovation uses half of the original roof structure to create a new raked roof and wraps the original fibro shack in new cladding.

These two cabins have become something much grander than the typical granny flat or affordable beach shack they're usually used for...

A 1970s-era weatherboard holiday house gets a serious revamp to make it perfect for Grandparents' retired living.

The curse of the modern open-plan home? Noise. With flexible social spaces, parents in this house can entertain separately to the kids.

Small in both budget and footprint, but clever thinking and innovative solutions have produced a home which ticks all the boxes...

A rabbit warren-like early '90s apartment is transformed by C+M Studio into a chic coastal residence focusing on warm natural materials.

Designed to sit long and low and recede into the landscape, this beach house still incorporates enough fun to make it a stand out.

Despite strict heritage controls and a tight site, Durbach Block Jaggers Architects manage to deliver this charming and bright home.

This welcoming house has a verandah so generous it blurs the line between a courtyard house and a traditional Australian verandah.

A home previously owned by the client's Grandmother wasn't a good fit for a young family. An innovative extension changes all that.

The timber-clad Links Courtyard House prioritises simplicity over size leaving more of the budget for beautiful indulgent finishes.

Brick Bay House's L-shaped plan has a number of benefits - sheltering from winds, blocking road noise and embracing the ocean view.

Timber's warmth and laid-back nature meets clean lines and expanses of glass to create a style that is sophisticated yet relaxed.

Substantial alterations to an Arts and Crafts house explores the potential of verandahs and decks to become supplemental living spaces…

Thanks to an owner with an interest in sustainable building, Mona Vale House incorporates passive and active sustainability features.

Shmukler House by Tribe Studio is conceived as a series of boxes suspended in a large shed-like space.

On an extremely small parcel of land Beach Avenue House is designed more like a finely crafted joinery unit than a typical home.

Sandhills Road House draws on the most basic and humble rural sights to create a stunning contemporary beach bach.

Pekapeka Holiday House explores how to build a holiday house of with strong architectural character at an affordable price.

Sean Godsell Architects explore the traditional verandah to create a stunning beach home sheltered from the extremes of coastal life.

Somers Courtyard House is a low maintenance home to accommodate an expanding family with regular guests. The best part? It's completely off-grid!

A tight inner-city site is transformed with double height spaces and floor-to-ceiling, seamlessly connecting the indoors and outdoors.

An original modernist home is extended out and up to create more flexible space for the modern family.

A reinterpretation of a traditional terrace home keeps council happy, while a series of courtyards inject life into the home.

The design of Orange Grove House is so good the clients couldn't stand to sell as they'd planned and decided to move in instead!

Tackling difficult topography, a heavily treed site and a modest budget, Blackpool House defiantly lofts amongst the treetops - a modest, modern treehouse.

Dogtrot House is a permanent campsite. Like early one room cabins built by farmers, it has everything you need and nothing you don't.

A bayside extension clad inside and out in timber battens blurs the functional and decorative.

From very early on it was clear that a simple box would dramatically improve the amenity of this home. And what a beautiful box it is!

This modern replacement for a derelict weatherboard cottage takes full advantage of the sun, the surf and views of the rolling hills.

The location was right. But it would take a lot of imagination and a leap of faith to transform this dilapidated shed into a home...

Bushfire regulations are a challenge. Homes can end up like bunkers. Chenchow Little's Stewart House is a bushfire proof house that doesn't sacrifice looks.

You wouldn't expect a modest, low-budget renovation in Sydney's luxe suburb Tamarama. Despite the budget, this house has some Tamarama glamor -- Glamarama.

This truffle-inspired hideaway could be a caveman's home. Paulina the cow had a role to play in this unusual home's construction. You'll never guess how...

This family want to live in their home forever. They just need an architect to create a home to suit them for years to come -- in just 3.6 meters width.

Permanent Camping brings you in touch with nature in a way only camping can. And because it's permanent, you can forget wrestling with poles and pegs...