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Wood-Shuttered Hideaway Offers Beach Escape in Australia

We'd gladly live in this guest house full time

No one would guess that this airy and simply elegant "sleepout" in the Australian resort town of Portsea (about 60 miles south of Melbourne) is actually a guest house on the property of a larger beach house.

Melbourne-based Mitsuori Architects was tasked with designing an additional space for an existing beach house that would accommodate children, grandchildren, friends, and other guests. The sleepout was meant to be distinct in style and removed from the main house but was still required to fit with the natural environment as well as the existing layout of the property.

The solution? A box-like pavilion that abuts a driveway and tennis court and is fashioned from weathered timber. Its facade features louvered screens that seem to disappear when closed. Climbing plants help further its ability to blend into the landscape.

While it appears, from the outside, to be only a single story, the guest house actually comprises five split-level floors, including three separate bedroom zones, two bathrooms, a living area, storage, and a concealed roof deck. In other words, it's a haute bunker.