The project explores proximity and distance, invoking the special dualities of the site – the rock outcrops and native forest behind are given equal consideration to the front coastal panorama. Each room is considered almost autonomously, coordinated with the site and view. The experience of the house is cinematic as the view partitioned so that it becomes particular to each room – the horizon from the kitchen, the headland from the living room, the escarpment from the main entry, the rainforest at the back door. An array of opening types assists the orchestration – solid timber shutters that reveal the view when open, sashes that completely disappear, windows that capture the view within a sheet of fixed glass, strategic skylights for light without view. These strategies generate a spatial richness experienced as ‘surprise’.