Warm embrace

The redesign of this serene waterside retreat on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is a true family affair.

- Jackie Brygel

Nostalgia and excitement were equally at play when Renegade Design Studio's director Sophia Conley found herself reimagining a new era for this remarkable lakeside retreat in coastal Queensland.

In 1994, when Sophia was 12, her architect father Peter Conley drafted the original plans for the Sunshine Coast home, as well as the spring-fed lake it sits beside. Three decades later, the house - in a state of some disrepair - still spoke clearly of her father's vision for functionality and beauty in the most immersive of natural settings. “I vividly remember watching my father draw those plans by hand,” she says. “There's definitely a shared architectural language between us - a love of plants, warm materiality and homes with soul.” Now the time had come for Sophia to fashion the next chapter in the home's journey.

“Walking through the home for the first time, I felt an immediate sadness,” she says. “It had been neglected for some time and it quickly became clear we had no choice but to strip the house back, replace and reframe the roof and lift the floors.”