The goal to have a house like this was something I've had since I was probably around 12 years old.
It feels like a really luxurious space to be able to call our home. I've always had a
really strong passion for housing, architecture and construction. I was really excited to trial
something different that we hadn't done at Graya previously. I had many roles in this project.
I was involved in interior design, I was also the licensed builder, as well as the homeowner.
Paddington is located about three kilometres out of the Brisbane CBD on the western side.
It's known for its leafy streets as well as its cottages and rolling hills.
Two years ago my wife and I sold our house unexpectedly. Well, we were actually living
in what was planned to be our forever home at the time. We kind of stumbled across this project. It
just felt like the perfect opportunity. We set out to have a home that we could entertain and
really enjoy as a young married couple, that also is going to suit us in years to come.
It took about six months to find the perfect block of land. It was a very ambitious approach to this
site. One day Rob rang us up and he said, "Look Josh, I've bought this house. It's on a corner
block. It's going to be really complicated", and I met him out here on the site and we found this
beautiful old house and he explained his vision about how he wanted to have a flat backyard
and a swimming pool and he wanted to lift the house up another story and build in underneath.
We had to design around a character listing. There was a lot of vegetation, a lot of sloping
site to deal with. We both wanted something that felt like a Mediterranean inspired villa,
that creates a holiday feel in Brisbane. When guests stay over they like to call it Arcos Hotel.
The back of the home has a completely different feel to the front. A lot of the aspect of the
home does look out into the backyard. The back of the home opens up directly to the Brisbane breeze.
It looks out to vegetation and it gives the home an open and sub-tropical feel.
The arches were a huge part of the brief from the outset.
The new structure is really an echo of the old structure. There used to be existing concrete
stumps underneath each of those arch locations. It starts with this heavy masonry undercroft. We
transform those concrete columns into beautiful masonry arches and as you go up you can almost
feel the building getting lighter as you come up to the top. What they've actually achieved here
at Arcos is really a throwback to what was done maybe a hundred years ago. JAA and Graya have a
long-standing relationship. Arcos would probably be the 15th design that we have done together.
Arcos was designed around the same time that we were building Joe's personal house,
so the ideas that were bouncing back and forth around the design period was very collaborative.
Rob and I, we've always felt that our visions have matched quite well and they flowed well with what
Joe brought to the table. There was a lot of challenges with the sequencing of construction.
The main challenge was the existing Queenslander. That was definitely the the hardest part about
this project was holding this timber framed house that was nearly 100 years old up in space
and that's normally fine when you're just raising at one level but when you're raising at two levels
and putting a suspended slab underneath it becomes really complicated. When you arrive at the house,
we wanted the entryway to be a standout feature. The lower level has two living spaces,
one being the sitting room, the other being the sunken lounge in the main kitchen, dining.
Beige render finish is a key feature of the whole bottom level which adds to the European style.
One of our objectives was also to create multiple spaces in the open layout. The
kitchen space brings in the morning light and flows into the outdoor space. The heart of the
home is the spiral staircase. This takes you up where all the bedrooms are located.
The stair void brings in light to the kitchen area and connects upstairs via a series of curves.
On the upper level, there are two wings. There's the existing cottage which makes up
the kid's wing. The master wing is a personal favourite of mine.
We probably spent a year collecting ideas and inspiration around the furniture.
We went for a very minimal colour palette but really focused on textures to add depth.
One of the key pieces of furniture is the sunken lounge that was custom
made by our joinery company. In our sitting room there is a couch that we saw overseas,
so we sourced a local manufacturer. Megan and myself have a huge passion for armchairs. One
of those is Sarah Ellison's design, which we have sitting in our master bedroom. Another
armchair in the home we couldn't go without was the Jardan chairs. Between four and six
o'clock in the evenings, the sun tucks over the house and illuminates the Brisbane CBD.
The process of creating this home was really enjoyable.
The look and feel of the home has really exceeded our expectations.
I think Arcos is one of Brisbane's best examples
of how to maintain the character of the area, but there's a modern touch.
It feels like a great house to live in and it feels like a place that you would
love to have all your mates come and party at too. It's a big joke in my circle of friends,
everyone I know says i'm going to sell this house in a year.
Hopefully not. Although we do sell and market for a living, this house is definitely not for
sale. I'm very hopeful that there will not be an Arcos 2.0, that this will be our final project.
There definitely will be an Arcos 2.0.