We are in the leafy suburb of Toorak in the eastern side of Melbourne. The
property is positioned on the corner of Benson Street and Hopetoun Road,
with the beautiful width of Hopetoun Road able to present this house in a much more grand way;
a beautiful opportunity to express our style of architecture.
Our client approached us with a brief to build a new home on this property that would
cater for a large family. One of the main things inspiring me was when I first visited the site as
we arrive into this property and we witnessed the beautiful exotic liquid amber, we tend to
look up to appreciate its enormity. We want to ensure that we get the occupants to do the same
with the building. One of the main focuses was to ensure that we have this double volume space
that allows the occupants to look forward but also look up and appreciate in the architecture.
Left of that we've got this stunning staircase that just
organically turns itself, connecting the upper floor and the lower level.
With this style of architecture, it's minimalism and simplicity was integral. We considered the
fence as being an integral part to the overall architecture that we were going to present.
A large focus on what we were doing was how do we
get this fence to integrate itself with the building, so we laid it in different aspects,
up lit it and then create recesses in there. A big part of that was to bring in the vegetation
into the design, so we can soften the mass surfaces of singularity of concrete that we have.
On the ground floor there's a connection between alfresco, office, dining,
living and kitchen that just allows you to witness one another within these spaces
and all these spaces then allow you to look out onto the private open space,
so there's a visual connectivity between all these spaces.
The main feature of the home is getting a lot of glass towards the northern aspect.
We've positioned a pool and a tennis court that is there to be appreciated by
the occupants within the dwelling. That was maybe one of the most trickiest parts of this design;
parking the services or utilities on the southern side and having the habitable rooms
facing the northern side. That intent was clear from the get-go to ensure that we get the best
solar penetration into the home but also the best visual aspect.
Lighting was a big factor in this design. It was vitally important
that we get a sense of intimacy within a large building like this. The overhangs
that we've implemented within the architecture allow for lights to uplight and express those
feats. Then we start representing that within the joinery, within shelving units and within
the house itself. We get this beautiful soft ambience within the property come evening time.
Traditionally we specialise in concrete architecture.
Concrete has this natural beauty about it. It's this slight undulation in its texture that
really comes into character through natural sunlight or artificial light. It just accepts
the light source in a very soft and tonal way. We've really expressed ourselves in this
property using that. This is a full concrete superstructure that's in filled with glass
to give us that minimalism and the detail that we were looking for with the overhangs.
I love the use of concrete and glass, I mean the transparency of glass and the solid behaviour of
concrete; putting them both together, they're sort of Yin and Yang in their behaviour but
they come together so well. What we then have implemented with that are two
important features. One is stone - it's a natural, beautiful travertine stone - and
then timber. So we've applied the timber from the joinery and also into the floor.
I find the combination of these three materials just come together so elegantly.
This isn't your traditional style of Toorak home. This is maybe even going
to the other end of a modern contemporary style home. What I feel this home does
in a very delightful way; it will age elegantly and timelessly, achieving that was nice.