this project is in brighton it's a bayside suburb of melbourne it's a nice location
close to the beach and a nice tree-lined secluded street it's always our ambition particularly with
suburban projects to maximise the lifestyle potential on a property by considering it
from boundary to boundary this was an unusual and slightly challenging site
a reasonable size but an unusual shape slightly wedge-shaped we're determined to use the front
garden as the main outdoor space there's a nice deep garden vista to the north west and the view
over the front fence to the street trees and the distant front gardens beyond is very pleasant
i've had a long-standing relationship with the mckim family and with inform i've seen
the quality of their builds i've seen the very seamless process we knew we wanted to build a
new house but we didn't want to go through a lot of the pain points everyone we met along the way i
would have to say was lovely we can't even believe how this house turned out obviously with two kids
and one on the way when we started designing the house they needed a substantial family home but
they were absolutely non-prescriptive with regard to the architectural expression
very open-minded to architectural ideas the building has a minimalist sculptural quality
large monochromatic concrete walls are carefully composed and just positioned
with large areas of glass and contrasting black steel elements it works particularly well as
light moves around the building both the floors are concrete slabs unusual in domestic building
as well as being super stable and solid this gives the house a real
calm acoustic quality inside the upper floor feels very solid underfoot
and the noise transfer is virtually nil a bonus in a house full of young kids
what we really visualized for the house was we wanted
people to walk in and feel calm and at home and also have a bit of a wow moment
i think that's how we got onto the void in the living area it's actually quite amazing when you
see people's faces and they walk into the house and they come into this room with curved walls
and all this light this beautiful double void we love it it's unique we've worked through a
few seasons now and doesn't matter what season there's a lot of light that always comes through
good design can create spaces that feel far more generous than their layout size would suggest
space and light are amplified in this house a concrete blade wall runs from the entry the
entire length of the house and continues to the kids activity area this space opens up to its own
dedicated courtyard allows young children to play have as much fun as they like and
create as much mess without impacting on the rest of the house inside or out
from a functionality point of view this house has been fantastic we have these
beautiful strong hard features in the house with a concrete wall and then soften that as well we have
amazing beautiful incursions and we have a lot of wood timber oak floors give the interior space
a sense of warmth the interior joinery elements the marble splashback and the soft gray tones are
classic timeless with a contemporary edge and the detailing around the panels brass edges handles
just gives a sense of texture and refinement to the interior generally the main bedroom has
a large aspect to the front of the property to the street it's a big west facing window
we still pinch ourselves well i do anyway when i come home from work and realize that it's ours and
how beautiful it is and how it sits so well on the street it's actually a joy waking up here every
morning and just see the kids running around in it and family and friends over is the best
really we're novices and we needed to team up with people who are experts and we felt comfortable the
whole way the communication the understanding of the brief everything they said that we're
going to do we're all absolutely nailed the maximization of the sense of space through volume
aspect and light is very pleasant we're very proud of the architecture very pleased with the result
it's a really eloquent reflection of their values their tastes and their priorities it's their home