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No doubt my favourite part of the property would be the main living zone, it's epic in
its proportion, it's got beautiful aspects of garden spaces, it's a multi-functional space
that can be closed off and opened up, so really this is a true aspect that we're really proud of.
We're located in Toorak which is only a few kilometres away from Melbourne CBD.
there are large lot sizes, expansive gardens, and a variety of architectural design styles.
Toorak has a streetscape where high fences are predominant, here we like to use that
to advantage as well but really differentiate it with the use of different materials,
different heights, and softening that through landscape as well.
The property itself sits at around 850 square metres, the home in its entirety is sitting over a
thousand square metres and that's spread across a basement which houses garage and other amenities.
Ground floor, which is primary living zones and then level one which houses four private bedrooms.
With all of our designs it's not just about approaching a
front door and letting one into the home, for us it was about layering that effect.
The front gate opens,
you're navigating through an informal garden space and then confronted with a bold entry door.
Once that door opens you're starting to see glimpses of materials, different elements
textures but not exposed to the entire volume immediately.
Majority of the ground floor plan is glazed in it's entire perimeter, so
what this really does is connect the living space, the private zones and public zones to multiple
and varying garden spaces. There's a large expanse of glass directly to the northern
garden, but equally to the opposite side we've got a southern garden which gives you a different
lighting textural quality throughout the day and throughout the seasons alike.
The glass here to the south is four metres in height by 2.5 in width so
you're really getting this blurring effect between living and landscape.
That was also done with the use of materiality bleeding the floor finishes and ceiling finishes
from inside all the way to the outside as well.
The material pallet was intentionally paired back and restrained.
The main materials used were concrete, natural stone, and glass.
Evidently concrete was a key material used in the project, we've used it strategically for achieving
a lot of the large expanses. The northern aspect and the direct connection from living space to
the garden has a clear opening of 18 metres, again this is done by the concrete upturn
beam which really comes from the front of the home and runs all the way through the rear.
Oregon timber was used as formwork and it really left a nice textural quality
If I was to say one thing that presents itself to the street as a design
consideration or a striking element would be the client's sculptural champagne cork,
which really sort of says come in have a drink and let's have a bit of a party.
Natural light is obviously a key consideration but equally is artificial lighting, in the
stairwell we've got a bespoke internal handrail detail within this space we've
lit up with a concealed LED strip and this draws you to the level one lobby space.
When you come up the stairwell you're immediately confronted with a long corridor,
we intentionally wanted to exaggerate this through the use of lighting. There was a
long concealed LED strip that draws you from one side of the home immediately to the opposite side,
coupled with this as well were some broken segments and here we have some integrated feature
lights that form part of the interior space but equally add a sense of warmth and comfort.
Through the ground plane there were two primary living areas, one was the main
living area we're in now but equally what we called on plan was an alfresco zone
that was a multi-functional space which can be used throughout the year and that has a direct
connection to the northern garden and equally to the pool and leisure zone to the east.
The pool area intentionally was not directly off the main living space,
it was quite I guess odd to have it in the front yard, not typical in any way shape or form,
however, what this provided was great solar aspect throughout the year.
Given the home was completed some years ago it's super impressive to see
how it's aged or not aged. I guess the landscape if anything has really
established and brought a true effect as to what was imagined here from day one, it's
super satisfying seeing the client always happy and still getting great feedback
as to I guess what the house was imagined to be and how that's actually turned out.
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