Keeping views from prying eyes
The Age
Saturday March 26, 2011
An air of openness pervades this private family home, writes Jenny Brown. AS IMPOSING as the facade of this Hawthorn house is and architect Steve Domoney admits it is "bold" it was not done simply for statement value. As scaled-up and bright as the white, charcoal and glass interior spaces are, their morphing horizontal and vertical volumes were not generated simply to impress.In fact, the main criterion driving the design brief to Steve Domoney Architects for the four-bedroom, two-storey family house was privacy, a priority that might have resulted in a highly internalised home.Instead, by deeply recessing the upstairs front study behind a 4.5-metre x 7.5-metre terrace overhung with a slightly angled skillion that has automated roof louvres to open or close it to the weather, and by creating sequences of high and low windows throughout that look to the sky, lap pool or garden, the house has plenty of satisfying views.Except for the back upstairs main bedroom and the fabulous front upstairs office that are contained in opposing pods, or what Domoney calls "suspended cubes", and which do have edited views of distant houses, what isn't seen is the immediate details of the near neighbourhood. Despite large expanses of glass, the back downstairs living rooms are so cleverly screened by internal and external form that they don't require blinds.The two-storey living space and the flow-through kitchen-dining areas under lower ceilings enjoy a close view of the dark-tiled pool that appears to run into the house itself. "Very Frank Lloyd Wright," Domoney quips.Bringing water inside was one of the client's suggestions. And she adores the mutating reflections that cross the ceiling each afternoon."Bringing the water into the house is also about the senses," Domoney says. When the fountain feature is operating, "it becomes about light, sound and visuals".The Hawthorn site had been occupied by an interwar clinker-brick house that was demolished to reveal a sizeable block on which the 372-square-metre house could be set without overlooking or setback constraints.The greater advantage, Domoney says, was that the neighbourhood had no heritage overlays "so the house did not have to recognise any heritage stock. This is a street in transition, so we were able to context the house for the future rather than for the past".What the house did have to do was accommodate three children and two adults, one of whom works from home in what is now a magnificent office with in-built desk joinery, room for a sitting area and direct access to the large terrace that precludes any activity being seen from the street.The office joinery, the oak on the stairs and upstairs floors and the panel of wood veneer that encloses the long divider of cupboards that separates the children's bedrooms from the downstairs entertainment and living suites, not only "fragments the space into different areas, it breaks down the formality of the spaces into more casual arrangements", Domoney says. The timber touches also serve to warm the interiors.Combined with the internal and external schemes of charcoal stone and anodised aluminium cladding, white render and galvanised-steel features, "there is a nice, simple consistency of materials", he says."The timber is about introducing warmth into the painted, stone and concrete interiors that could otherwise be cold."Corridors, stairways, en suites and walk-through wardrobes are larger than usual. "But they suit the scaling of the house," Domoney says. "This is a house where you can stretch your wings. This is the house that we think should be here. A house that isn't apologetic about being in a heritage area but one that, we hope, will set the tone of what is to come."contactSteve Domoney ArchitecturePhone 9419 0773www.domoneyarchitecture.comBuilder Tony Japp, Big Fish ConstructionsPhone 0417 505 528
© 2011 The Age
