THE VISION
One of the most important things any Designer needs to be able to do for themselves, and most of all, their clients, is to be able to ‘Visualise’.
It’s a matter of how you approach things, how you act or react to new circumstances, your proclivity to look at things in different ways, your willingness to question, experiment, and take chances. In other words, creativity is not “what you are” as much as “what you do.”
Together with our architects, an amazing design came together after 2 long years…and this is one way to learn how to be more ‘patient’. The design brief to our architect was to for them to design a modern addition, with the use of Natural Timber and Black Steel elements on the exterior with a crisp, minimal interior design. We feel their modest, durable and timeless approach to material selection is conservative but careful detailing allowed the design to transition from traditional to modern naturally.
The new spaces have been arranged to allow more bedroom and office space upstairs, whilst capturing ocean and valley views from all rooms and a large west facing balcony. The home is accessed downstairs through a large limestone arch, hidden by a modern facade to match the new extension. As you walk into the house, large void in the ceiling runs the entire length of the hallway, allowing maximum light into the house and connecting the two spaces. The ground floor contains a modern kitchen, that has the feeling of a Melbourne tapas bar, that opens up to a large courtyard with lush gardens and a homemade pizza oven.
The downstairs exterior of the house is clad in natural limestone which complements the traditional french pattern travertine paving in the courtyards and the lush greenery of the gardens. Together they all seem to reflect a relaxed informal Mediterranean style downstairs with a ‘timeless’ feel about it, though the quirky transition from the traditional style of downstairs to the modern extension upstairs feels completely natural.
