What we love most: The bold intersecting boxes that make up the home
Architects: Crone Partners
Construction: Good Constructions
Location: Sandringham, Victoria
Photographer: Derek Swalwell
The Good House in Melbourne’s Sandringham is all about a home, for its occupants. It respects solid design principles while delivering something bold, yet pleasing and unpretentious.
“Embracing the challenge of a relatively tight inner suburban location, and restrictive building envelope, [we] worked closely with the owners to rationalise their ‘wish list’,” Matthew says.
“Little was lost in this process and even less in the translation to a finished home for the clients – also the builders – and their young family.”
The house is essentially a series of interlocking boxes. “Each ‘box’ represents a distinct portion of the [home],” explains Crone Partners’ Matthew Smith. “A sleeping or study zone, a living zone, a garage workshop, and cantilevered above all of this, a parents retreat, complete with its own living area and secluded outdoor terrace.”
The idea behind the home, aside from providing a functional and beautiful dwelling, was to connect indoors and out, as well as creating a logical flow of internal spaces.
“The line between interior and exterior is blurred, with banks of operable louvres and huge sliding glass panels [giving] the family the ability to engage directly with the outside environment, or to close the place down completely, dependent on the variable Melbourne weather.”
A materials palette of timber, stone, steel and glass make for a consistent yet interesting transitions from room to room – punctuated with stunning lighting pieces and punchy artworks.
“The house’s finely detailed bold rectilinear form is set back from the street amidst a carpet of natural ground cover,” Matthew says.
“Whilst sitting comfortably in its street context proportionally, and with setbacks respectful of its neighbours, the view from the street confirms immediately that this house is quite different to those around it.”
We cover a huge array of different homes on habitusliving.com, from the minimal, to the well-lived-in, but they all seem to have the common element – as indeed does the Good House – of being perfect for the people they are made for. And surely this is the point of ‘home’.
Crone Partners
cronepartners.com
[lg_folder folder=”stories/2011/may-11/live/good/good” display=”slide”]
