Dwelling areas richly completed with forms of Italian marble lie behind the opaque facade of this home in Victoria, Australia, conceived by designer David Hicks.
Woodend home is positioned in Macedon Ranges, a area of Victoria characterised by sprawling forests and rolling hillsides.
Inspiration for the house’s design, nevertheless, stems from European vernacular structure, specifically the villas seen throughout the French, Tuscan, and Puglian countryside.
“I used to be impressed by European villas as they will have a quite simple architectural fashion, punctuated by French doorways and embellished simply sufficient to make them fairly,” David Hicks advised Dezeen. “Neither hyper-minimalist nor overtly rustic, Woodend achieves a harmonious steadiness of nostalgic architectural references and quiet grandeur, complementing the house’s rural setting.”
The one-storey dwelling belongs to an older couple downsizing from their earlier property devised by Hicks, which additionally had a windowless facade.
“In lots of my architectural tasks I’ve opted to don’t have any home windows on the entrance facade. I like this fashion of anonymity, of not realizing what lies past, it creates intrigue,” defined Hicks.
“As I design from the within out I prefer to orientate the rooms away from going through the entrance; this offers privateness and permits you to expertise the house as you enter, not earlier than.”
Because the entrance facade of Woodend can also be void of any doorways, entry is as a substitute granted via a wrought-iron arched gate to the facet of the home. That is adopted by a portico, which leads into an entrance vestibule.
The partitions right here, as all through the remainder of the house, have been rendered in micro cement after which limewashed to offer off a “stone-like tacitility”. A classic chandelier crafted from ruched slivers of Murano glass hangs from a round recess within the ceiling.
The vestibule connects to a protracted hall, from which all the opposite rooms department off.
This features a relaxed study-cum-sitting space that the studio refers to as “the retreat”. It options an Eames lounge chair, a multi-armed gentle by French designer Serge Mouille, and a fire with a Ceppo marble encompass.
The identical marble has been used to make cabinets in two arched show niches which were created within the wall.
A set of double doorways hyperlinks to the principal bed room, which has been completed with plush decor items, together with a velvet rug, a satiny headboard and fluted glass wall sconces.
Storage, in the meantime, is hid behind white lacquered panels.
It additionally has an ensuite toilet, by which surfaces are lined with pale Calacatta marble.
Big sliding glazed doorways have been inserted in the back of the area, offering views via to a small brick courtyard that is centred by a miniature maple tree.
Within the bigger, extra formal lounge, a few white armchairs have been paired with a curved child pink couch. Sheer linen curtains veil French doorways that open onto the backyard.
The kitchen sits in direction of the again of this area, comprising easy white cabinetry and a Calacatta marble breakfast island.
Within the dwelling’s powder room, the studio has used Ceppo marble once more, making use of the strikingly patterned stone throughout the partitions, flooring, and washbasin.
There are a number of different Australian houses that characteristic eye-catching facades. Current examples embrace the Birdwood home by architect Peter Besley, which sits behind a perforated display of terracotta brick and steel mesh.
There’s additionally Bangalow Street Home by Son Studio, which is fronted by a wall of timber louvres, referencing the aesthetic of conventional picket seashore shacks.
The images is by Shannon McGrath.
