“Accent”, a single storey home, full of surprises found in the architectural details, was designed for a young Perth family. Upon entering “Accent”, the home opens to a corridor flooded with natural light from the extensive use of glass in the ceiling area. Journeying further into the home, the kitchen and living areas display an impressive elegance from the extensive use of glass, with in natural light highlighting linear structural details.
Dark tones used throughout from exterior and interior, adds depth and accents to an otherwise neutral architecture. Black Woodmatt from Polytec coupled with Grey Mini Rustic tiles from Myaree Ceramics throughout the kitchen and bathrooms contribute to the “accent” aspect of the home, a visual contrast with colours and textures. Engineered Oyster polished stone from Caesarstone used for benchtops visually reconnects the viewer to the white shades of the overall architecture of the home.
This episode of “Home is a Journey” highlights the last steps before handover to the new homeowners. Meet Rob, Tom, and Peter from the Urbane Team, sharing with us the intent behind this family home. Hear from the client’s experience on their now completed Journey to Home.
00:00 – The Design Intent 01:22 – Layout and Scale 03:02 – The Experience 03:29 – Real Connections with People 03:58 – Builder’s Perspective
This is Accent.
Design is for us a conversation with the client. The best design or the outcomes come with
feedback and getting the client on board excited and taking that leap of faith with us.
We started our journey many many years ago. We had bought this property with an old house on it.
It was big enough for our family at the time. As the family grew bigger in size,
what was a four by one became too small.
Initially the clients came to us with fairly specific ideas on how they wanted the house
set up. Initially it was a two-story idea. So we started with that design and it sort of became
more evident to me the matter of accommodation they needed versus the size of the block.
There was too much site. I sort of on the side started designing a single story.
After some consideration, yeah we could see that it did suit the site a lot better
and we could get all the flow to work on that one level.
And then the challenge was really how do I get the two-story feel of volume into that single
story. So we did that really with the roof forms and the raking ceiling did help that. Allowed us
to get a one and a half story high volume in the entry which is sort of in keeping with their
original idea. And then we sort of carried that through as we went down to the main living zone,
the kitchen, dining and family. We have the soaring ceiling through there. We had clear story windows.
There's a northern aspect to the whole home which lets a lot of natural light in. The kitchen is
the hub of the home and they tend to congregate around that kitchen, dining area. The whole
sunken family room is a nice addition with the fireplace and the TV. I think the whole family
will congregate around that area. Hopefully they'll get some great memories out of it as well.
The sense of space in the home, everything being a little bit oversized, you feel
like that grandeur. It doesn't feel tight. It feels airy. You're seeing sky, sun change and
track through the day. The light play on walls and floors, you see all that as well. That creates
that happier mood. It's a light and bright feeling in the home. I think the more thorough and
rigorous you are at the start with that conversation, asking the hard questions and really
questioning why clients want something and we can sort of steer them to that end goal.
I think walking through the home is the result of all those conversations.
It's an open two-way communication. It very much comes from the heart and I think that's the
the open discussions we've had along the way. Peter, our site supervisor, has been awesome
because he will also put in his bits and say, look, if this is my home, this is what I would do.
So it's real connections with people.
It's emotional and rewarding. I think from our point of view as the builder, I think from
a single line on a bit of paper to actually walking through the front door of a beautiful space.
That's a very rewarding portion of our work and what we create.
We're not just creating houses per se, but they're actually living spaces that
will form the next portion of people's lives and create new memories for them.
