Nestled among the idyllic jacaranda lined streets of Applecross, Retreat by Urbane was designed with family at heart. A versatile space to cater for everyday family living and the perfect venue to entertain guests with style and elegance.
Retreat harmoniously attends to the needs of both parents and children with adaptive living zones designed to encourage individual time for children to play or, adults to relax, whilst still functioning as a living zone where they can come together as a family and enjoy time together.
A seamless visual extension from the main living area to the alfresco and backyard, allow the children to play while parents can carry on with their own activities in the home, reassured that they have an uninterrupted view of the backyard.
Entering the home, a conventional ceiling height expands to an oversized ceiling height as you enter the main area, with a double void, abundance of natural light and a sense of grandeur. Uninterrupted visuality creates an indoor / outdoor experience that connects the interior to the outside and evokes a seamless flow that enhances this design masterpiece.
Retreat by Urbane: A unique family home, designed to create the perfect space for each family member to flourish and grow.
00:06 – A family focused home 00:45 – Meticulous design details from the entrance 01:25 – The main area: light, volume, a visual experience 02:20 – Interconnection between inside and outside 02:50 – Uniquely designed staircase 03:15 – A journey of trust
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This is Retreat. The clients really were family focused. They obviously wanted an aesthetic that
was modern but not too slick, that felt like a home and still had that materiality there that
was that point of difference. First and foremost it was a home that they could grow into and
had those zones that were sort of particular to their children's needs as well as their own with
the gym and past the suite, TV room and those sort of spaces so it catered for both sides.
The house has a triple garage. By turning it away from the street that gave us the opportunity to
create a large hardscaped area that allowed, being a driveway, but obviously created a zone or an area
where they could play basketball. As you walk through that entry sequence you're greeted with
the cladding that we we see on the garage door that hides the garage and that sort of wraps
around and draws you into the main zone. Being a glass or glazed door that separates the entry and
the main living area you still get a view through so that draws you through into that main area.
So you go from a conventional ceiling height to a oversized or double void and that's another
reason that the clients wanted to use that to get more light into the main living zone. We have a
deep alfresco that backs onto that space so having the highlight windows above that roof line allowed
us to bring that extra bit of light in and also create that volume.
From that main living zone if the kids are outside you can see the pool zone clear that
was quite important from the kitchen from the dining or family room and also there was that
interconnection with those big glass sliding doors that could open up the
indoor space with the alfresco outdoor space and join those two areas out.
The indoor and outdoor aspect to the house was really I think also kid orientated because
from that kitchen area you can see the whole backyard and
that inside outside feel is like yeah it was part of the same house.
My favourite detail is the staircase it was a labour of love it was something that a designer
I've never done before took a lot of R&D to get the cantilevered steps with the metal shrouds
to hide all the structural elements through there so that was all meticulously detailed.
It was the most rewarding part of that seeing that come together.
The journey of realising the home from drawings I suppose it's a combination of
many discussions and ultimately underlining that is the trust that the client gives you
to ensure that you know what their thinking is interpreted correctly and executed on site
and we tend to find as that relationship builds over time then they'll trust us with
new ideas that we table or a better option for an area or maybe take a risk on something that they
may not have seen before. Through different stages of the build it's always good to have
a close relationship with the clients and some people can't picture it we do it day in day out
but it's very hard to picture the finished product. It's definitely important to have
close contact with clients especially towards those finishing stages so we achieve what they
want to.
