Second Nature

Second Nature

A home's enhanced sense of connection to the landscape and its owners has been heightened in its second incarnation by the same architect.

LOCATION | Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boonwurrung Country / Melbourne, Australia

ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN & STYLING | Susi Leeton Architects + Interiors

LANDSCAPE DESIGN | Myles Baldwin Design

PHOTOGRAPHY | Lisa Cohen

WORDS | Sophie Lewis

The home is composed of five different levels with a lift designed to create an efficient flow from parking the car to arriving in the kitchen with the groceries for dinner.

River House reveals Susi’s appreciation for Australian artists, including Johnny Niesche – his Cosmetic Calculator (2016) pictured in the hallway. Marmorino polished plaster walls accentuate the home’s light play.

A decade after its first appearance in est magazine, Susi Leeton Architecture + Interiors returned to the River House to build on themes of light, privacy and landscape for a couple and their now-teenage children. Located on a river bend on Melbourne’s Yarra River, architect Susi Leeton reconsidered how the 1980s home could be ‘grown up’ for young adults, bring friends together and let visiting family comfortably stay.

The River House negotiates five different levels that transition in different ways through steps, bridges and a lift. “Like the river, the building meanders through and down the site, down a garden path across a bridge to the front door,” Susi says.

For the then-young family, the home’s sleeping and living areas were closer together, and the communal areas were more openplan. Now, the parents have their own upper level to retreat to, while the kids have their own lower floor. In the middle, Susi has enlarged the conservatory kitchen, where mess can be made away from the living and dining areas. “We considered everything from bringing in the shopping from the car to the kitchen, by installing a lift down a few levels, to providing plenty of storage, a drying room and walk-in robes for everyone,” Susi says. “There are lots of different spaces for encouraging connection to each other and the landscape,” she adds.

The architecture is designed as a backdrop – to feel like you’re part of the lush landscape. Window frames are embedded to accentuate the view, maximising all aspects of the now-matured garden. “Every level and floor plane connects to Myles Baldwin’s garden,” she says. “We wanted the garden and views out to the river to take precedence over the architecture”. This allows the home to feel secluded while close to the city.

The architect appreciated the home’s access to southern light and, at the same time, “scooped sunlight from other directions”.

A ceiling cut out with a large skylight diffuses light in the hallway, where a Japanese maple tree is embedded in the limed oak floors. A central void wrapped in glass, featuring an established tree, blurs the boundaries between inside and out, as does the use of mirror. “The kitchen’s walk-in pantry lies behind our mirrored ‘Bento Box’ which also discreetly houses the bar,” Susi says. Which also discreetly houses the bar,” Susi says, "It brings the landscape into the room and creates a soft vibration of shifting greenery and southern light.” Marmorino polished plaster walls also gently reflects light while recessive architectural lighting highlights the home’s curved edges.

The living space features the B&B Italia Camaleonda sofa by Mario Bellini, OKHA Design Studio Repose sofa, Halcyon Lake Chromatic Sage II rug, B&B Italia Formiche small table by Piero Lissoni, De La Espada Laurel side table, a Missoni Home ottoman and a Lex Williams timber side table. Artwork by Kevin Chin (beside fireplace) and Daniel Boyd (back wall).

The dining space features Vintage Cab chairs by Mario Bellini for Cassina, Fred Rigby Studio dining chair and Lowe Furniture oak dining table.

This page: The cosy breakfast nook features a Molecule table by BARBERA Design, Mark Tuckey Zigzag stools and bench cushions upholstered in Westbury Textiles linen.

The kitchen with custom drawers is carved from solid Signorino Granite.

Beyond the limed oak floors, large-format limestone tiles run from inside to outside and through the private areas. In the bedrooms, walls are painted in a colour Susi describes as the back of a eucalyptus leaf. The grounding palette is a backdrop to Susi’s curation of Australian art, including her own, alongside works by Daniel Boyd, Sally Gabori and Adrienne Gaha and sculptural pieces, such as a 300-year-old Japanese log from a temple in Japan. The architect also nods to local makers with furniture sourced from BARBARA Design, Lowe Furniture and Mark Tuckey.

In revisiting the River House, Susi has continued to bring a sense of the slow-flowing river into all aspects of the design and experience of space. “Combining function with feeling”, Susi says, “allows you to exhale as soon as you walk through the door.”

The kitchen pantry and bar is enclosed in a mirror, which Susi describes as a ‘Bento box’, designed to reflect the landscape from every direction.

The hallway that leads to the living area features a Japanese Maple tree neatly tucked into the George Fethers & Co. limed oak boards that run through the entire communal floor. Sculptures by Isadora Vaughan are positioned next to the Japanese maple, with Winter Landscape by Adrienne Gaha on the wall. The recessed lighting is by Flos and Adrian Pizzey Lighting.

The bedroom features the Cuero Butterfly chair, Baxter Liquid side table by Draga & Aurel, and Flos Tab floor lamp by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

The bathroom features tapware by Brodware, an Apaiser vanity and a Merwe Bayou bath to soak in views of the now-matured Myles Baldwin Garden.

In the River House every level and floor plane connects to Myles Baldwin’s garden – allowing the home to feel secluded while close to the city.