Mansion June 2020

Mansion incorporating news from Dow jones’ M A NS ION Gl oba l

AustrAliA

Where the hearth is The fireplace as a selling point

Women architects We talk to five of the best

Fair isles

Your own piece of paradise

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-page

Interiors

section

Best In show

Who takes the title, Toorak or Brighton?

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Issue 36 H June 2020

t H E w E E k E n d aust r a l i a n | o c t obE r 8 - 9 , 2 0 1 6

LITHGOW, 26 Ordnance Ave ‘Wenvoe’ Only the second time offered for public sale outside of the Bracey family. This classic home features an entire ground floor made up of grand entertainment size living areas consistent with the era, 5 bedrooms plus servants’ quarters and an attic ‘ballroom’ of approx. 7m x 16m. A separate two bedroom home at the rear of the property offers a variety of uses including studio workshop, guest accommodation, home office and teenage retreat. The spacious open lawns, the established trees and gardens add the final touches to a truly magnificent setting.Triple street frontage, 26 Ordnance Ave (2,523sqm approx) and 31 Malvern St (1,085sqm approx). ‘Wenvoe’ is in excellent condition and offers the purchaser the ability to move quickly with their own plans, whether for personal lifestyle or the multiple of other options available.

All information contained herein is gathered from sources we deem to be reliable. However we cannot guarantee its accuracy and interested parties should rely on their own enquiries.

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Auction

Wednesday 1st July at 11am (if not sold prior) Domain Auction House, Double Bay

View

Contact Agent

David Medina 0419 772 233 In conjunction with Geoff McGilvray 0400 935 435

CHATSBURY, ‘Maryland’ 291 Chapmans Lane (via Goulburn) Situated Situated 20km 20km from from Goulburn Goulburn Town Town Centre Centre and and 24km 24km from from the the quaint quaint Taralga TaralgaVillage, Village, isis this this outstanding outstanding property property “Maryland”.

“Maryland”. Set Set on on 56ha, 56ha, 138 138 acres acres of of gently gently undulating undulating eastern eastern facing facing basalt basalt country country suitable suitable for for cattle cattle or or sheep. sheep. Sensationally Sensationally appointed appointed country country homestead, homestead, with with magnifi magnificent cent rural rural vistas, vistas, beautifully beautifully appointed appointed interiors interiors with with aa wide wide encompassing encompassing veranda, veranda, double double garage garage with with extra extra storeroom. storeroom. Excellent Excellent water water in in place, place, 99 dams, dams, 120,000 120,000 litres litres of of water water storage storage at at homestead homestead plus plus the the extra extra security security of of aa bore. bore.

Shearing Shearing shed, shed, hay hay shed, shed, Nissan Nissan hut hut and and older older set set of of cattle cattle yards yards in in place. place. 2wd 2wd access access of of the the Goulburn Goulburn Taralga Taralga Road.

Road.‘Maryland’ ‘Maryland’ isis aa quality quality rural rural holding holding set set in in the the renowned renowned Goulburn Goulburn and and Taralga Taralga district, district, ready ready and and waiting waiting for for its its new new owner. owner.Take Take the the opportunity opportunity and and come come and and explore explore what what ‘Maryland’ ‘Maryland’ has has to to offer. offer.

All All information information contained contained herein herein isis gathered gathered from from sources sources we we deem deem to to be be reliable. reliable.However However we we cannot cannot guarantee guarantee its its accuracy accuracy and and interested interested parties parties should should rely rely on on their their own own enquiries. enquiries.

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Auction Auction Wednesday, Wednesday, 1st 1st July July at at 11am 11am (if (if not not sold sold prior) prior) Domain Domain Auction Auction House, House, Double Double Bay Bay View View Contact Contact Agent Agent

David Medina 0419 772 233

sydneysothebysrealty.com

Contents

A stylish fireplace is the new focal point. See page 32

1 1 L U X U R Y Hunter Valley estate, Tassie award-winner, Highlands Harry Seidler 1 4 C O V E R S T O R Y Toorak and Brighton are neck and neck in the prestige stakes

Mansion AustrAliA

1 7 M A N S I O N G L O B A L Medieval stone in Montenegro, Miami Beach glamour 1 8 D O L L Y L E N Z Post-COVID thaw begins in the New York prestige market 2 6 A R C H I T E C T U R E Top women architects talk about the coming trends 3 2 F I R E P L A C E S The feature that says ‘home’ is now also a design drawcard 3 4 S U R R Y H I L L S A grungy inner-city shopping mall is about to be transformed 3 5 I S L A N D S Off Australia’s east coast you can buy your own piece of paradise 3 6 I T A L Y Australian architect Glenn Murcutt’s influence has travelled a long way 3 8 P R E S T I G E M A R K E T REA’s reading of what prestige buyers are looking for 3 9 B A C K P A G E Broome, on the WA coast, has a rich and alluring culture 4 3 I N T E R I O R S In a reverse trend, a family builds for a country-to-city move 4 9 P R O D U C T S A Patricia Urquiola table, and not your usual leather chair 5 0 D E S I G N C L A S S I C Gaetano Pesce’s luscious chair plus ottoman

Editor Lisa Allen Contributing editor Jonathan Chancellor Interiors editor David Meagher Art director Samantha Yates Writers Joel Robinson Sam Duncan Judy Barouch Chief sub editor Deirdre Blayney Picture editor Christine Westwood Advertising Michael Thompson Tel. 61 2 9288 3630 michael.thompson2@news.com.au

N E X T I S S U E : August 8, 2020

O N T H E C O V E R A home on the dress-circle Chatsworth

Avenue in the sought-after Victorian suburb of Brighton, on the market with a price guide of $12.8 million to $13.8 million

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Editor’s letter It’s a little-known fact that just three women have scored the top Australian Institute of Architecture Gold Medal since its inception back in 1960 – and that’s despite the ratio of male to female graduates being roughly similar.

Design and architecture writer Judy Barouch meets five female star architects in different cities around the country to examine why there’s such longstanding gender imbalance and under-representation of women in architecture’s senior management positions. She also uncovers some future design trends – such as the end of the letterbox, which is expected to be replaced with new parcel-drop boxes as we increasingly buy online, according to the co-CEO of BVN, Ninotschka Titchkosky.

Elsewhere in our June issue we look at the perennial favourite topic of islands for sale and, as the weather turns, the increasing sophistication of fireplace design. Writer Joel Robinson chats with high-profile Americanborn interior designer Thomas Hamel, who argues that a fireplace is the perfect focal point for any room.

But what luxury home hunters search for are air conditioners and swimming pools, as REA chief economist Nerida Conisbee explains. And she discovers which suburbs are the most popular when it comes to online searches for opulent real estate. In Sydney, Bronte and Paddington are among the favourites; in Adelaide it’s Medindie; and not surprisingly, Toorak and Albert Park make the grade in Melbourne. Turn to page 38 to discover the surprise suburb that harbours the most desired luxury homes in Australia for online searchers.

Across the country, the Gold Coast real estate market was recently buoyed by the $25 million sale of entrepreneur Tony Smith’s Bali-meetsHamptons style beach house to a Melbourne buyer. It was the biggest deal in more than a decade. We can only hope that this $25 million deal is the sign of things to come as we head out of the COVID-19 scourge into unknown real estate territory.

As always, we thank our hard working real estate pals, developers and architects for their help with this issue.

Lisa Allen Editor THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

| JUNE 13-14, 2020

JUNE 13-14, 2020

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15 Eastbourne Road, Darling Point 5 bed | 3 bath | 1 car FOR SALE - POA

‘Kendall Lodge’ Classic Residence With Sweeping Views A home of distinction and classic elegance in an elite blue-chip enclave, ‘Kendall Lodge’ is a grand five-bedroom residence with spectacular harbour views over Double Bay and Seven Shillings Beach.

For more information contact: Michael Dunn 0419 888 815

Andrew Birbeck 0448 131 616

Marion Badenoch 0413 606 413

Proudly Richardson&Wrench rwdoublebay.com.au | 02 9327 5825

8 South Avenue, Double Bay 4 bed | 2 bath | 2 car FOR SALE - POA

Landmark Family Residence in Leafy Bayside Setting Classical elegance meets inspired contemporary design in this freestanding c1880s family residence set on a level 582 sqm (approx.) parcel of land in a leafy enclave just 400m level stroll to the harbour foreshore.

For more information contact: Michael Dunn 0419 888 815

James Dunn 0404 387 777

Andrew Birbeck 0448 131 616

Proudly Richardson&Wrench rwdoublebay.com.au | 02 9327 5825

SINGLETON, NSW

Baroona, one of Australia’s oldest country estates, has been listed by Knight Frank Prestige agent Deb Cullen with a guide of $5.5 million to $6 million. The 40ha Hunter Valley estate began life as Rosemont in 1829 when the first stage was built. Albert Dangar acquired the property in 1869 and commissioned Benjamin Backhouse to design Baroona. It was the birth and final resting place of two-time Melbourne Cup winner Peter Pan and has only had seven owners.

The home last traded for $3.35 million before a full-scale upgrade by its owners, Singleton mining equipment manufacturer Tony Poke and his wife Gaylene. It has 26 rooms, including seven bedrooms, five bathrooms and a wine cellar.

GOLD COAST, QLD

A two-level condo-penthouse in the Palazzo Versace block on Main Beach in the Gold Coast has been listed for sale for $2.25 million. The 270sq m apartment was formerly owned by the flamboyant doctor Geoffrey Edelsten, who sold it in 2015. It has two bedrooms flanking either side of the central living space, which is finished with Italian mosaic flooring. There are no internal stairs, but a luxury, customised internal glass lift designed with the Versace motif runs to the renovated rooftop terrace. which has an enclosed entertaining space. Mashelle Jones at Queensland Sotheby’s is marketing the apartment, which comes with a 13m marina berth and access to the Palazzo Versace Hotel facilities. Palazzo Versace was completed in 2000, costing $200 million to build what was marketed as the first fashion-branded hotel in Australia.

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SANDY BAY, TASMANIA

An award-winning Sandy Bay home with gun-barrel views of the River Derwent has been listed for sale after a designer renovation. The contemporary corrugated copperclad waterfront on the dress circle Sandy Bay Road was built in the mid-1990s by local architect Garry Forward. Entry to the home, which is over two levels, is through a foyer walkway over the indoor lap pool, opening to the main kitchen, living and dining area with stainless steel kitchen and feature gas fireplace. Flanking the open plan living space is a terrace that acts as a breezeway to the master wing with its marble ensuite.

The self-contained lower ground level has another two bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a second living and dining space access to a second balcony with a hot tub and views overlooking the river. The 955sq m sloping block runs down to the river, where there’s a boatshed and direct beach access. Knight Frank Tasmania agent Abi Freeman is asking for offers over $2.65 million.

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MOSMAN PARK, WA

A Mosman Park home, high on the hilltop with panoramic views over the Swan River, has been listed for sale. It sits on 1045sq m on Bay View Terrace, where there has not been a sale since 2017. Five houses on the street have fetched more than $5 million.

The home, which last traded for $4.6 million in 2012, was built in the late 1920s, and updated and modernised in recent years. A lift connects the two levels, running from the downstairs formal dining area to the upstairs living space. There are two bedrooms downstairs and three upstairs.

The master with walk-in robe and ensuite opens to the river-facing balcony with views over the masts of the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and Point Walter.

There’s a second kitchen on the upper level.

Mack Hall agent Peter Burns has the listing.

GREAT OCEAN ROAD, VIC

A hinterland home on the Great Ocean Road in Bellbrae has been listed for sale for the first time since its construction. The modern three-bedroom home was built on 11.2 ha after it traded for $725,000 in 2006. The owners had architect Mike Morris create the contemporary dwelling, which combines rich timber, rammed earth and polished concrete flooring. The open living zone was positioned for passive climate control and to look out to the restored landscape. Central to the living space is the kitchen with walk-in pantry and cellar. A guest wing with two bedrooms is located over a bridge through the kitchen. The master wing has its own ensuite, which features sliding doors that open to a screened room with views across the dam. Outside the home is a separate home office with adjoining creative studio, clad in spotted gum, and an architecturally designed vegetable garden. Great Ocean Properties Anglesea agents Ian Lawless and Jess Nowson have a $3.4 million to $3.7 million price guide.

GOLD COAST, QLD

Island dream The final apartment in the boutique River Isles complex on the Gold Coast’s Chevron Island has been listed for sale.

Completed last year, the penthouse-like apartment on the small block of four’s top level spans 380sq m of internal and 250sq m of external space.

The external space incorporates the rooftop swimming pool, poolside deck, lawn and outdoor kitchen, as well as the entertaining level’s river-facing balcony, which also features a barbecue kitchen.

The balcony runs off the open plan kitchen, which has a 5m Calacatta marble island, and living and dining space, which is divided by a two-way gas fireplace with marble surrounds.

Each of the apartment’s three bedrooms has its own ensuite and walk-in wardrobes.

There’s a cinema, complete with a 150 inch anamorphic super-wide screen, a 4k projector and an integrated speaker system, as well as a home office and a cellar. The apartment also has its own jetty.

Harcourts Coastal Broadbeach agents Chez Fraser and Katrina Walsh are asking for offers over $4.85 million. The complex’s two ground-level apartments sold for $3.945 million and $3.495 million earlier this year.

Developer Pat O’Connor, who created the block after knocking down two adjoining properties on Stanhill Drive, is keeping the other apartment.

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BELROSE, NSW

The long-time Belrose estate of the former Coca Cola Amatil chief executive Dean Wills has been listed for sale with a record-breaking guide. Wills, who oversaw the drink giant’s worth jump from $400 million to $8 billion, bought the property with his late wife, artist Margaret Wills, in 1994.

There’s an art studio in the home where Margaret would paint – she was once commissioned by the Duke of Edinburgh to create a series depicting the Queensland outback.

Wills is now asking for offers of $8.8 million through Sydney Country Living agent Brian McMillan. Set on a private 9490sq m, the full brick home has six bedrooms, including a lower-level master wing with two sitting areas, a fireplace, ensuite, walk-in robe and dressing room. The centrepiece is the 12-car showroom-style garage. Wills would have colourful racing identities and high-flying corporates, among them Frank Lowy, Jack Brabham and Wayne Gardner, pop in and take a peek at his much-publicised collection. He’s known to have bought 15 Ferraris over the years, and his showpiece car, a 1994 McLaren F1 coupe, was one of only 64 ever made. In the landscaped grounds is a swimming pool, spa, tennis court and cabana.

MITTAGONG, NSW

GOLD COAST, QLD

Range Farm Estate, a Mittagong, Southern Highlands trophy acreage offered with plans to build a home designed by the late Harry Seidler, has been listed. Alison Coopes at Agency by Alison Coopes and Angus Campbell-Jones at Campbell Jones Property are asking $8 million plus. Seidler visited twice, taking the owners to visit the Berman House, which he designed in nearby Joadja. There are three separate homes on the Mittagong property previously known as Glenelg. The 18ha estate last traded for $4.25 million in 2004 from Ian and Patricia Hay, who had the Seidler plans approved in 2003. The homestead is a three-bedroom storybook cottage refurbished

by Engelen Moore’s Ian Moore. A new second residence dubbed The Hay Barn is a contemporary steel structure also designed by Moore.

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Riverpoint, one of the Gold Coast’s most impressive homes, has sold for around $11.75 million in one of the city’s biggest sales of 2020. The sprawling mansion on the Isle of Capri’s La Scala Court was built by property developer Peter McQueen and his wife Kim. It first sold at auction in 2013 for just over $4 million. Three years earlier there had reportedly been a $9 million-plus offer.

With its stone, timber and glass exterior, the home is described as resembling a Thai resort. Sitting on a 2625sq m Main River block with its own private beach, it has 1650sq m of internal space, six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, an executive home office, a cinema, gourmet kitchen with scullery and cold room, a wellness retreat with gym and a man cave. A 6m alfresco pavilion complete with outdoor kitchen is centrally located to integrate with the interior, the manicured gardens and the pool. In the grounds is a tennis court and a 10-car basement garage, which has direct access to the boat ramp and one of two pontoons. Kollosche Broadbeach agents Michael Kollosche and Eddie Wardale, with Amir Mian and Charles Delos Angeles at Amir Prestige, secured the sale.

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Cover story

Gould Street, Brighton, left and below

Simply the best Melbourne’s prestige home buyers divide their loyalties between Toorak and Brighton, and most stick to their patch

BY J ONAT H A N C H A NC E L L OR

B

righton has secured Melbourne’s highest trophy home sale price so far this year, as prestige estate agents sense a busier winter than normal. Its surprise $19.8 million sale has temporarily taken the baton from Toorak, which some would say is Melbourne’s best address. Others believe that honour belongs to absolute beachfront Brighton. Not that the two prestigious suburbs are rivals.

Local agents say Brighton residents are very loyal to the bayside area. “Many were born and bred there and then settled there themselves, bringing up the next generation,” veteran agent and founder of Marshall White John Bongiorno noted recently. “People from outside Brighton tend to aspire to Toorak as Melbourne’s most prestigious suburb ... Toorak definitely is the home of Melbourne’s best range of top-end properties,” he conceded.

There is not a lot of movement between the suburbs, as Brighton people like the village and to be near the sea, and Toorak residents like their village and their proximity to the city.

Kay & Burton agent Ross Savas says the two markets follow a similar transaction pattern, partly due to the quality of local schools and access to parks and cafes. “While both neighbourhoods attract the country’s highest earners, they satisfy different lifestyle ambitions,” he says. “The riverside enclave of Toorak caters to slightly different needs from the beachside activity hub of Brighton. As a stronghold for generational wealth, Toorak has long been home to Australia’s most influential families, and now we are seeing young professionals moving in from the stepping-stone suburbs across Boroondara, Stonnington and Bayside.”

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| JUNE 13-14, 2020

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Clockwise from left: Rear of New Street, Brighton; pool area at Linlithgow Road, Toorak; and Martin Street, Brighton

The recent strong Brighton sale was the home of John Bongiorno and his wife Anne, who pocketed the windfall in an off-market deal.

Their four-bedroom foreshore reserve home on Martin Street sits on 1650sq m, with the adjoining space added in 2007 to cater for the tennis court. The home, which had been quietly marketed in 2016 as “your own beachside resort”, sold last month through local agent Jonathan Dixon to Ying Wang and Fuyi Cao. Situated on the beachfront Golden Mile, it is one of around 48 properties abutting the seashore. Its striking contemporary design was inspired by its prominent position on the coast, and features an internal palette of marble and blonde timber.

Relaxed open plan living is at the heart of the property, which was consolidated in a 2007 purchase of the adjoining beachfront reserve block for $6 million. The Bongiornos then embarked on a complete renovation.

The Bongiorno family had owned the non-waterfront part of the holding since 1975, when John’s fruiterer father Jack and mother Valda bought it for $115,000. Oriented towards the water, the home’s vast expanses of glass frame views of Port Phillip, with the Bay Trail cycling and walking paths between the house and the water. The lavish kitchen is a focal point for family meals around an extensive island bench and for balmy summer-night dinner parties.

The home’s sale ranks as the bayside suburb’s second most expensive recorded residential sale, topped only by the $22 million paid for 39 Seacombe Grove, Brighton, in 2015. By contrast, Toorak’s top sale sits at $38.8 million, secured two years ago when Kogan founder Ruslan Kogan bought a three-block compound.

The top known sale this year in Toorak has been on Grange 16

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Road, where a contemporary-style mid-1980s Nic Bochslerdesigned home sold after having a revised $10 million to $11 million guide, after being initially listed last year with $12.95 million hopes. The property was last sold for $8 million in 2010.

A nearby Barnard Road home has been sold for $10.5 million.

It’s not the first time Brighton has outperformed Toorak. In 1997, the $5.1 million sale of Shanagolden on a 3900sq m Moule Avenue block rewrote the suburb’s previous top price of $3.65 million. One of 15 houses fronting the beach, it topped all Toorak sales that year.

In 1980, businessman James O’Connor purchased Melbourne’s first $1 million home, on St Georges Road, Toorak.

The Mercedes dealer bought from former Melbourne Lord Mayor Maurice Nathan for $1.01 million but lost the property soon after during the recession.

Bongiorno, who declined to comment on his own sale, has always maintained that the beach is Brighton’s major drawcard.

“Brighton people love to live near the sea,” he says. The Golden Mile runs from west of St Kilda Street towards the bay between the bobbing masts of the Royal Brighton Yacht Club and Elwood Park. Bongiorno also cited the suburb’s elite private schools and well-regarded public schools, as well as two major shopping centres, as drivers.

“It’s not a destination suburb for shopping or restaurants, so [it] tends to have a unique local feel and ambience,” he adds. He says Brighton appeals to families who live in surrounding suburbs, such as Middle Park or Albert Park, who move there when they start a family for the large homes and landholdings.

Bongiorno says new arrivals to Brighton, particularly those from overseas, often want newly built homes. There are also new boutique apartments targeted at downsizers wanting to stay.

So far in 2020, modern has reigned supreme in Brighton. One of its sharpest new homes is on Gould Street, where a never-livedin Martin Friedrich Architects build recently sought between $7.5 million and $8.2 million. The four-bedroom home with jet black exterior has a rooftop entertainment area and gardens landscaped by Garden Construction. Marshall White Bayside’s Stephen Smith and Simone Howell have the listing.

A former HIA Victorian Home of the Year winner on Martin Street sold earlier this year for $5.175 million, only the sixth home to crack the $5 million mark in Brighton in 2020. The two-level home, built by Art Nouveau Homes and designed by WJFA Architects, won the Best Spec Home category in 2015, the same year it was a finalist for the Bayside Built Environment Awards for Best New Building. It has four bedrooms, a study, gym and home cinema, and landscaping by Turning Japanese. There are three decked areas and a pool. Marshall White’s Scott Xue and Andrew Campbell secured the sale.

Renovated homes that still feature the design aesthetics of a bygone era get plenty of attention, however. The 2013 winner of the Bayside Built Environment Awards recently sold in just over a month on New Street. The Victorian residence, which won Best Residential Renovation or Extension, was built in the 1880s and underwent a redesign and extension by Jenny Rizzo from Inarc Architects. Now the four-bedroom home is set over two levels and features a modern extension at the rear, with steel beams and wooden decks. Upstairs is the parents’ retreat, complete with a timber slat enclosed balcony. Marshall White Bayside agent Ben Vieth and Dahli Woosnam sold the home.

There are $3.65 million to $4 million hopes for a mid-century modern home on Lorac Avenue that recently underwent a designer renovation careful not to detract from its original design. RT Edgar Brighton agents James Paynter and Sherife Olmez are marketing the four-bedroom home, which has floorto-ceiling glass walls. The formal lounge with timber ceilings features a minimalist double open gas fireplace, and opens to a bluestone-paved alfresco area overlooking the pool and spa.

Kay & Burton Bayside agents Alex Schiavo and Tracy Tian Belcher have a $12.8 million to $13.8 million guide for a European-inspired home on the dress circle Chatsworth Avenue. The two-level home was built in 2015, a few years after the previous home on the block sold for $3.5 million. It was designed by architect Jon Friedrich and sits in 1150sq m of Jack Merlo landscaped gardens. With formal living and dining rooms and Italian crystal chandeliers, it has five ensuited bedrooms.

The master features its own living room with gas log fireplace.

Schiavo says while there is demand from Brighton buyers wanting to stay in Brighton, there’s an influx of international and interstate buyers. He says around 60 per cent of homes his office sells over $3 million are bought by this demographic.

Toorak’s most premium recent listing is on the sought-after Linlithgow Road, where Kay & Burton Armadale agents Gowan Stubbings and Nicole Gleeson have a $10 million to $11 million guide for a fully renovated 1930s home.

Last traded for $5.251 million in 2012, the three-level home has undergone a renovation using stone, marble and timber finishes for the interiors. There are five bedrooms, four bathrooms and an outdoor terrace, off the kitchen and dining space, overlooking the 1190sq m block with a resort-style pool.

Savas notes that 2019 was a low-turnover year with few motivated vendors, but he anticipates the Toorak market will “take off” in the second half of 2020.

“Over the next couple of years I think we’ll see another influx of capital from offshore buyers,” he says. “Based on our current inquiry rate from expats looking to return home, particularly those based in New York or London through the COVID-19 pandemic, the spacious residences and green tree-lined streets of Toorak are firmly in the spotlight.” Brighton four bedroom homes have a $3 million median price, according to realestate.com.au, compared with $5.5 million in Toorak.

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GL OBA L MAN SION

SOUTH AFRICA

Resort living on the coast

STON E SA NC T UA RY

This 14th-century villa in Rezevici Village on the secluded Smokvica Peninsula in Montenegro has not been on the market for more than a half century. Now listed for €10 million ($16.24 million), the solitary stone sanctuary has been owned by only three families, and was once used as a quarantine station for sailors returning from long voyages. The peninsula is covered in wild fig trees, and the simple home is surrounded by cypress and pine trees. Niko Lakovi of Montenegro Sotheby’s International Realty says it’s “one of the most prestigious” locations along the Adriatic Sea coastline. The 200sq m villa, set on just over 1012sq m with two fresh water springs, has four bedrooms and five bathrooms, and seven terraces.

There’s also a staff house at the peninsula’s entrance. The interior is decorated in a rustic style that includes stone walls, wooden beams, onyx bathrooms and wooden furnishings.

NANCY A. RUHLING

Situated on the coast near Ballito, South Africa, within the Zimbali Coastal Resort gated community, this sprawling modern home was designed to maximise ocean views from its elevated perch. Joy Brasler Architects built the house in 2017, and its simple, clean lines conceal myriad luxuries, including three pools. “Intelligent design ensures maximum protection from the prevailing weather conditions for year-round use,” says Andreas Wassenaar, who has the listing along with Seeff Zimbali. A third, more intimate pool on the lower ground-floor level is accessible from the private lounge area where the four guest suites are located. The home also includes accommodations for two staff members. The spacious master suite shares the same level along the entire northern wing and features a unique bathroom courtyard. Wassenaar says the home, which is priced at ZAR70 million ($5.87 million), would suit a range of potential buyers, including people who require one-level living, as all the living spaces and the main suite are on the upper ground floor. “The home is understated from the exterior, but inside you can see that the architect and interior designer worked closely together to create an impression of seamless integration between the outdoor and interior spaces,” he says. The 650sq m home has five bedrooms and five full bathrooms. It sits on a 3120sq m site and is packaged for sale with the neighbouring 163sq m, which allows for the development of a second home. As part of the Zimbali Coastal Resort community, the property includes full access to an 18-hole championship golf course, six tennis courts, two squash courts, the gymnasium and fitness centre, communal pools and direct access to its beach. There are also several nature and walking trails and residents’ clubhouses, as well as a children’s playground with three cricket nets and a dedicated soccer field.

CATHERINE MCHUGH

JUNE 13-14, 2020

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I SL A N D E STAT E

A waterfront estate on Miami Beach’s exclusive Star Island has hit the market for $40 million. “It’s a beautiful house in an exceptional location,” says co-listing agent Jill Eber of The Jills Zeder Group, Coldwell Banker. The two-storey contemporary home built in 2003 sits on a lushly landscaped 3716sq m waterfront lot, with 30m of water frontage on Biscayne Bay with Atlantic Ocean access. Including a twobedroom guest house above the garage, the estate has 10 bedrooms, 10 full bathrooms and two partial bathrooms. A gated entrance opens to a long palm treelined driveway. Interior features include stone and hardwood floors, high ceilings, Venetian plaster walls, a grand entry foyer with a dramatic chandelier, an elevator, a wood-panelled library/den, and a wine room. Among the outdoor amenities are a pool, Jacuzzi , cabana, fountain, a bar, and a private dock. Two expansive terraces provide sunset views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline.

BILL CARY

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Dolly Lenz

Local aspect

WITH JENNY LENZ

RAY WHITE NEW FARM, BRISBANE

Christine Rudolph The fact that many interstate and international commuters were forced to do business in their homes during the COVID19 lockdown has forever changed the face of the Brisbane prestige property market. Now more than ever, buyers in the prestige market put a high value on owning a large home on a good size block in the inner city. Having more time to spend at home has driven many to upgrade, particularly while there’s less competition, with interstate and international expat buyers locked out. Listing levels in Brisbane at the moment, according to CoreLogic, are at an all-time low, and large volumes of buyer inquiry as soon as a new prestige listing is launched confirms this pent-up demand. We see this winter as being very active as confidence resumes and the economy restarts. With interest rates the lowest in history, many buyers are upgrading to their dream homes. There is also a surge of interest from interstate buyers looking to move back home to Brisbane. The fundamentals for the Queensland economy are strong, and we have recovered from the double blow of the GFC and the 2011 floods. Many international companies are also finding new ways to globally transact, and with Queensland being rich in natural resources and agriculture, these businesses will continue to flourish and generate employment.

LJ HOOKER DOUBLE BAY, SYDNEY

Bill Malouf The lounge area of a four-bedroom apartment in the Dakota building on New York’s Upper West Side

BOUNCE BACK

Road to recovery On March 22, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo put the state of New York on pause, a move to combat the spread of COVID-19 that shut down all non-essential businesses. Initially the real estate industry, including sales and rentals, was deemed non-essential, so in-person showings and open houses came to an immediate halt.

Eventually real estate was moved back to an essential service, with the caveat that all client tours and apartment showings be done virtually and not in person. While virtual tours provided some sales momentum, the real estate market has effectively been frozen since the executive order went into place in late March.

New York has now begun entering a phase of reopening, and with the removal of restrictions we will see the real estate market quickly begin to thaw out. With restrictions on showings and tours in place, there was a momentous drop in new listings and sales activity in what is typically the busiest season of the year. Most sellers cited the ban on in-person agent showings as the reason they held off listing. However their desire to sell has not gone away; it has simply been delayed. Once the restrictions are loosened, we anticipate a significant spike in properties coming onto the market, with buyer demand following closely behind. We already have waiting lists for clients wanting to see properties in New York City and the Hamptons as soon as in-person showings are permitted.

While we know listing volume will undoubtedly increase and pent-up buyer demand will be there once New York opens for business, the impact of the pandemic and related closures on home 18

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prices will take some time to appear. In New York, the average time between contract signing and closing typically ranges from 60 to 90 days, so it will be a few months from now before we get a complete sense of what impact, if any, the real estate shutdown has had on pricing. Geographically speaking, more traditionally favoured areas such as the Upper East Side, Greenwich Village and the West Village are likely to fare better from a pricing standpoint than other more up-and-coming neighbourhoods. And on a design level, buildings with four or fewer apartments to a floor and under 100 units in total will be in much greater demand than mega buildings, therefore holding their value better as buyer preference shifts towards a less dense, boutique living situation.

We are certainly in uncharted territory. However the New York real estate market has a long history of resilience and quickly bouncing back after a tragic event. The aftermath of 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and the 2008 financial crisis showed that with the right steps the demand for real estate in New York can come roaring back. As we chart the path forward from COVID-19, the industry can rely and improve upon the blueprints of past recoveries to enhance New York’s standing among the top real estate markets in the world.

Dolly Lenz heads New York-based Dolly Lenz Real Estate and last year sold more than $US500 million dollars worth of luxury US and international homes. Jenny Lenz is managing director of Dolly Lenz Real Estate. dollylenz.com

The prestige market in the current conditions is travelling reasonably well as there are very few double-digit properties for sale on the market. The positives this year in the winter market will be that many people will not be travelling, due to COVID-19, therefore they will be in town to search for real estate offerings. The [Sydney] Eastern Suburbs market in spring should hold, although it will be down slightly.

However, the market level in regard to pricing will be determined by the number of properties that hit the market in spring. I don’t believe the Eastern Suburbs market is in a spiral downturn of 30 per cent as the banks predicted, but I feel it may be softened by 5 to 10 per cent. This will be determined by the stock levels that may appear in spring.

RT EDGAR, MELBOURNE

Warwick Anderson The prestige market in the inner southeast of Melbourne seems to be still in balance, with reduced stock levels due to COVID-19 met by fewer buyers, but they’re keen ones who sold before the outbreak and need to find a home prior to their own settlement. Thus there is lower turnover but not a significant downturn in price – a variation of maybe 10-15 per cent in some instances. Winter is always a time of less stock, with people thinking their properties show up better in spring.

However this can cause an acute shortage, with the result that prices can actually increase over winter due to a lack of supply. In Victoria, open inspections have resumed with limits, bringing out more buyers but still with a shortage of stock. My only concern is that by the traditional onset of the real estate market in spring we may start to see the economic effects of the shutdown – the flow-on from lost jobs, the banks resuming payments after a six-month break with the attendant catch-up, together with close bank scrutiny of loanto-valuation ratios. This could have an adverse effect on the property market if not handled sensitively.

THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

| JUNE 13-14, 2020

Top of th e class A SHOWCASE OF SOME OF THE TOP R E A L E S TAT E A G E N T S ACROSS THE COUNTRY

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ELLIOTT PLACKS R AY W H I T E D O U B L E B AY

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The haul of awards Elliott Placks has accumulated in more than 20 years in real estate is impressive. But it’s also at odds with his personality.

Understated, analytical and typifying family values, Elliott has been the agent of choice for sellers of some of the most tightly held family estates and coveted waterfront assets in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

His positive “can-do” attitude has established a reputation as a market leader by providing diligent, professional service to ensure his vendors achieve the best possible result.

While it takes creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit to be able to adapt a sales campaign to expose homes to the widest range of buyers and create competition to achieve a premium price, Elliott also believes that communication is paramount and constantly provides clients with sound advice, and direct and honest feedback.

Elliott has consistently and repeatedly been ranked as the top international business owner in the strongest real estate network in the southern hemisphere Ray White. He currently holds the Ray White Australian record for the highest residential sale of $79.8million, and has been the Number 1 International Partner for Ray White for several consecutive years.

Elliott has been instrumental in establishing a strong property management and loan market business at Ray White Double Bay, which gives further synergy to his clients. ■

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‘Noosa Court 8’ $ 14m re cord apartme n t sal e Marc h 2020

WHY THIS FORMER BRISBANITE WAS DRAWN TO THE RESORT TOWN

TOM OFFERMANN

The pragmatic and softly spoken Tom Offermann’s daily ritual begins before sunrise.

First, he kayaks along the Noosa River, then there’s a run in the soft sand on Noosa North Shore before a healthy breakfast energises him for the day ahead.

Tom, a former Brisbanite and self-confessed outdoors-type, became besotted by Noosa’s natural charms in the mid 80s and they remain just as irresistible today, although equally important is the sense of community.

Besotted by the Noosa region, Tom moved to Noosa in 1986 and instantly developed a love for real estate. In 1992, armed with a sense of community and genuine passion for people, he opened his eponymous real estate agency.

“Noosa is hugely endowed with natural assets, an enviable subtropical climate, yet people are the soul,” Tom enthused.

“One of the rewards about working in Noosa for so long, is now doing business with many of our client’s children.

“Central to success is the careful selection and training of agents. In addition, and in a first for Noosa, we introduced arguably the most comprehensive and talented in-house media team who value-adds to each property’s digital media and print campaign, at the same time complementing the overall branding image.”

As more expats have Noosa in their sights due to favourable currency exchange rates - Hong Kong buyers have brought forward repatriation plans and “southerners” (Melburnians and Sydney-siders) have resumed their searches for a Noosa idyll the main market continues to be dominated by astute and aspirational local buyers and sellers.

The pursuit of excellence is a powerful strategy and Noosa is not just one of the premier tourist destinations in Australia, it is also considered the hottest property market. And as soon as domestic travel restrictions end, pundits predict it will soar further. ■

TOM OFFERMANN R E A L E S TAT E

T OP S E LLING S UNS HINE COAS T AG E NCY

NOOSA HEADS, QLD

HIG HE S T S ALE $18M

Co nnect a t:

NINE OUT OF 10 HIG HE S T NOOS A S ALE S PAS T T HR E E Y E AR S

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88 P E R CE NT AUCT ION CLE AR ANCE R AT E

On Point

‘ Wal an ’ 2 Scott Street, Kan garoo Poin t.

Sol d $44m in four mon ths

SUCCESS IS A TEAM EFFORT AT P L A C E K A N A G R O O P O I N T

Known for his creative marketing strategies, intense work ethic and extensive knowledge of the market, Simon Caulfield represents more high-end luxury transactions than any other agent in Brisbane each year.

Maintaining a diverse inventory of exclusive listings and projects and representing more than $500m in property sales in the past 10 years, Simon and his Place Kangaroo Point team are the leading Brisbane luxury real estate agency who are solely focused on delivering the most successful outcome for all clients.

As Brisbane continues to evolve, particularly with an increasing demand by aspirational professionals and downsizing empty-nesters, Simon and his team will make your property dreams a reality.

Simon’s Place Kangaroo Point team are a force in new construction, working closely with Brisbane’s most recognised developers and advising on current market trends to deliver the “best in class” residential buildings.

With a list that includes Frasers Property Australia, GBW Group, HCAP Developments, ADCO Constructions, JGL Properties, Ideal Property Australia, Deloitte, Boulder Capital, Sunland Group, and many more, the development sales team completely sold out 75% of the luxury developments in the past four years. Most notably, Walan at 2 Scott St, Kangaroo Point for $44m in just four months and Haven Newstead for $33m in seven months.

In the past 18 months, Simon has racked up 11 suburb records with 82 transactions between $1m and $5m. His clients’ properties also have been showcased on multiple media platforms with a media value worth $2m.

Success is a team effort at Place Kangaroo Point.

The company places a premium on selecting agents who share the culture of continuous improvement and synchronicity.

Simon and his team thrive in a collaborative environment where skill sets, spheres of influence, accountability and open dialogue come together to serve the best interests of the client.

“We believe in serving our clients with an unwavering commitment through transparent and open communication along with an outstanding degree of personal care,” Simon said. ■

M O S T N O TA B L E SALES OF 2019 BARCA 47-59 Byron Street, Bulimba – total sold $39m 12/2 Scott Street, Kangaroo Point $4.7m (highest sale price in Kangaroo Point for 2019) 18N/39 Castlebar Street, Kangaroo Point - $4m 6/110 Main Street, Kangaroo Point $3.6m 1501/527 Coronation Drive, Toowong - $3.1m (highest apartment sale in Toowong for 2019) 3/47 Collings Street, Balmoral - $2.8m (highest apartment sale in the suburb) 29 Prenzler Street, Upper Mount Gravatt - $2.7m (highest sale for the suburb in 10 years) 2303/140 Alice Street, Brisbane City $2.65m 64 Annie Street, New Farm - $2.5m 1410/289 Grey Street, South Brisbane $2.23m (highest sale in the building for 2019)

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FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: SIMON CAULFIELD, COURTNEY CAULFIELD, MICHAEL BACON AND MORGAN BUDD

SIMON CAULFIELD PLACE KANGAROO POINT

REB’S #1 AGENT IN QUEENSLAND AND #18 IN AUSTRALIA $144,000,000 SOLD IN 2019

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“2020 HAS PRESENTED A CHALLENGE TO ALL OF US. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, EXPERIENCE, RELIABILITY AND GREAT COMMUNICATION ARE NECESSARY TO HELP GUIDE OUR CLIENTS IN MAKING THEIR REAL ESTATE DREAMS A REALITY.”

Poolman House 255 Domain Road, South Yarra 66

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International International Expressions Expressions of of Interest Interest Closing Closing 18th 18th June June at at 1.00pm 1.00pm

Poolman Poolman House House cc 1865 1865 isis aa landmark landmark estate estate on on the the largest largest residential residential allotment allotment of of 2750sm 2750sm22 (approx.) (approx.) in in the the Domain Domain precinct precinct in in South South Yarra.

Yarra. This This spectacular spectacular mansion mansion has has grand grand architecture, architecture, stunning stunning interiors interiors and and extensive extensive Paul Paul Bangay Bangay grounds. grounds. Impeccably Impeccably renovated renovated and and maintained maintained with with the the perfect perfect blend blend of of formal formal entertaining entertaining and and modern modern day day living living spaces, spaces, grand grand ballroom ballroom in in which which Prime Prime Ministers Ministers –– past past and and present present –– have have been been entertained. entertained. Poolman Poolman House House isis aa once-in-a-lifetime once-in-a-lifetime property property ready ready for for aa new new era. era. Perfect Perfect family family estate, estate, walking walking distance distance to to the the very very best best lifestyle lifestyle amenities amenities of of the the most most liveable liveable city city –– Royal Royal Botanic Botanic Gardens, Gardens, MCG, MCG, CBD CBD and and leading leading Schools.

Schools.

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By Appointment Appointment Antoinette Antoinette Nido Nido 0419 0419 654 654 856 856 Warwick Warwick Anderson Anderson 0418 0418 320 320 873 873

rtedgar.com rtedgar.com

Architects S t o r y b y J U DY BA RO U C H P h o t o g r a p h y b y J OH N F E D E R

Women breaking the mould Female architect disruptors are staging a pushback after a history of gender imbalance in their industry. Under challenge, too, is the edifice complex of male starchitects, whose show-pony exteriors are designed to target publications and garner accolades.

Recent strike across the bow: the snaring of the 2020 Pritzker Prize (architecture’s Nobel) by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, co-founders of Ireland’s Grafton Architects. And last October, Abbie Galvin was appointed the first female NSW Government Architect since the position was created more than 200 years ago, following in the footsteps of Jill Garner, Victoria’s State Government Architect.

Yet despite the ratio of male to female graduates being roughly proportionate – and the majority of deans in Australia’s 19 schools of Architecture now being female – women architects are still under-represented in senior management roles and wage disparity remains a bête noire.

The Australian Institute of Architecture’s Gold Medal, awarded annually since 1960, has only ever had three female winners.

According to Tone Wheeler, President of the Australian Architecture Association and principal of Environa Studio, it’s only recently that female architects have begun scoring the “glamour” positions and projects that define Gold Medal winners.

“Diligent, but not spectacular, community buildings that women specialise in just don’t rate in the men’s club,” he says. Here, five established and GenNext architects share their thoughts.

The one to watch

Felicity Stewart, director of Stewart Architecture, Sydney & Canberra

“My hope is for a future with a more considered approach to residential architecture.”

Stewart has a Master of Architecture and Urban design from Columbia University NYC, and a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons 1) capped with a University Medal.

As co-founding director of Stewart Hollenstein, she was instrumental in realising the $65 million Green Square Library and Plaza, winning the2019 Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture.

“My hope is for a future with a more considered approach to residential architecture, one where quality comes before quantity,” she says.

“A friend described her COVID-19 isolation experience as ‘life shrunk down’: her world became smaller and less complicated. The pandemic has reframed our domestic values. Despite ongoing hardship, on a positive note there’s more cooking, making, growing, repairing, and local activity in streets and green spaces, which have become welcome extensions of our homes. Those with smaller homes can take advantage of spaces like libraries, which bring greater opportunity for connection.

“This is increasingly important in Australia where, according to census data, one person in every four lives alone, with numbers rising.”

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THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

| JUNE 13-14, 2020

Left: Ninotschka Titchkosky, co-CEO of BVN; Opposite page: Felicity Stewart, director, Stewart Architecture

The brightly emerging

Melissa Bright, founding director, Studio Bright, Melbourne Bright has received numerous awards and is currently shortlisted for the 2020 AIA (Vic) Awards and the Houses, Australian Interior Design and Dulux Colour Awards.

“The key for the future will be to design housing of increasing densities that is accessible, affordable and enriches daily life,” she says. “It’s exciting how the typical backyard can be reimagined in less space; internal courtyards, rooftop gardens, integrated planting, vertical landscapes can all make a positive contribution to a reduced garden footprint.

“Balancing privacy with community connection is also important; how a house can be a private, protected retreat while also linked to its urban context.

“Existing planning regulations are about keeping people apart (building setbacks, overlooking). A better focus is enhanced use of land and infrastructure to support connected communities, with walkable and cycle-able suburbs and a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.

“Wherever possible we retain and refurbish good-quality houses, valuing the layers of history and craft and enjoying the challenge of adding new, sympathetic, contemporary buildings within a rich and diverse context.”

The mid-career quiet achiever

Dimitty Andersen, director at Grieve Gillett Andersen, Adelaide

“COVID-19 also will reshape how we live, work and learn at home. Smaller residences will see a more creative reconfiguring of living spaces into daytime offices.”

The high-flying futurist

Ninotschka Titchkosky, co-CEO of BVN, a 300-person architectural practice with studios in Sydney, Brisbane, London, New York Titchkosky has garnered numerous national and international awards, including a RIBA International Award and a World Architecture Award commendation. Recent works include the rebuilding of the heart of the campus at ANU, Canberra, plus a new STEM school for 2000 students.

“Currently it costs too much to build, takes too long and has too great an environmental impact,” she says. “Sophisticated prefabrication, including mass timber construction, robotics and large-scale 3D printing will move into residential projects for a more sustainable future. This will open up a range of previously unavailable, bespoke design possibilities, and allow the crafting of complex forms and the use of new materials to reduce wastage. We’re developing robotically, 3D-printed, earth-friendly concrete columns and glasslike polycarbonate structures that are similar to traditional glass-blown artistry.

“COVID-19 also will reshape how we live, work and learn at home. Smaller residences will see a more creative reconfiguring of living spaces into daytime offices. Larger family homes might emulate good workplace design, acknowledging the benefit of the collaborative workspace. Rather than everyone being locked in separate rooms, there might a few private rooms to the side for video conferencing. And it’s goodbye to the letterbox, replaced with new parcel drop boxes.”

JUNE 13-14, 2020

| THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

Anderson’s honours include the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) 2017 (SA) Award for Residential Architecture (new houses) and the AIA 2017 (SA) Award for Sustainable Architecture.

“One of my lecturers at uni pronounced that only upper and lower socioeconomic groups use architects,” Andersen says.

“Her shock tactic worked; this statement has stayed with me for more than 20 years. A positive future for domestic architecture is to be able to share our expertise across a broader cross-section of the community.”

While passionate about residential architecture being more considerate of sustainability at an urban level, she is adept at incorporating environmental features into individual homes.

She worked on an eco-aware new-build for a former South Australian environment minister where a comfortable yearround internal temperature of 20C was achieved.

“Future houses will also have a brain,” says Andersen.

“Advances in bluetooth technology will see a reduction of wiring, with centralised digital controls. No more shopping lists stuck to the fridge. And after the recent stockpiling of toilet paper, maybe bidets will be in demand.”

The late-career superstar

Professor Kerry Clare, co-director for 40 years of Clare Design, Gold Coast & Sydney With husband and co-director Lindsay, Clare is also a professor of architecture at Bond University and has received more than 50 AIA awards for housing, public, educational, commercial, environmental and recycling projects, including the 2010 Gold Medal and two AIA Robin Boyd residential awards. Highprofile commissions include the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and UNSW Village Housing. She predicts a trend for multigenerational living, “housing where there’s enough room for grandparents to easily help with grandkids”. In a prolific career, a favourite project is a modest, two-storey, corrugated iron granny flat in Burleigh Heads sited on a 400m² suburban lot originally intended for one dwelling.

“This small backyard pavilion explores the big benefits of intergenerational living,” she says, adding that it can multi-task as an office and sleep-out. A large roofed deck and courtyard separates the building from the front residence, and pivot doors and windows modulate air flow. Sliding screens allow its deck to be connected or separated so the extended family can come together or retire as required. It is important to keep a secondary building footprint compact, making space for trees and gardens.”

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Fireplaces J OE L ROB I N S ON

Home and hearth

A welcoming fireplace will be a big selling point for prestige homes this winter season

nterior designer Thomas Hamel says a fireplace is the perfect focal point for many interior spaces. “Fireplaces have always played an important role in my thoughts when designing a room,” he says.

Heading into what is likely to be a busier than normal winter sales season, fireplaces are certainly set to be an alluring feature in the marketing of prestige homes. Indeed their increasingly cool style is almost as important as their practicality.

“Obviously in history, fireplaces were of great importance for the required heat they generated,” Hamel says, while adding that these days they are not so much a necessity as a desirable design feature.

“There is nothing quite like the glow and warmth, perceived or actual, that comes from an open flame,” he says. With international travel not on the agenda this winter, vendors will be lighting their open-for-inspection fireplaces to welcome prospective buyers.

In a renovated 1930s South Yarra townhouse, the fireplace in the living area takes centre stage. Owner Sarah Madders, of interior design firm Wash Studio, paid $1.27 million for the Avoca Street property in 2011 and handled the renovation. She had Anchor Ceramics custom-make the tiled open fireplace where a former fireplace had been located but hidden away.

“The fireplace gets used a lot during winter,” Madders says. “It’s the perfect place to have a glass of red wine on a cold, wintry night.”

The living area meets a separate dining room, across the central hallway from the marble kitchen and separate meals area, which opens through custom steel-framed doors to a new courtyard designed by Eckersley Garden Architecture.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms and two marble bathrooms. Kay & Burton South Yarra agents Nicole Gleeson and Nicky Rowe have a $3.1 million to $3.3 million guide for the auction on June 20 .

Recently a Brighton home on New Street with a classic fireplace, one of four in the home, sold for $3,300,500 through Marshall White Bayside agents Ben Veith and Dahli Woosnam.

The latest trend in fireplace design is the suspended style, some of which even rotate. They may have been around for five or so decades, with French designer Dominique Imbert’s suspended, rotatable flying-saucer-shaped Gyrofocus fire, a 50-year-old design classic worthy of any James Bond 32

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THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

| JUNE 13-14, 2020

Clockwise from below: Flinders suspended fireplace; Ruskin Rowe, Avalon; renovated 1930s South Yarra townhouse; and New Street, Brighton

villain’s lair, but The Block brought them into the spotlight again as a feature of Norm and Jess’s penthouse, which featured a fireplace suspended over a marble slab.

The Block judge and interior design expert Neale Whitaker even installed one in his South Coast home.

Despite social distancing, nothing brings people together better than a warm fire on a cold day, says Impact Realty Group Mt Eliza agent Candice Blanch, who is marketing a Flinders home with a rotatable suspended fireplace.

It hangs as a feature of the open plan living area which opens to an outdoor kitchen, solar heated pool and spa.

The fully automated four-bed home with polished concrete floors was built by Swell Building Group and comes with a 500bottle wine cellar.Blanch has a $2.8 million to $3 million guide.

“The builders have used this fireplace in a few of their builds,” she says. “It’s been really well received by purchasers.”

Richard Ellis, who runs the hand-carved fireplace design firm Richard Ellis Design, says for modern and contemporary interiors, large, simple moulds and/or architraves are well suited to decorating the fireplace opening, but if the desired look is more classical French and English styles offer myriad solutions.

The current interest in fireplace design in Australia evolved from the 1970s passion for period home restoration, Ellis says.

“Homeowners, designers and builders alike looked to the pattern books of the makers of Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian periods for inspiration. Being the central element and defining feature of the interior for these periods, the fireplace surrounds typically set the decoration style for the whole room.”

A 1960s Sydney home on Ruskin Rowe, Avalon, on the market for $3.8 million to $4.1 million, has a double-sided sandstone gas fireplace at the centre of its lounge room. The opposite side has the fireplace on the deck. Raine & Horne Avalon agents Nina Sokolov and Lara Rowell have the listing.

JUNE 13-14, 2020

| THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

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Surry Hills

Below: Penthouse living area and terrace with city views Bottom: The floor plan

LISA ALLEN

Residential apartment developer Toga is poised to transform one of Sydney’s most notorious shopping centre complexes, known locally as “murder mall”, into a $400 million-plus luxury residential apartment and retail complex.

Two penthouses in the yet to be built Surry Hills Village complex in inner-city Sydney have sold for $4.5 million and $6 million apiece.

Toga development and construction chief executive Fabrizio Perilli says 40 per cent of stage one of the complex has been pre-sold ahead of construction, which begins later this year. Other penthouses soon to hit the market will start from $4.5 million.

“We have sold the first four penthouses; there will be another four released and they will cost from $4.5 million to $6 million, depending on the size,” Perilli told Mansion. “They will range from 180sq m to 270sq m, with the price reflecting the size. They all have views to the east and west and to the city, and the ability to access very large private gardens.”

Under Toga’s plan for Surry Hills Village, the existing shopping centre opposite the Mounted Police Unit will be demolished, paving the way for a mix of one, two, three and fourbedroom apartments, as well as a string of townhouses and penthouses. The townhouses will feature gardens while the penthouses will offer city views.

The 2½-level terraces, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, fronting Marriott Street will be priced from around $3.5 million.

“We are looking at starting to build in the fourth quarter of this year,” Perilli says. “We are waiting to see things getting back to normal conditions.”

Two and three-bedroom apartments are proving highly popular with buyers across the development, which will cover an unprecedented 1.2ha inner-city site fronting Cleveland, Marriott and Baptist streets.

“We have sold just over 20 apartments and both full penthouses in the first two buildings,” Perilli says.

Toga has a longstanding commitment to the site, having bought it from a private individual 3½ years ago for $95 million.

All up, it plans 154 residential apartments and townhouses across six buildings ranging in height from four to seven stories.

They will be close to the light rail as well as the popular Crown and Danks streets.

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Raising the tone

A sleek new project is set to transform a faded precinct

“There is one more stage of just apartments to be released, and a combination of terraces,” Perilli says. “The apartments will be one, two, three and four-bedroom and it will all be developed in one hit, taking around 3½ years to build.”

“It’s a big build; it’s attractive to a number of people because it will be so long before it is finished. Buyers can put down a deposit – the banks are requiring 10 per cent but we are staging it, looking at a 5 per cent deposit now and asking for 5 per cent before construction starts.” Perilli says Toga will take cash or insurance bonds as a deposit.

The masterplanned precinct will also offer its residents and the neighbouring community a diverse range of spaces, including densely landscaped green areas, a new 517sq m public park, market-style retail, a dining precinct, and a pedestrian laneway linking Marriott and Baptist streets. About 12,000sq m of the development is dedicated to commercial and retail spaces that will include a Coles supermarket, Vintage Cellars, boutiques, providores, restaurants, street cafes and parking.

Prices start at $875,000 for a one-bedroom apartment and some have car spaces, although Toga is putting in a lot of spaces for shared vehicle services and there is the light rail. “A few apartments don’t get car parks but the majority do,” he says.

Although there is no swimming pool in the complex, Toga is looking at installing virtual concierge services. Using a special app, residents will be able to drop off clothing or laundry at reception or use cool storage facilities. Perilli says Toga is looking to support the local Surry Hills and Redfern businesses.

To date, most buyers have hailed from local areas, including the city’s inner west and eastern suburbs, but there have been some buyers from much farther afield, including New York and Hong Kong.

“One or two of the buyers have been from Sydney’s Hills District,” Perilli says. “It’s a bit of a mix, as you would expect.”

Because of COVID-19 Toga is holding virtual tours and live chats. Perilli saying sales have slowed a bit because of the virus.

The apartment interiors were designed by Burley Katon Halliday, giving residents the choice of a terrazzo floor or the more conservative option of hard-wearing timber flooring.

SJB designed the penthouses, with stone floors and floor-toceiling timber joinery in the kitchens, and inset carpets.

THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

| JUNE 13-14, 2020

Islands

Clockwise from below: The wet-edge pool at Elysian Eco Retreat; aerial view of the villas; the Masekela bedroom

J OE L ROB I N S ON

A piece of paradise Buying your own island is the ultimate property move – but it will cost you Islands on Australia’s eastern seaboard are globally recognised as among the world’s most idyllic. There’s something special about those located in the Great Barrier Reef, but they don’t come cheap. The leading Whitsunday tourist hotspot Hamilton Island was bought from developer Keith Williams for $200 million in 2003 by the Oatley wine family, who continue with their remarkable transformation of the holiday favourite.

The most recent major sale, that of Dunk Island, occurred late last year when it was transferred for $32 million, although the improvement schedule proposed by James Mawhinney’s Mayfair 101 remains in doubt.

Through the years owners have included the OzEmail founder Sean Howard, who bought Double Island in 2000 for $4.5 million and sold it in a rundown state to the Hong Kongbased property tycoon Benny Wu in 2012.

Computershare founder Chris Morris owns the Northern Escapes Collection, which includes the tropical Orpheus Island, which he bought for $6.25 million in 2011.

Now there’s another opportunity to secure an island resort on the picturesque Great Barrier Reef. Elysian Eco Retreat on Long Island, one of a handful of truly luxury oceanfront resorts in the Whitsundays, has been listed for sale following a fresh upgrade. Of course there’s no inspection to anyone outside of Queensland given the state’s tight border controls. Owners Wayne and Laureate Rumble, who run the Sojourn Retreats collection that includes Pumpkin Island in the Keppel Islands, completed its update just over a year ago.

The pair bought it in 2017 when it was the Paradise Bay Eco Resort, hit hard by Cyclone Debbie. They have since created a luxury retreat that is the first solar-powered resort on the Great Barrier Reef, with new solar energy-generated infrastructure for electricity, water and waste systems installed.

Elysian, on the southern point of Long Island, is set in a 3ha private cove with a rocky beach, surrounded by rainforest. The full renovation included an update to all 10 of its oceanfront villas, which feature 4.5m vaulted ceilings and private beachfront balconies.

The hub of the retreat is the Great House, where guests dine. There’s a commercial kitchen adjoining the restaurant, a lounge area and a library. Around the Great House is the spa JUNE 13-14, 2020

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treatment centre, and an oceanfront magnesium wet-edge swimming pool surrounded by timber decks and outdoor seating.

There’s also self-contained staff quarters.

There’s no airport, just a helipad that can be reached in six minutes from Hamilton Island’s Great Barrier Reef Airport.

Alternatively, a boat takes 20 minutes from Hamilton Island’s Super Yacht Marina and can dock in the 16m deep mooring.

There’s a push to sell the property from the US, with Dolly Lenz Real Estate New York (see page 18) marketing the retreat to their American clients. Lenz, who has the listing with daughter Jenny and colleague Adam Vanderbrook, says their clients are always looking for value and extraordinary properties such as Elysian Retreat.

“Jenny and I have covered Australian real estate for several years and now more than ever Australian properties are on our radar; particularly those properties that offer privacy and security,” Lenz says.

Lynn Malone and Barbara Wolveridge at Queensland Sotheby’s have the listing locally, asking $8.75 million. Malone calls it a oncein-a-generation offering in a storybook oceanfront cove.

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Y Italy

J U DY BA RO U C H

Architecture sans frontières

ALESSANDRO MAGI GALLUZZI

In an agricultural region of central Italy is a ‘playful’ house inspired by the work of Australia’s Glenn Murcutt

ou wouldn’t expect to find a Glenn Murcutt-inspired house deep in the agricultural Le Marche region of central Italy.

Yet this is where the acclaimed University of Florence-trained architect Simone Subissati created Border Crossing House, on a small, fenceless ridge overlooking a picturesque, hilly borrowed landscape of neighbouring fields cultivating everything from wheat and barley to sunflowers and olives.

“Glenn Murcutt was one of the architects who made me fall in love with architecture,” Subissati says. “His houses are ‘rough’ and refined at the same time, with the spaces integrating with the environment.” Yet this house is no Murcutt clone. Subissati’s work is also informed by the Italian Radical design movement of the late ’60s and ’70s, as well as his own poetic creativeness.

“Border Crossing House follows a construction principle where the individual parts remain legible, as in a building game kit,” he says. “It’s a complex simplicity.”

For their first home, cardiac surgeon Carlo Zingaro and scrub nurse Eugenia Morgano briefed Subissati and his colleague Alice Cerigioni to create a two-storey house for themselves and their two young children within a large green belt.

On the wishlist were three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with one incorporating a hammam and the other a micro pool. The two floors were to be connected via a prominent staircase, and there were to be views from the first floor down to the ground floor across to an outdoor lap pool.

The architects, who work between Milan and Ancona, sourced the land and then Subissati designed a linear, semi-transparent residence running from east to west, covered by an asymmetrical, double-pitched roof.

“It’s a light, flexible space that appears as if it had always been there, just like the buildings in the rural tradition of my grandparents – rustic places where people both lived and worked,” says Subissati. “The long and compact form allows a simultaneous vision of the two sides of the ridge from any point; it symbolises the border, a threshold to be crossed. This, and exploration of permeability, is the main theme of the project.”

The building can easily be traversed at more than one point: from the patio entrance, from the living area and from the bathroom/spa. Downstairs, on both external and certain internal walls, zinc-coated iron cladding is painted with an anti-rust primer.

“Tools and agricultural vehicles are traditionally painted in this red colour,” Subisatti says, adding that as a further link to the pastoral landscape, perennial grasses were planted to envelop the exterior.

The barn-like house is composed of three parts. The ground 36

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floor with its double-height living spaces is the most open, visually transparent and engaged with the external environment. Air flows freely through nine doors that open on the south side, and through six on the north side. They’ve been designed in conjunction with a riblike pilaster system that is structural but also metaphorical, splitting the building to provide a chiaroscuro effect that conceals the glass and allows the doors to remain open without obstruction.

The lighter, white first floor, which almost seems suspended, is more sheltered and contains the private rooms. Small kaleidoscopic windows with mirror-lined sides present intriguing optical effects, magnifying the landscape according to the distance from which the viewer looks.

This level also features what the architects refer to as a “hybrid” area that functions as an additional living space and includes a plant-filled winter garden. Open plan, it is roofed by a light frame with a perforated and pre-tensioned membrane that appears translucent from the outside during the day but is transparent from inside. At night, it glows enchantingly like a lantern.

Details such as the staircase and upper walkway balustrading are fabricated from chicken wire to provide maximum transparency without resorting to glass, and to continue the leitmotiv of materials that are simple, basic and not overtly on trend. The duo of colours – red and white – that distinguishes the two main sections of the building continues inside. The interior contains only minimal furnishings, and the white-stained ash cooking zone and bathroom vanity are freestanding.

“Being detached from the perimeter walls makes for a different style of space management and closely links with the philosophy of the project: borderless, uncluttered and with an ease of circulation,” says Subissati.

As with Murcutt, sustainability is a priority for the architect.

While the area’s climate is mild for most of the year, summers can sometimes be extremely hot and winters very cold. With inclusions such as double glazing, concrete flooring downstairs (and underground water tanks), the house is thermally efficient in all seasons, providing for thermal gain in the colder months, and a natural cooling system thanks to cross-ventilation and a chimney effect for the hottest days.

Subissati stresses that this was never meant to be a luxury home, although it does provide all the contemporary amenities.

“We wanted a playful house that extends beyond all the conventional rules,” he says.

And with Italy in the grip of COVID-19, for these medicos, their rural sanctuary provided a most welcome retreat.

Clockwise from above: Chicken wire balustrade of the upper walkway; the barn-like house in its landscape; the lap pool; kaleidoscopic windows on the first floor; the minimally furnished, double-height living space on the ground floor

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Prestige Market Update NERIDA CONISBEE

This Adelaide home at 32 Avenel Gardens Road, Medindie, is on the market for $3.35 million through Jamie Brown of Booth & Booth Real Estate

Perfect match The wish list for luxury home buyers has some clear must-haves It’s not surprising that Albert Park and Toorak in Melbourne, Medindie in Adelaide, and Bronte and Paddington in Sydney, are some of the most popular suburbs in Australia when it comes to luxury property. But do you know what luxury buyers look for when searching for their ideal home?

An analysis of search data on realestate.com.au makes it clear that the preferences of luxury property buyers are different from those of the average homebuyer in Australia when it comes to the key characteristics of a home.

Property type: Like all property seekers, luxury buyers overwhelmingly search for houses, but an interesting trend favouring apartment living has emerged, making up 14 per cent of luxury property search preferences. Apartment living has evolved significantly over the past decade, and is increasingly a preference for luxury buyers wanting to live in certain central locations close to amenities and with high levels of service and security.

Bedrooms: In Australia, the average home has three bedrooms – the same as the average home in the US, Canada and the UK. Despite that we are aspirational – four bedrooms are what most people search for. For luxury buyers, five bedrooms is the most popular choice, while 10 per cent of luxury home buyers would like seven bedrooms.

Bathrooms: Palatial marble bathrooms often spring to mind when we think of luxury homes. A surprisingly high number of 38

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buyers in this category look for six bathrooms, although three is the most common selection. In comparison, the average Australian looks for two bathrooms – which seems much more manageable than six when it comes to cleaning, but I guess if you can afford so many bathrooms you can probably also afford someone to clean them for you.

Car spaces: Articles regularly appear in the media about impressive multi-car garages and they receive a lot of attention.

Given the known appeal of really big garages, it is surprising then that luxury home buyers, just like every other Australian, only search for two car parks. The fourth highest preference is for eight car spots.

Other features: Luxury homebuyers actually have more in common with renters rather than they do with other homebuyers when it comes to they other features they rate highly in their searches. Air conditioning tops the list but that’s closely followed by a swimming pool.

Based on this profile, created by search data on realestate.com.au, among the most desired luxury homes in Australia would be one in the Adelaide suburb of Medindie with five bedrooms, three bathrooms and two car parks. It would have superb air conditioning and a swimming pool to cope with the Adelaide summer, as well as secure car parking.

Nerida Conisbee is the chief economist with realestate.com.au

Property type preference by luxury property seekers, 2020 Proportion of total property views of $3M+ homes by characteristic

Property type House Apartment Acreage Townhouse Other

74% 14% 10% 1% 1%

Bedrooms Five Four Six Three Other

36% 24% 14% 12% 14%

Car parks Two Three Four Eight Other

19% 17% 17% 10% 37%

Bathrooms Three Four Six Two Other

29% 22% 14% 12% 24%

Features Air Conditioning Pool Secure Parking Balcony Other

9% 8% 7% 7% 69% Source: realestate.com.au

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Broome J ONAT H A N C H A NC E L L OR

Pearl of the west Wanalirri, a private bush retreat (pictured above) behind the sand dunes of Cable Beach in Western Australia’s Broome, has been listed for sale by Susan Bradley, known to many as the queen of the Kimberley. The raconteur extraordinaire has owned the tropical 1.25ha estate for the past 18 years.

Through the bougainvillea-draped gates and along a driveway lined by mango trees is the main residence, shaded by an imposing boab tree. Inside, the arbiter of northern style has stylishly furnished four bedrooms, including a master with ensuite and walk-in wardrobe. There are polished wood floors, ripple iron walls and fly-wire shuttered verandas. The entertaining terrace meets the resort-style pool complete with waterfall, set in lush tropical surrounds. Away from the home is a self-contained cottage, as well as a stand-alone yoga studio.

Ray White Broome agent Giles Tipping has listed the old pearlers-style home for Bradley, a pastoralist and enthusiast member of the Commonwealth Government’s regional development committee for the Kimberley. She also sits on the Laurie Brereton chaired, Kimberley Australia Foundation that seeks to preserve rock art.

After 50 years of living in the Kimberley, mostly on isolated cattle stations, she intends to downsize from her Bilingurr retreat.

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The house is 10 minutes from Broome and it’s a 10-minute walk across sand dunes to Cable Beach.

Broome, 1680km north of Perth in one of Australia’s great wilderness areas, is certainly isolated. Its urban population sits at around 15,000 but the town can attract 45,000 monthly tourists in peak season from June to August. Among its high-profile property owners are the Paspaley pearling family, along with the Stokes media family, who bought there in the late 1980s.

The most recent prestige listing, a $2 million offering on beachfront Demco Drive, is now under offer. Five years ago, a 2008 home designed by Perth architect Paul Meschiati on the edge of Roebuck Bay was listed with $2.5 million hopes but did not sell. The most recent prestige sale was $1 million for a 2010-built home designed by Engawa Architects on a Mina Court holding once owned by Lord Alistair McAlpine.

Just as Bradley is known as the queen of the Kimberley, her dear friend, the late Lord Alistair McAlpine of West Green, had many a moniker. The frangipani-loving Broome visionary was affectionately known as the lord of the bush, the baron of Broome and even lord of the parrots. He truly helped put the town on the international tourism map. Describing the heat during his last visit in March 2012 as like a very gentle sauna, McAlpine, the treasurer

of the British Conservative Party under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was there to be formally recognised for that contribution.

He was awarded the shire’s highest honour, Freeman of the Municipality, at special ceremony and a statue of him with a cockatoo on his shoulder now graces the foreshore.

McAlpine was taken with the former pearling town – albeit derelict – when he first visited to buy seashells in 1979. Within hours of arriving he’d purchased a cottage, and within a few years he’d started a zoo and a luxury resort.

“Without its old houses Broome was nothing,” the softly spoken McAlpine told me. On his last trip he said: “It’s important the planners stick to the ‘no higher than a palm tree’ height principle when it comes to new development.”

McAlpine’s reluctant exit from the town came in the wake of the debilitating 1989 pilots’ strike, and he said he might still be there but for that. The UK-based The Telegraph noted in his obituary that the strike, which lasted six months, saw his tourism venture, in which he had invested £250 million, collapse, costing him much of his personal fortune.

“It’s greatly improved since my day,” said McAlpine, dapperly dressed in earthy colours that matched the locality. “The town has developed very well ....I’ve been impressed by the restraint.”

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Mansion

Serene in the city

A country family builds an urban retreat

Keep it simple

SHARYN CAIRNS

Clean lines for a pared-back lifestyle

JUNE 13-14, 2020

Curve ball

The chair with feminist credentials | THE WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

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Resting place In a reversal of the usual trend, a city apartment configured as a space of retreat functions as one family’s escape from the country and casts forward to its role as eventual permanent home S to r y by SA M D UNCA N P h o to g r a phy by S H A RY N CA I RN S

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l

Opposite and left: The living area with its silk and wool custom rug. Below: Stone references are repeated throughout the home. Below left: The kitchen’s stone island bench, whose organic form is mirrored in the metal-clad range hood

Lifestyle priorities have been given a good shake-up in recent months, with remote working and a renewed premium on outdoor space boosting the appeal of a tree change or sea change.

But things will return to normal – I suspect much faster than many think – and the pull of big city life, with its restaurants, entertainment and convenience, will again gather strength.

This 17th-floor apartment on Melbourne’s St Kilda Road serves as a city retreat for its owners, a family that resides in Victoria’s idyllic Mornington Peninsula. And at some point they intend to make a complete “city change” to the penthouse, which is slated as their future permanent home.

In acquiring the property, they felt there should be no compromise on luxury or space as they transition – in a counter-trend for their demographic – to urban life.

Interior design firm Golden was brought in to furnish the space, but the scope of the project quickly grew as the apartment’s owners decided the spatial quality and functionality also needed an update.

Interior designer Alicia McKimm, co-director of Golden, says her studio’s response was to “create a home in the sky”. They opted to use timeless and luxurious materials that would enhance the natural light and place an emphasis on reflection.

McKimm says of the apartment’s materiality and texture: “Honed stone with a natural shimmer, polished plaster that intensifies the lateral light and silk carpet in the bedrooms show subtle movement and luminosity.”

One of the key design elements within the home is the shape of the kitchen’s stone island bench, which is faceted, rounded at the ends and sanded into an organic form with flowing concave curves.

It’s a stunning piece of art, and Golden’s studio director, Daniel Stellini, says the shape was also driven by function. It was important that the bench provide the

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The master bedroom has been configured for quiet retreat and meditation

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right storage and surface requirement, he says, while also allowing for fluid movement throughout the space: the kitchen, dining and bar areas. And the soft edges of the island form also allowed for additional dining seating and more space when entertaining.

There are stone references throughout the apartment – in the living area, study and master bedroom – which McKimm says have been purposely repeated as mindful touchpoints.

Other linkages include the symmetry between the organic form of the kitchen island and the concave form of the metal cladding on the rangehood.

And throughout the space, brass features in a variety of ways: within joinery and lighting, providing sophistication, and also functioning to separate different task zones. A brass trim works to subtly separate the bar from the kitchen, and floating brass shelves provide function and display on the backdrop of blue glass finger tiles.

The master bedroom, adjacent to the secluded balcony and daybed, is configured for quiet retreat and reflection. And there’s a hidden television in a leather-clad armoire, which works to create separation between the sleeping and meditation zones.

In the living room, a fireplace set upon a stone plinth adds physical warmth to the design.

A large custom rug in wool and silk incorporates varying weaves and pile heights, emphasising the importance of craft within the home.

Working within the confines of the existing services and spaces, as a result of the prior amalgamation of three smaller units, provided constant challenges, says Stellini – most notably, access via a small lift. “We had to work innovatively and adapt rather than compromise our design narrative,” he says.

Delivery of the five-by-six metre custom statement rug wasn’t easy, he says. The limitations also meant the joinery needed to be modulated and constructed to size off-site, and done so in a way that allowed for crafted assembly on-site.

Kylie Dorotic, designer and co-director of Golden, says the firm drew inspiration from city apartments adjacent to park living: Parisian and New Yorkstyle properties with luxury spaces and a multitude of urban views. The colour palette, she says, was brought in from the natural materials that feature throughout. “Flecks of colour within the stone were extracted and delicately thread throughout the home. The palette is gentle, natural and warm, yet assertive in balance, relying on texture to feature – the rug weaving all the colours together.”

Asked what her clients most liked about the design, Dorotic says the kitchen was the immediate highlight. Reconfigured, open and flooded with natural light, it’s the perfect place for entertaining day and night, she says.

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Etc. S A M YA T E S

2.

1.

3.

6.

5.

4.

1.

CHAIR

Riccardo Blumer and Matteo Borghi’s BB Chair for Poliform. Shown here in tan leather. Additional materials, colours and sizes available. poliformaustralia.com.au

2.

FLOOR LIGHT

Aleka floor lamp has a curved dome shade crafted in black or brass with marble base. cocorepublic.com.au

3.BED

Express bed, bedside tables and drawers in sustainably grown solid spotted gum designed by Ross Longmuir of Planet. The quilt is vintage Japanese silk. Hand-loomed wool carpet made in India for Planet. planetfurniture.com.au

4.

TAP

5.

VASE

6.

CUSHIONS

7.

TABLE

VOLA 590H one-handle mixer in colour 40 with swivel spout and ceramic disc technology. en.vola.com Maria Kariis took her inspiration for the 2Lips vase from the luxuriant form of the tulip. greatdanefurniture.com Kvadrat x Raf Simons Cushion Collection. Available in three different sizes,with combinations of colour, weave and texture. kvadratmaharam.com L.A. SUNSET table by Patricia Urquiola for Space.

Low round tables with tubular metal structure painted midnight blue or copper coloured in a special metallic opaque finish. spacefurniture.com.au

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7.

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49

B&B Italia Up Series Armchair and Ottoman

Design classic

PAUL BARBERA

DAVID MEAGHER

Above: Gaetano Pesce. Right and below: Two versions of the chair and its tethered ottoman

C

an a piece of design be feminist? It’s a question posed by the Italian architect and design pioneer Gaetano Pesce in the design of his Up Series chair. Pesce first created the chair in 1969 for the company that would eventually become B&B Italia (and which still produces the chair), and as well as making a feminist statement with its design, he revolutionised the way high-end furniture was manufactured and shipped.

The Up series is made from air-sensitive expandable foam covered in jersey fabric. The chair is squashed and flat packed, and when it’s unwrapped it takes about 15 minutes to expand to its full dimensions.

The concept is now widely used in mattresses, for example, but 50 years ago when it debuted at the Milan Furniture Fair it stunned audiences.

The chair’s voluptuous shape is said to represent the female form, with the spherical ottoman attached with a chain – shackled, in fact, to the “woman”.

At the time of its release Pesce said he was commenting on – and expressing his distaste for – the historical plight of women. It was also perhaps the first time that something simple such as a chair design made an overtly political statement – in this case about the condition of women in the world.

An exhibition of the chair in Milan last year to mark its 50th anniversary drew protests from feminist groups, but Pesce maintained his position and said the protesters were wrong to see it as a symbol of women’s oppression.

At the time, the then 79-year-old architect said: “My design raises debates that help people to advance, discovering new values and possibly letting go of the old ones.”

Another interpretation of the chair is that it references a mother and child.

It is often referred to as the Big Mumma, with the armchair said to represent the mother and the child the ball, with the cord joining them in an unbreakable bond.

The chair is available in black, red, yellow, blue and a dark green stripe, as well as a beige and orange striped fabric.

Priced from $9565 from Space Furniture. spacefurniture.com.au

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3 Bed

2.5 Bath

2 Car

8 Persons