A NEW VIEW

Being receptive to her architect’s ideas has reaped huge rewards for the owner of this home in Ballarat, Victoria.

- Carli Philips

When architect Richard Teed of Moby Architecture & Interiors in Ballarat was approached by local resident Marita, she had a clear vision of what she wanted her house to look like – Hamptons-style with provincial accents and a white rusticity.

While that’s about as far from Richard’s aesthetic as you can get, he recognised the qualities and lifestyle Marita wanted and he could certainly see the site’s potential.

“We considered her images, but instead of a literal adaptation of them we showed her how we could achieve a contemporary resolution,” says Richard. “We could see how she wanted to live and what she wanted, rather than just the look. We exposed her to a style she hadn’t considered before but embraced.”

There were some significant challenges, including the steepness of the land, the proximity to Marita’s neighbours and a narrow face to the street. Richard’s main goal was to create a home that would feel private and rural, despite being surrounded by looming buildings in a very suburban area.

Originally, there was talk about exploring a double-storey building in the centre of the 605-square-metre property, but it would have been domineering and the view may have been compromised. When Richard started sketching and playing with the forms, a distorted H-shaped plan started to evolve, with two separate pavilions linked by a central courtyard. Because the block was so steep, Richard designed the footprint to split over three levels so that as the house steps down at the rear, the ceilings can still be high without neighbours being able to see in.