Toorak House is all about control. I’d worked on houses before but had never taken the lead in the design and been the architect until this project. The clients were downsizing from a decorative house in Caulfield and I, along with architect Maria Danos, wanted to reflect this detailing in their new house in Toorak. We jokingly called it “the entertainer” as it only had two bedrooms but an enormous amount of entertaining space to host their family, with secret doors to conceal their day-to-day living spaces. They were interested in craft and detail, and, as a result, the project had these beautiful, complex elements including a glass sliding door to the study that was screen-printed by Spacecraft, and a facade composed of thin Italian tiles.
It’s the refinement of these features that set Toorak House apart from other projects I had worked on with design and construction firm Neometro. Because it was a private commission for Neometro Architects – the company’s in-house architecture practice, where I’d been working since 1997 – we were able to work independently, following the project through from conception to realisation and refining ideas on-site. This is something I still celebrate today in my work as owner and principal of MA and Co, where instead of having to work within the constraints of a larger practice, replicating the language of them first and foremost, I can express my own design sensibility and have control over that design on-site.
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It was an ambitious project for me. I set out to use my autonomy to test what I could achieve, and the restraint and success in elements such as the floating ceiling and frameless glass windows reflect the development of my design practice. Yet there’s always a trade off in being in control, because you must also decide where the letterbox goes, and sometimes that can be the hardest detail! I always wanted the independence that being a lead on a project like this could provide; it gave me a taste of what it would be like to have my own practice.
I had been waiting for the right time to start my own practice – waiting to be in a place of financial security, and I had never felt I had that. So when I got offered the opportunity to buy into Neometro Architects as a director, it was a good stepping stone to having my own practice. Though I’m grateful for the experience of being a director in a thriving multidisciplinary business, looking back, I wish I’d had the confidence to establish my own practice earlier.
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The intimate scale of Toorak House, collaborating solely with Maria, facilitated some of the growth that I had been searching for. I believe it’s important to discuss the impact of people like Maria, with whom I have ended up collaborating numerous times over the years. Opportunities to work with others who share a similar ethos are incredibly rewarding. Even though those relationships ebb and flow, they remain helpful and enriching. Being at similar stages in our careers, we were fortunate to have a fantastic builder and clients that made taking on more responsibility much easier.
So much of what was achieved in this project is still present in our current projects at MA and Co. We emphasise materiality and detailing and create pause points – providing order and directing the view line to guide the experience of each room. It’s not a perfect house, but there are lots of good things about it. Now that I’m not so fixated on crazy details, I’ve realised there are other ways of making an impact. It doesn’t have to be perfect – it needs to be just so.