2021 Australian Interior Design Awards: Residential Design – joint award

Jury comment

Bellows House caught the jury’s attention because it is unusual. Many of the Residential Design category’s projects are working within an existing space, but this one creates a new space. It takes on the challenge wholeheartedly and does something innovative that none of the jury members had seen before. The project also exhibits a thorough knowledge of twentieth-century architectural history and reinterprets it in a creative and fresh way. This is a resolved design that integrates the interior with the architecture, giving rise to a series of spaces that are dramatic, theatrical and extremely liveable.

Design statement

A single row of mature poplar trees along the unsealed road cast morning shadows onto the white concrete masonry blocks, animating the long, articulated facade. The articulations, through the masonry and concrete detailing, together with the frustum roofs and layering of spaces, evoke street engagements and curiosities. These pose a polemic to the long facade, which is essentially a defence mechanism to provide and suggest domestic privacy.

The formal entry sequence starts from the pedestrian gate on the main street: the dusty pink brick pavers provide a conduit between the native garden and the build structure. Through the gap between the long facade and the garage, an outdoor shower is provided for washing down the wet gear from the sea, before the space opens up to the inner outdoor sanctum. Internal living spaces look into this north-facing courtyard garden, where the family gathers and entertains.

Once inside the house, the two largest of the frustum roofs reveal their internal structure: reverse step concrete pyramids. The heaviness of the structure makes the external masonry feel like eggshells, with complex engineering and detailing making the exteriors all the more minimal.

Design practice —Architects EAT

Project team — Sarah Magennis, Emma Gauder

The Award for Residential Design supported by Sub-Zero Wolf. The Australian Interior Design Awards are presented by the Design Institute of Australia and Artichoke magazine. For more images of this project, see the Australian Interior Design Awards gallery.