Location: Mount Hawthorn, Perth
Date of Completion: 2023
There are a number of significant interwar houses in some of Perth’s most desirablesuburbs. However, the house originally on this site, certainly wasn’t one of them, havingbeen left vacant for a number of years. While this house is brand new and substantial andcomplements this 1,000-square-metre site, it does have a slight semblance to some of thefine modernist homes built in the 1930s and ‘40s when this garden suburb was firstestablished.Designed for a professional couple with two young children, the house features whitepainted concrete and timber-battened screens. From the street, it has a rectilinear design.However, from the rear, there’s an organic-shape concrete canopy that provides a contrastto the home’s rectilinear lines.
The architects also expressed the staircase, located adjacentto the front entrance, on the side of the home to create some relief from the modernistcubic form. As with some of the modernist homes built between the wars, fine steelcolumns allow areas such as the outdoor terrace to be more connected to the garden andits swimming pool. Given the house was designed for a family with young children,Mountford McCarey was mindful of creating a reason for spending more time at home.Hence, there’s a built-in barbeque on the patio, a well-landscaped garden and swimmingpool, together with an open plan living area – two adjoining spaces that can easily beseparated by means of sliding doors, or alternatively, be left open for the parents to keep aneye on the children, particularly if they are in the swimming pool.One of the design features found at the Mount Hawthorn house is the mud room, located toone side of the garage.
While the mud room is often associated with country properties, thearchitects have found that a similar concept works as well for urban properties. The parentscan drive into the double garage and walk straight into the mud room, where the family candrop off their school bags, mobile phones or the groceries. With the laundry nearby as wellas a small courtyard area for drying clothes, this allows for less clutter coming into thehome. The same approach was taken with the kitchen which includes a large butler’skitchen tucked behind it. For Mountford McCarey Architects, while aesthetics are importantso is how a house functions.Text by Stephen Crafti
