Keeping things simple – Canberra
Materially minimalist, geometrically powerful and yet refined in a simple linearity is the street presentation of this coolly-contemporary Canberra home designed by Collins Pennington Architects.
How deceptive, behind the inset entry between the garage and the study with its own side entry, is a large three-bedroom home ranging down a long sloping axis across three split levels.
Internally, the house is construed in three squared blocks, segues through wide lobbies and stairways rather than along narrow corridors to maintain an open, effortless spatial flow. And while all rooms have outlook to the lap pool that essentially forms the third part of the U-shaped built form, the spaces are cleverly arranged as public and private.
Public is the roomy central kitchen/living space. Extremely private is the final and semi-detached master suite at the rear. A small courtyard demarks it separateness. But beside the big backyard, two further small, landscaped and planted courts maintain an ever-present indoor-outdoor nexus. Upstairs, two bedrooms – one with a cantilevered balcony – share a bathroom and overview of the partially-elevated elongated blue water.
