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The Local Project

The Local Project •

Kabine by Wellard Architects

The Victorian coastal town of Venus Bay – part of the Cape Liptrap Coastal Park on the South Gippsland coastline – is an oasis of pristine beaches, rugged landscapes and wildlife. The dwellings that do exist appear to grow out of the earth, hiding in plain sight.
Kabine, the home of Melbourne-based interior and prop stylist, Bek Sheppard, falls into this proud minority. Designed by Harriet Collins of Wellard Architects, the once worn and weary 1970s cabin is restored and takes a leaf from its su...
The Local Project •

Inside Peter Frampton’s Humble Tennessee Home

Tucked away in a pastoral pocket of Nashville, Tennessee, rock musician Peter Frampton’s farmhouse is a dreamscape of hushed hues and accessible design.
Designed by friend and interior designer Robin Rains, the home is customised to meet the needs of the music star, who lives with inclusion body myositis (IBM), impacting his movement and mobility. When Robin took on the redesign, the home had just been built and was a blank canvas. However, it needed to be updated to meet Frampton’s needs. “When...
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Light Well House by Simone Haag

In modernising the home, Simone remained faithful to its heritage. “There isn’t a plaster wall in the house. It’s all brick or timber veneer,” she notes. In addition to the walls, she also retained the original tiled benchtops in the kitchen, quaint basins in the bathrooms and vintage tapware fittings in both. “In terms of materials, the emphasis was on authenticity and honesty,” she adds. Her materials of choice were natural and organic, including wool, brick, timber, glass, leather, stone and...
The Local Project •

Holbrooke House by Brahman Perera

As for what prompted the owners to enlist an interior designer for a new build, Perera explains that it was a matter of taming its proportions. “The clients had experience in renovating property in the past but wanted me to develop a design language to soften the build,” he says. Though he was given carte blanche over the design, the owners did specify a caveat: to maximise the use of available space. “This was to be the family’s ‘forever home’, and thus a place that would grow with them and the...
The Local Project •

Linsley by Duet

In collaboration with Robert Lee Architects, Shlom and Brammah worked on reviving historic elements. Design interventions were dictated by heritage regulations, which specified the preservation of such original features as the copper wash tub, the stove in the underground sandstone kitchen, the staircase, bannisters and high ceilings. To afford these elements permanent pride of place, any new millwork was designed to be portable, allowing it to be replaced or removed as required.
As Shlom and Br...
The Local Project •

In Focus: The Reliquary

The Reliquary is a Los Angeles-based creative workshop that explores the intersection of the historic and the modern in pieces that are elevated with sustainable components. The studio is launching this year with the upcoming release of its first collection. In an age of machine-made and mass-produced furniture and objects, its work stands apart.
Informed by an old-world sensibility, the studio employs traditional techniques and motifs in new, imaginative ways. Each piece is made to order by sea...
The Local Project •

Shorebird by Those Architects

Enclosed by buildings yet open to the elements, Shorebird by Those Architects defies its suburban Sydney setting. Although nestled between neighbouring homes, the beachside dwelling maximises light, air and privacy through an array of thoughtfully designed architectural interventions. Offering uninterrupted vistas of Bate Bay, Shorebird establishes a dialogue with its immediate surroundings by embracing nature. Co-founder and director Ben Mitchell explains that the location set the stage for the
The Local Project •

Hidden House by Studio mkn and Eliza Blair Architecture

Characterised by a combination of highlights and shadows, a distinguishing feature of the design is the glazed facade, which is defined by custom timber slat screens. These innovative screens serve as aesthetic interludes between indoors and outdoors while also affording privacy and shielding the lounge from the unrelenting western sun. “The lounge serves to immerse occupants in the lush greenery of the surrounding garden. Positioned to cantilever into the outdoor space, it offers a seamless con
The Local Project •

Pole Pass Retreat by Olson Kundig

Site constraints prompted Olson Kundig to minimise walls, not only to project a sense of volume, but also to eliminate sightlines between the site and its surroundings. As design principal Tom Kundig, explains, “the intent was to create an expansive indoor-outdoor living space with spectacular views.” The home unfolds in a series of imperceptible layers. This is most evident in the living room, where a mechanical wheel connected to a system of gears and chains, akin to those in a bicycle, govern
The Local Project •

Rhinecliff Residence by Post Company

In its previous chapter, Rhinecliff Residence was an outdated dwelling lacking space and light. It was one of the oldest preserved houses in the area, as per records from the local historical society.

The current version of the house steps out of the shadows of its 1860s predecessor, thanks to a luminous overhaul by New York City-based multidisciplinary design practice Post Company. The owners – New York natives who moved overseas in 2020 and purchased Rhinecliff Residence as a secondary base –
The Local Project •

Tuerong Farmhouse by Samantha Eisen Interiors

The rural landscape of Tuerong, Victoria, is characterised by rugged farms, rolling vineyards and beaches that extend as far as the horizon.

Tuerong Farmhouse by Samantha Eisen Interiors camouflages into this bucolic locale with a design that is both local and global, demonstrating a rare balance of rustic charm and contemporary elegance. Inspired by French mid-century chateaus, Spanish haciendas and Californian ranch-style properties, Tuerong Farmhouse is a harmony of eclectic styles that stay
The Local Project •

Palm Beach Spanish Revival by Sarah Sherman Samuel

In the village of Wellington, in Florida’s Palm Beach, is a home that could belong in a storybook. Larger-than-life windows overlook a mirror-like lake, while great blue herons prance around its periphery. Palm Beach Spanish Revival, designed by Sarah Sherman Samuel, is an atmospheric abode where experiences unfold on either side of the threshold.

A few years ago, the home now known as Palm Beach Spanish Revival was a smorgasbord of extravagant embellishments, faded millwork and palatial fixtur
The Local Project •

Casa Amal by The Stella Collective

Casa Amal’s aesthetic is informed by the Arabian architectural renaissance of the 1970s. The custom clay arched breeze blocks on the facade, for example, are a modernist reimagination of traditional mashrabiya, the wooden lattice screens found in traditional Arabic architecture. They provide ventilation and views while projecting an ever-changing mosaic of sunlight and shadows throughout the day. Other nods to mashrabiya include the perforated travertine wall behind the staircase and the honeyco
The Local Project •

The Forever Bottle by Thankyou

Enter award-winning Auckland-based brand design agency Marx Design and Melbourne industrial designer PerCapita Studio, which collaborated with Thankyou to create an iconic new glass bottle for its personal care, cleaning and deodorant ranges. “Being unique as a brand and concept is something that’s mission-critical to us, as well as offering products both in and outside of supermarkets, to allow us to effectively engage consumers to play a role in helping us achieve our mission of ending extreme
The Local Project •

Cowes Primary School Gymnasium by Project 12

The architecture is underpinned by a simple rationale. A single- storey volume, housing a kitchen, entry and changing rooms, stands to the north, and nearby, in the music room, a raised platform provides a stage for performing arts, presentations, assemblies and school events. The pool serves as an interlude between nature and the built form, acting as a placid antidote to the expansive double-height court flanking the bushland. Completing the indoor-outdoor experience is an external teaching sp
The Local Project •

Skygarden by Architecture Architecture

By the same token, the 132-square-metre home is overarched by three pigmented light shafts – each respectively emblazoned with handmade Moroccan tiles in pink, blue and green – which summon sunlight deep inside. These skylights are rooted in a plural sense of purpose. In addition to diffusing colourful waves of light, they also connect the two levels, promoting natural light and cross ventilation across both the vertical and horizontal axes. “In the course of a day, each of the shafts passes thr
The Local Project •

One Prospect Park West by Workstead

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The precinct of New York’s Grand Army Plaza is considered the bastion of pre-war Brooklyn style. After all, the history-rich, heritage-stamped neighbourhood is home to the triumphal Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch and a number of other pre-war relics, each with a past more storied than the last. One example is the circa 1925 residential building, One Prospect Park West. Original
The Local Project •

Beachwood Canyon Treehouse in Los Angeles by Studio Keeta

Located in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, Beachwood Canyon Treehouse is every bit as theatrical as its location. The mid-century home, redesigned by Studio Keeta, is a kaleidoscope of playful colours, whimsical furniture, vintage finds and thoughtfully sourced staples from local makers and emerging artists. Situated on a serene lot at the end of a long driveway, Beachwood Canyon Treehouse is a sanctuary that sloughs off the stridency of the city. With the Griffith Observatory and San Gabrie
The Local Project •

Mount Alexander College by Kosloff Architecture - Issue 14 Feature

Mount Alexander College has had many lives. Founded in 1858 as Flemington National School and rechristened twice since, the secondary school has been reimagined once again by Kosloff Architecture in response to a surge in enrolments.

The new building, spread across five levels and 5,150 square metres, interacts with the surroundings through learning environments that keep nature close. The school’s compact, inner-city site served as the point of departure for the design, which was developed ver
The Local Project •

Sydney: Poetica by Cox Architecture

Not far from Sydney Harbour, where the air still carries the faintest whiff of the sea, hides another ode to the coast. Poetica by Cox Architecture in North Sydney is a bar and grill that is as much for dining as it is for delighting, with equal references to people, place, past and present.

The interior nods to the legacy of such storied locals as the convict-turned-boatman William ‘Billy’ Blue and late artist Brett Whiteley by way of natural materials, lyrical artworks and theatrical flourish
The Local Project •

Villa Stella at Cedars Mount View by Alexander Symes Architect - Project Feature

Secreted inside an idyllic valley at Mount View, a rural locality in the Hunter Valley wine region, Cedars Mount View is a 38-hectare habitat where wildlife and wilderness thoughtfully make way for mankind. The newly reimagined creek-side retreat, which features four existing villas, has recently been enhanced by a fifth by French hotelier couple Christelle Chardin and Gilbert Ponlot, who acquired the property in 2020. Christened Villa Stella after the Latin word for stars, the serene 100-squar
The Local Project •

[Print] One Prospect Park West in Brooklyn by Workstead

The precinct of New York’s Grand Army Plaza is considered the bastion of prewar Brooklyn. The history-rich, heritage-stamped neighbourhood is, after all, home to the triumphal Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch and a number of other prewar relics, each with a past more storied than the last. One example is the circa-1925 residential building One Prospect Park West. Originally commissioned by the Knights of Columbus as a clubhouse for society elites, it changed hands several times before assuming its present avatar. Now restored and reimagined by Surface Design Group and Workstead as a 64-residence, 22-storey condominium complex spread across 169,000 square feet, the edifice borrows from the past while staying true to the present.
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