bléuscape design

A labour of LOVE

It hardly seems appropriate to be showing some of my own work after posting a blog on Louis Kahn, however I do want to let you in on what we have been up to and share the story behind the ‘Valentine House’.

As many of you may know Jaki, the kids and I live in Cornubia, Queensland. It is a leafy suburb about twenty minutes south of Brisbane. We have lived here for almost 7 years now and really enjoy it. The place is beautiful with walking trails that wind through the bush eventually looping back close to where we live. On our walks, both Jaki and I have noted and admired an incredible block of land that is at the halfway mark. Currently unoccupied, except for a family of wallabies, the land is dotted with Ghost Gum and Eucalyptus trees. The way the light falls on the block in the morning and afternoon is really amazing. We think it’s really special.

Every architect and designer at some point in life has visions of creating their own home. For me it is no different, actually having embarked on the process several times. While this exercise still remains a design dream due to monetary constraints (and one of us having fairly expensive taste) it is never-the-less a fun thing to do.

This year for Valentine Day I decided to do something different. I wanted to design Jaki her dream home on this block that we always pass on our walks. With pen and paper in hand one evening, a few days before THE day, I sat her down and we devised a brief. It was as follows:

Design Brief

  • Pavilion living separating the public and private
  • Glass walkways to link pavilions
  • Double carport
  • Open plan Kitchen / Dining / Living (fire place to living)
    • Emphasis on natural light, and breeze
  • Kitchen to open up to both courtyard and lawn
  • The public space to have guided perspectives to the landscape
  • A large double height courtyard / outdoor room (outdoor fireplace)
  • 2 room Master Bed with linking ENS
  • 2 extra bedrooms for the kids
  • A bathroom with separate WC
  • Study nook near kids rooms
  • Guest Bed and ENS with attached study at the other end of the house
  • Decent sized storage
  • Descent sized laundry
  • 12m lap pool and deck (framless glass balustrade)

Quite a brief! So that night I set to work. The following images hopefully depict my ideas and the presentation I gave to her on Valentines Day. Enjoy!

(For a more detailed description of the layout please see the main website www.bleuscape.com.auunder Custom Architecture / Current).

                              

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