Innehållsförteckning för Habitus #40 - Nourish från Habitus

What is the most important room of the house – the kitchen or bathroom? It’s a question over which I mused in preparation for this issue of Habitus. It’s a question that I took to our contributors, too. But the correct answer is that there is no correct answer; both are equally important. Together they nourish us in their respective – and complementary – ways. That’s why we’ve chosen to call the Habitus Kitchen & Bathroom Special the Nourish issue. Within the kitchen we store, prepare and cook the food that will nourish our bodies. But the kitchen has evolved past a space simply built to function. A modern kitchen is also a space in which we eat, relax, gather and entertain. The architect, interior and industrial designer each play…

Denholm is a small village located between Jedburgh and Hawick in the Scottish Borders region of Scotland. Den Holm is the pseudonym of Steven John Clark, a Scottish-born, Melbourne-based stonemason and sculptor who, in recent times, has taken the local architecture and design community by storm. If you hadn’t guessed, Steven hails from Denholm. That’s about as close to straightforward as his story gets. At 16, Steven left school to embark on a bricklaying apprenticeship. By 19, the goal posts had shifted once more. With an idea to study fashion design at Central Saint Martins in London, run his own label, and show at London Fashion Week, Steven first needed to gain qualifications in fashion technology which led to studying textile embroidery in Manchester. It was here that he met…

“If you’ve got a great space to work in and it looks beautiful it’s going to inspire you.” A scertaining what chef Peter Gilmore is best known for isn’t immediately obvious. The infamously challenging – and now historic – recipe for the Snow Egg dessert; his long-standing position as Executive Chef at Quay, a renowned Sydney institution; or his appointment as Executive Chef at Bennelong Restaurant within the iconic Sydney Opera House following The Fink Group securing the restaurant’s coveted 10-year tender in 2014. He’s certainly not known to be a connoisseur of kitchen design and yet, following decades in the industry, he absolutely knows what he needs out of the layout, finishes, appliances and atmosphere. Professional chefs usually inherit a kitchen and therefore must retro fit it to suit…

Today’s popular open-plan has influenced the way designers and architects think about these spaces in terms of lighting because successful outcomes require both rigour and nuance. When it comes to light in the kitchen there’s a fine line between getting it right and getting it very wrong. Too little and eating dinner in the dark quickly turns from romantic to frustrating; too much and the heart of the home ends up having all the ambience of a floodlit football stadium. Balance between a muted glow and intense illumination needs to be achieved, and any contemporary lighting scheme has to be able to shift between these two settings, depending on the time of day and type of activity taking place. This need for greater lighting flexibility within the kitchen is due…

Professional chef, entrepreneur, owner of food line Marion’s Kitchen, TV presenter, food journalist and mum: these are all roles Marion Grasby juggles – with a smile. At just 35, the Thai-Australian chef is well on her way to building a food empire from her base in Bangkok. Her love affair with food started when she was just a little girl. “The kitchen was my playground,” says Marion. “I loved being there with my mum,” who was also a professional chef. But it was her mother’s home-cooked meals, rather than her professional repertoire, that forged the inspiration behind Marion’s Kitchen. “I wanted to create it from the recipes we cooked together as a family,” says Marion, who competed in MasterChef Australia’s second season the same year she launched her food range.…

“The main challenges throughout the design revolved around spatial planning.” “There was a strong emphasis on natural curves and fluid forms,” says Miriam Fanning of MIM Design on the brief for the recently completed MLB Bathroom. This design language is sewn into each moment of the bathroom, which embraces the dynamic form of the architecture through clever design details including an oversized spherical bath, custom-designed semi integrated basins, sculptural joinery and hand made mosaic wall tiles. The overall colour palette exudes luxury, with soft shades of grey complementing tactile elements throughout. A calm and cool palette that uses only authentic materials of polished plaster, natural stones and timbers all melt together with the larger interior shapes to express the ultimate nexus between heritage and modernism. Though ultimately resolved, the design…

At its core, Habitus is dedicated to the support and advocacy of regional architecture and design, and those who express themselves through it.Founder, Indesign Media Raj Nandan Our interest and curiosity in beautifully designed homes remains as strong as ever, which is why this years Kitchens & Bathrooms issue features a delicious mix of outstanding projects, topical themes and inspiring ideas. I’m happy to contribute a series of articles offering insight into the way designers and architects approach the heart and soul of residential design to ensure comfort and functionality are always prioritised. The Light Idea looks at the importance of flexibility in kitchen lighting and the current trend for well-designed fittings that make a statement without being obtrusive. While Hidden Technologies investigates the need for finishes and surfaces that…

If you ever find yourself in Brunswick East caught by the heady scent of just-baked goods, you might well be within sniffing distance of Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s home. “For me, food and cooking are so intertwined into my daily life, the lines of personal and professional are always blurred, and it’s how I like to think of it all,” says Julia. “It’s who I am, not what I do.” This life-affirming love for creating simple, flavoursome meals led to the launch of her blog in 2014. Named for the southern Mediterranean wind in Italy, with a knowing wink to the Latin root for ‘Australia’, Ostro enabled the enthusiastic gourmand to share her carefully gathered recipes under a unified banner. “Above all, the food I was making was my home food…

The name Jonathan Richards has become synonymous with the exceptional level of interior design manifest in the Australian residential, retail and hospitality landscape. The interior designer and director at SJB, along with his business partner Kirsten Stanisich, can lay claim to having designed some of the most celebrated of these environs, winning major awards and adulation from peers along the way. 12-Micron, The Buena and a re-work of the retail experience at the iconic Chifley, are some of Jonathan and his team’s most recent success stories – to name but a few. It comes as no surprise that the designer spent his early professional years in exhibition and museum design, his eye for creating drama and refinement, evident in his work. Each project is the result of a meticulously selected…

“Technology in the kitchen is really important.” With the ensuing wellness revolution taking over the lifestyle and food industries, one would be forgiven for thinking that a chef whose work is centred on sugary treats would be having a hard time of it. This is definitely not the case for Burch & Purchese, founded by Darren Purchese and Cath Claringbold, partners in life and business. The British chef set up shop in Melbourne seven years ago and has been building his reputation for vibrant and unique desserts ever since. Colourful concoctions with adventurous flavour combinations have become a signature. “We do have some Asian influences in some of the desserts. But then we also have some Australian native influence, as well as more traditional flavour combinations,” says Darren. But the…

These days, clients want the day spa experience in their own home and they’re looking to the Japanese onsen and boutique design hotels for inspiration. But creating the quintessential bathroom isn’t as straightforward as replicating a widely held ideal. There’s no one-size-fits-all design solution because spaces need to be customised to clients’ needs, though architects and designers don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel each time. Contemporary bathroom design often relies on the same elements for a successful outcome, no matter the size, budget or scope. Technology is one such element determining the functionality of today’s bathroom, with advancements in research and development producing even smarter features. A quick look through the Kohler catalogue reiterates this; the manufacturer’s Moxie showerhead, for example, incorporates a wireless speaker that syncs with Bluetooth…

When it comes to fine dining in Singapore, Corner House – ranked as one of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2018 – is still somewhat of a novelty, paving the way as one of the few restaurants that infuses traditional Singaporean culinary influences into fine dining. Here, chef and owner Jason Tan transforms familiar ingredients into unexpected fine dining staples using French cooking techniques. Through his menus, one can trace Jason’s local upbringing and work experiences to his travels and arrival at the fully-fledged master chef status that secured Corner House its Michelin star ranking. It is 3 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon when I enter Corner House, a quiet time between lunch and dinner, and yet the kitchen is abuzz with preparation work. Jason relies on his staff and…

Slope House, in the Malaysian city of Johor Bahru, combines the sensibilities of its owners: the aesthetic preferences of wife with the practical mindset of husband. While he works within the property development industry, she has a keen interest in interior decoration and varied art works and styles: a connoisseur of the au naturel style of architecture trending the Malaysian residential scene in the past decade. The couple had previously commissioned Formwerkz Architects to renovate another residence, and when the chance of a choice plot in an established part of town presented itself, this collaboration was renewed. The experiment became one of designing gathering spaces that are perfectly in-tune with the climate and natural environment in the most economical means possible. For Alan Tay, the Singapore-based partner of Formwerkz Architects,…

ALEESHA CALLAHAN EVERYTHING AND ITS PLACE #82 Aleesha Callahan is the editor of Indesignlive, where her passion for design and digital comes together. Following studies in interior design, she discovered architectural history and writing. While she certainly appreciates the entertaining capabilities of the kitchen – “I recently acquired a vintage drinks trolley, to extend the kitchen and display an array of beautiful glassware” – it’s the restorative and self-pampering nature of the bathroom that holds her heart. ANNIE REID UNLOCKING THE LAYERS #178 Annie Reid is a freelance writer with a special interest in architecture and design. Residing in Bayside, Melbourne, and currently undergoing a renovation, her approach to residential design is one championed by purpose and simplicity. “I think about using every space in my house with purpose, creating…

“To hear that the restaurant feels like someone’s home is a good thing for us,” Astrid says. “That’s really the feeling we wanted.” At the bottom of a cul-de-sac, past clusters of ferns and bromeliads, sits a timber hideaway. Hidden by a four wheel drive and a fishing boat, it’s a place of respite for chef Josh Lewis and restaurateur Astrid McCormack, who run the innovative restaurant Fleet in Brunswick Heads. It seems appropriate for two people who spend their work life in the public eye that their private lives are spent in relative seclusion. Josh, originally from Geelong, and Astrid, from Melbourne, have gone from strength to strength since opening their own place in 2015. Both come from a considerable gastronomic pedigree. Josh worked with Shannon Bennett for seven…

Anyone who’s ever craved Bill Granger’s signature creamy scrambled eggs can well appreciate the impact he’s had on Australia’s dining culture. This much-loved restaurateur and food writer proves cooking wasn’t meant to be laboured and that eating is all about the joy of sharing simple, fresh meals with family and friends. Whether you’ve eaten his dishes in one of his restaurants, cooked a recipe from any number of his cookbooks or watched him on TV, you’ll know it’s hard to resist his particular brand of warmth and relaxed ease. When I speak to Bill by phone, it’s a bitterly cold morning in London and while he’s indoors, he lets me know it’s blowing a gale outside. I feel like I’m talking to an old friend. He’s affable and generous, with…

When researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology proposed a prototype for future living in the 1950s, they came up with the House of the Future. Sponsor Monsanto Chemical Company had naming rights and the exhibit became part of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, on show for ten years from 1957. The full-size model emphasised plastics as the material of the future and was set in 1986, although the styling undoubtedly channelled a sixties vibe. Visitors flocked to the attraction curious to see the high-tech gadgetry, including a microwave oven and dishwasher, and weren’t disappointed. The prototype was eventually demolished and choker chains had to be used to crush the reinforced polyester structure into smaller parts because wrecking balls and jackhammers were no match. Times have most certainly changed, but our curiosity for…

Charisma is a hard thing to pin down, and requires great nuance on the part of its owner. It’s not just about being bold and beguiling; it’s also about knowing when and how to blend into the background without losing that magnetic quality. In Prahran Kitchen by Melbourne-based interiors studio Pipkorn & Kilpatrick, charisma comes from contrast. But it didn’t come naturally. The challenge the designers faced was to inject character and modernism into the existing kitchen, which was “quite dated”, according to Anna Skermer, one of three practice directors. To amend that, the designers leaned into a new, more tangible material palette, heavy with natural materials and texture. Light-wood chevron pattern flooring was contrasted with a dark, grainy wood for the island bench, which was fitted with brass “to…

“Humble ideas and a sensitive crafting of spaces enrich the way people live.” When Vokes and Peters were brought on board to design the kitchen within Hawthorne House, the scope was very limited. And yet, the resulting kitchen changes the way the whole house is experienced. Prior to the intervention, the home was dissected by an ill-placed wall: “The wall divided all the living spaces down the middle, so you’re either up front or you’re out back, and there was no visual connection between,” says director Aaron Peters. Instead of an elaborate reconfiguration, the architects decided to cut a crescent-shaped hole through the problem – a subtle decision that ended up driving the aesthetic success of the project. “It’s a classic arch motif,” says Aaron. “There’s a particular way that…

Located within the original portion of a refurbished home for a family of five, interior designers Decus Interiors elected to draw on the property’s architectural history. “The brief was for the space to have some traditional qualities, however we used contemporary materials,” explains Alexandra Donohoe Church, founder and managing director of Decus Interiors, refering to the use of original timber flooring and traditional brass tapware. “We introduced a pink handmade tile as an element of folly, and designed freestanding joinery with a Calacatta stone top.” The pink textured tile was selected to tie in with the original fireplace mantel in the adjacent bedroom. Spatially, the designers were able to create two zones within a tight footprint by dividing the floor into two distinct materials – limestone forming the wet zone.…

Architecture should not look good, but it should make us feel good, too, as it can undoubtedly impact our wellbeing and quality of life. Sunshine and fresh air, beyond affecting light levels and temperature, are energising and uplifting with the potential to influence our energy levels and mood. Open-plan living can encourage and support interactions and foster positive relationships, while flexible and zoned spaces cater for the changing dynamics of growing families. This house in Coogee, Sydney, is light, open and spacious – just what the clients ordered. Designed by Madeleine Blanchfield Architects and home to a family with two young boys, it reflects both Madeleine and the client’s desire for bright, breezy spaces, knowing how they positively contribute to wellbeing. “I’m very much interested in how spaces feel and…