family

When Ann and John Scholes approached BENT Architecture to design their Mt Eliza house, they were after a few key things; a compact home, connected to nature, designed for comfort and accessibility as they aged.

And, it was here, in the home they dreamed up, surrounded by a bountiful garden they had nurtured themselves, that John was able to receive palliative care before he passed. Something, Paul Porjazoski, director of BENT Architecture, says they were proud and grateful to be able to facilitate.

After studying Sculpture and Spatial Practice at the Victorian College of Arts, and feeling dissatisfied with the level of practical skills learnt, Olive Gill-Hille turned to furniture design and embraced utility. Now, the sculptor and woodworker brings both her studies together to create pieces that are either beautiful objects, functional design pieces – or something in between. 

In an upcoming exhibition at the inaugural Melbourne Design Fair with Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Olive combines utilitarian design with sculpture in her work, Nocturne; an occasional table with all the hallmarks of a beautiful piece of art.

When looking to buy their first home together, Haydn Green (director of Momentum Building Group) and Lucinda McKimm searched for beach houses with character and the potential to renovate. 

This modest brick house on the Mornington Peninsula ticked all the boxes, while offering plenty of room to extend on its generous block. 

Working with the couple’s close friend, architect Victoria Merrett of Pleysier Perkins, Haydn built a new extension taking advantage of the property’s sunny backyard, without stripping the home of its original charm. 

Just a few years ago, this Hawthorn, Victoria, home was nothing more than a rundown 1880s Victorian facade with four heavily fire-damaged rooms. The heritage-protected property was going to be a huge undertaking to restore, but Matt and Fiona Olaes were up to the challenge.

With the expertise of architects Robson Rak, builder Lane Project Management, and Ben Scott Garden Design, the original elements of this property have been reinstated alongside a light-filled, flowing extension.

The completed home is one of properties on show at the upcoming Open Houses 2022 hosted by St Joseph’s School Hawthorn.

Kirsty Budge shuffled between watercolours, printmaking, photography and drawing before settling on oil painting as her primary mode of artistic expression, well into her adult life. Since then, the artist’s style has evolved in a slow and measured way, and her distinctive twisted, melancholy paintings have received many accolades – including, most recently, the 2021 Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize.

Kirsty’s home studio feels a little like an artist’s studio from the 1970s, perhaps somewhere in Europe, where obsessive art-making overtakes everyday life. Here Kirsty lives and works, constantly slipping between the boundaries of her all-consuming art practice, and her personal space.

Melbourne is home to some truly incredible apartment buildings — you just have to know where to find them.

One of the city’s best known and most admired early apartment complexes is the 1930s Cairo Flats. Designed almost 90 years ago by architect Acheson Best Overend as 36 ‘bachelor’ apartments (26 studios and 10 with a separate bedroom), this apartment complex is beloved among Melbourne’s architecture community as a prime exemplar of well-designed, medium-density, minimal housing in Australia.

We recently spent the day capturing the complex and two of its current residents; author Jennifer Down and creative director Anna Fullerton. 

Ceramicist Mali Taylor traces her love of ‘getting her hands dirty’ back to her childhood in northern New South Wales. Although she’s now based in Melbourne after moving here to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT in 2016, the prolific maker says her creative journey started at a small Steiner school in Wollumbin, NSW.

Mali’s delicately coiled creations range from sculptural vases, treasure plates, planter pots to earthy kitchenware – all ‘undoubtedly influenced’ from her younger days immersed in nature. Read on for more about her thoughtful practice.

If there’s an architecturally significant home available to rent in Melbourne’s north-east, you best believe Tilly Barber knows about it.  

The owner of furniture businesses Homebody and Monde has lived in multiple nearby ’60s and ’70s homes, but couldn’t resist moving into the former office of prolific architect Alistair Knox when it recently hit the rental market. 

Embracing the site’s history and leafy Eltham environment, Tilly has turned the space into a somewhat unorthodox yet heartwarming home for herself, and six-year-old-son Marley.

First Nations fibre artists have been threading the stories of their ancestors for generations, using age-old techniques passed from hand to hand. 

Thread Count is an installation that shares these powerful stories and the master weavers behind them. Curated by Nina Fitzgerald, the exhibition at Collingwood Yards brings together some of the finest woven bags and baskets created on Country in Arnhem Land and the Daly River region of the Northern Territory. 

Visitors are invited to consider these works in the context of contemporary fashion, with the hopes of changing the way this uniquely Australian practice is perceived. 

This Sydney seaside pad is so light, bright and airy, it’s hard to believe it was previously a dark, dated home before its transformative renovation by Matt Woods, of Killing Matt Woods.

Enlisted by his friends to update their home in Avoca Beach, the designer knew he wanted to create something that matched its serene surrounds of the Central Coast.

But a witty play on words helped inspire a larger concept, which references Greek mythology and the ‘Four Ages’. Through a combination of muted metallics that allude to the Golden, Iron, Silver, and Bronze Ages. Take a closer look!

Millie and Jessi Poutama are LGBTQIA+ advocates raising their child in an off-grid community. 

When the couple decided to start a family, they began fostering a child, before pursuing their own fertility journey three years ago. Their newborn, Tide, was conceived with a known donor and the services of Rainbow Fertility – a dedicated fertility and IVF provider catering exclusively for the LGBTI+ community in Australia. 

We spoke to the inspiring pair about their experience as foster carers, the IVF process, their expectations of motherhood, and connecting Tide with their donor’s Māori heritage.

Through a year of isolating at home during the peak of the pandemic, Billy Vanilli – who trained as a photographer and graphic designer – began exploring oil painting. Creating hyper-real scenes of food kept him company throughout Melbourne’s lockdowns, whilst separated from friends and family.

From fresh produce draped in translucent materials, to baroque dinner parties set with cheeseburgers, fries and candelabras, Billy’s decadent, delectable scenery vibrate with colour, energy and flavour. Today we meet this promising young artist, in his Fitzroy studio.

Vivarium is a totally transformed Thornbury cottage intended to be ‘consumed’ by its future garden.

Designed by Architecture Architecture, new living areas are entangled with green spaces thanks to curved walls and an enchanting central courtyard. The project also successfully adheres to the homeowner’s requests to minimise their environmental footprint.

Take a closer look at this captivating abode!

Today we’re wrapping up our inspiring and informative ‘Words from the Wise’ series, with Sarah Lynn Rees, Palawa/Trawlwoolway woman, lecturer, curator, and lead Indigenous advisor at architecture firm Jackson Clements Burrows Architects.

Through studying architecture, working in remote communities, and an understanding of her own heritage – Sarah’s practice is rooted in the social, cultural, political and ethical ramifications of design.

In this fascinating conversation with recent Monash Art, Design + Architecture Masters of Architecture graduate, Declan Murphy, Sarah talks about the importance of designing the built environment with Country, culture and community front of mind.