Composed and Calm – House Around a Pond by Carr

The epitome of calm, House Around a Pond embodies the essence of home in its conjuring of a sense of place through muted sensibilities and a deliberate connection to nature. Carr creates the ideal place of retreat through restraint, composed, clean lines and an openness of spatial volumes and light-flooded spaces.

Sitting near the owners’ previous address in Caulfield North, House Around a Pond draws on key connections to nature and spatial connections to light to propose a home of calming retreat. In its siting, the new build acts as an extension to a previous narrative with the area and through a curated approach, becomes the embodiment of the clients’ next life chapter. As a natural evolution of a grown relationship over some forty years between architect and client, the team drew on a nuanced understanding of space, openness and a connection to both water and greenspace in proposing the resulting residence. Carr combines a retrained simplicity of form, colour and materiality and, as a result, focuses on connections and form in a unique engagement with site.

As its name suggests, the spatial arrangement of the home is inspired by its muse, the pond.

Built by Leone Constructions, the home sits surrounded by carefully measured landscape spaces by Ben Scott Garden Design. As its name suggests, the spatial arrangement of the home is inspired by its muse, the pond. A muted brick formation then encases the central opening, emphasising it as a symbol of composure. The stillness and tranquillity that the open body of water denotes becomes the foundations of the resulting gestures. The connection beyond the built form is expressed through framed views outward, where each room has its own varied and unique relationship beyond the internal home experience.

Interwoven throughout are elements of compression and release, where varying heights play with open and more intimate volumes to subtly hint at scale and functionality, in their own nuanced way. Weighted to its site through the masonry form, the home’s deliberate openings offer an element of balance, adding to the sense of calm. The restraint in select materials together with the use of textured and raw surfaces allows an honesty of space and form to be expressed as its owners and guests move through the spaces. Filled with natural light both from above and through its vertical openings, the spaces become likewise animated in response to climatic changes and at various times throughout the day.

The connection beyond the built form is expressed through framed views outward, where each room has its own varied and unique relationship beyond the internal home experience.

Measured in its connections, House Around a Pond uses openings and subtle shifts in volume to create a series of reflective moments. Through control of light and the limiting of materiality, Carr has created a home of restful respite, wholly focused on its connection to nature.