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Indigo Slam by Smart Design Studio
A decade on from when the first brick was laid, Indigo Slam still intrigues and resonates with a quiet and precise power.
A monolithic beacon of calm in the buzzy hub of Chippendale on the edge of Sydney’s CBD, the home of philanthropist and businesswoman Judith Neilson demands attention, whether it’s to observe the shadows cast upon its concrete facade, admire its seamless interplay of geometric shapes or spot the recessed hand-cranked aluminium and timber shutters.
Such vision has garnered countless industry accolades for firm Smart Design Studio, culminating in the jewel of Australian architectural feats: the Robin Boyd Award in 2016. Reflecting on the significance of Indigo Slam – a project he started designing nearly 13 years ago – principal William Smart recalls the shock of the initial conversation with its formidable client. “I knew it when Judith called and said, ‘I want to build a house. I’d love to work with you, but you have to get moving because if you don’t do it, then I’m going to call Frank Gehry.’”
“That was a clue to what the building needed to be from her perspective: it couldn’t be shy, retiring, polite and conservative,” Smart continues. “My job was to channel that, but I absolutely knew at the time that this was that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that came my way to build something extraordinary.”
Integral to this delicacy is using natural light as a decorative element, centring on its flow through the space, starting from the coved vestibule that opens to a grand stair that theoretically can accommodate a horse (as per brief), with those hand-cranked blinds capturing and filtering changing light from day to night, summer to autumn and beyond. “What we were conscious of was just trying to almost amplify the light in the space,” says Smart. “You walk in and feel the light is beautiful, and it builds upon that idea of being delicate, but it’s also a lot of reflective light; we thought about the shadows in the rooms and how they would fall on the floor.”
Coaxing light evokes a certain atmosphere particular to a space, an idea that filters through the entirety of Indigo Slam. Take for instance a top-level living area that derives light from three different sources: a north-facing window, a south-facing window and a ceiling-height light scoop. “When you combine those light sources, you get a very soft, dreamy light, and the shadows are very light,” says Smart. “When you look at a piece of furniture on the floor, it’s almost like it’s floating because it’s just sitting in a low level of light.”
Integral to this delicacy is using natural light as a decorative element, centring on its flow through the space, starting from the coved vestibule that opens to a grand stair that theoretically can accommodate a horse (as per brief), with those hand-cranked blinds capturing and filtering changing light from day to night, summer to autumn and beyond. “What we were conscious of was just trying to almost amplify the light in the space,” says Smart. “You walk in and feel the light is beautiful, and it builds upon that idea of being delicate, but it’s also a lot of reflective light; we thought about the shadows in the rooms and how they would fall on the floor.”
Coaxing light evokes a certain atmosphere particular to a space, an idea that filters through the entirety of Indigo Slam. Take for instance a top-level living area that derives light from three different sources: a north-facing window, a south-facing window and a ceiling-height light scoop. “When you combine those light sources, you get a very soft, dreamy light, and the shadows are very light,” says Smart. “When you look at a piece of furniture on the floor, it’s almost like it’s floating because it’s just sitting in a low level of light.”
A key component in harnessing the delicacy of light is perhaps the most challenging element of the project: manually operated 300-millimetre-thick timber and aluminium vertical shutters that control views and privacy, as well as natural airflow and ventilation. “I thought halfway into it, I almost wish I hadn’t started this,” recalls Smart. “It probably took maybe a whole year to work it all out, to design and sketch it.” The exercise has proven fruitful, with different iterations in other Smart Design Studio projects, but its impact on Indigo Slam is nothing short of extraordinary. “At the end, you look at it and it’s that very fine layer that lifts the house from being too brutal and its handmade quality comes through, making it an incredibly beautiful part of the project.”
This element of delicacy extends to even how Indigo Slam first came into being, with Smart tearing a piece of paper in the form of a T with certain folds and bends emulating what blade walls could protrude and curve in a monastic space with 14-metre-high ceilings. “You see this in the stair hall with the sculpted barrel vault, and then it peels flat to let the light in down one wall, in through another one and down another one,” he says. “It’s not until you walk through the house you see it’s the same motif repeated at different scales. And it gives it a sense of intimacy and a special level of detail, but it brings it all together as one.”
Architecture and interior design by Smart Design Studio. Build by A J Bristow and Sons. Landscape design by Fieldwork.
