Margie’s Dream

by Architects Ink

Margie’s Dream involved the restoration of a sandstone villa and an addition to the rear. Our client sought a Mediterranean resort style home and lifestyle for the family. The site in leafy College Park, sits alongside other historic homes. As part of the restoration, carefully detailed joinery, white walls and marble wet areas, compliment traditional elements and hint of what is to come. Beyond the Villa there is not so much an addition, as a division of the remaining site. The home is predominantly on a single level with a cellar, basement, roof garden and pool. Site use is maximised by building on three boundaries. To keep it neighbour friendly, walls are capped at fence height which is achieved by partially burying  the ‘addition’. You can no longer walk around the house; you are compelled to walk through it. Four courtyards draw on ancient principals to capture the light and the passing of time. They enable the spaces to connect and flow, from old to new, indoor to outdoor and from room to room. These courtyards are habitable in themselves and provide spaces to suit the occupants needs. There is a point where you can stand at the threshold between the villa and the ‘addition’, interfacing with spaces below, above and beyond. Courtyards either side of this point, act as a transition link between old and new. Having space between the two, allows you to see the old house from the new, and the new from the old. Moving from the traditional Villa into the light of the link and ‘addition’, there is a play with volumes; compression followed by release, non habitable to habitable, a repeating theme throughout.

The quest to blur the line between indoors and outdoors continues with one floor finish throughout, limestone tiles flow inside and out, upstairs, downstairs and into the pool. The solid stippled walls extend externally and internally, and large floor to ceiling frameless glass windows are virtually invisible. The same blurring also occurs vertically, with ceilings ranging from very low, double height to missing altogether. The slightly raised pool runs the full width of the block past the main wing walls of the living area. From inside you cannot see the pool ends, nor how wide the site is, giving it a sense of infinity. The white walls serve as a canvas for evolving shadows from the courtyards, openings, and the borrowed landscape of the surrounding trees, they also absorb and reflect the natural colour changes across the day, from early morning cool blues to the warm orange tones at dusk. The ’addition’ is unashamedly refined and white, counterbalanced with warm natural stone. The mood is peaceful, tranquil and calming. It offers seclusion and solitude to retreat and reflect. In the words of the Owners: “Our home allows us to forget about the world’s imperfections. The use of restrained elements; stone, glass and whitewashed walls enable us to appreciate how beautiful and tranquil simplicity can be”.