Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login What if your home was not just your castle – a refuge for you and your family – but also a sculptural addition to the streetscape? That’s the sort of thought that crossed architect Michael Leeton’s mind when responding to a brief to create an inner-suburban Melbourne home for a couple with two children. “We wanted to break down the public/private threshold and create a building that would also function as a neighbourhood asset,” he says.
“So, we began by removing the original fence, opening the block up so the house could engage with the street.” Luna House, a contemporary boulder-like residence that engages with its location. Sharyn Cairns That means passersby can enjoy the decidedly sculptural aspect of the building – a bulbous, boulder-like form the architect likens to “a piece of archaeology, something that’s been dug out of the ground rather than just built upon it”.
An effect that will be accentuated as the house ages since it has been coated in an oxide concrete render, a “live finish” that will “gracefully patina and streak”, as Leeton puts it, over time. Sunscreens crafted from slender eucalyptus branches add to this elemental allure. A few suburbs away, in tony Toorak, another two-storey family home sits sentinel to the street; its stoic rows of concrete columns dramatically d.
