VISION 23 — MAGIC BOX
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ARC
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Vision’s Peter Hyatt spoke with Matthew Pullinger about
the potential for neighborhood generosity and the fear of
designing his very own family home:
Was it tough as your own client—you had to listen and
answer to yourself?
Absolutely. It was amongst the most challenging projects
I’ve ever taken on. It represents the intersection between
my professional and personal worlds. In a way, the design
of the architect’s own home is a milestone in any career. In
the personal realm, it represents a major, one-off, special
investment. You really want to do it once and do it well.
How much of this can be seen as a design confessional?
Not so much a confession, but it is very testing to be
subject to the process of peer scrutiny. When it came
to designing my own house, I found it very hard to be as
deliberate and certain in decision-making as when working
with clients. Once complete though, I felt great anxiety
about opening it to peer review and scrutiny.
That was a very humbling experience.
Courtyard houses are traditional around the
Mediterranean and Africa, while Australian houses
have more typically made the veranda its own.
This really adopts the courtyard so un-typical of
your Victorian-era neighbours.
View from kitchen through to street. Note
stackable doors and fully retracted street-front
glazing for breezes.