Compact with plenty of light and air

The Australian firm Kavellaris Urban Design seems to love letting the out of doors in as much as I do, but they are doing in in an urban context. The Perforated House has the added, conceptual *gimmick of fanciful panels that create a façade with graphic elements typical of a 'terrace house' which is by and large the style of the surrounding neighborhood. By day, the building is heavy and reflective but by night inverts to a soft, translucent, permeable light box. KUD's website has quite an in depth explanation of what they were working to achieve and why, but I just love how the living space opens up – front to back – like a present, or a flower in the sun.


KUD's Gold Street House, which I like better and could definitely see myself living in, (me, in a city?!), is so compact but has an airy lightness to it, and again, opens up from front to back. It's a little hard to tell from the website, but it seems the shotgun layout gets a breather from a curved wall which gently separates bedrooms from the rest of the living spaces – the inside of the volume is the bathroom, which get big points from me, too, for the design of the shower: no shower curtain or hard-to-keep-clean glass partition. Reminds me a little of Philip Johnson's shower in his glass house. There, the inside of the cylindrical volume is the bathroom, and scooped into the outside of it is the fireplace. – GF
*not meant in a mean way...