Geometry class

Captivating curves and beguiling angles ensure this home in Melbourne's southeast is a welcoming and inviting presence.

- CHRIS PEARSON

The sweeping facade, moulded in brick and concrete, gives the first clue that this home is outside the box – in more ways than one. Sinuous curves and alluring angles beckon visitors through the gate, so little wonder its aptly named architects, Inarc, have dubbed it the Gathering Place. The owners, who welcome a steady flow of friends and family past the generous front door, would easily agree.

But the property wasn’t always so inviting. Drawn by the leafy area with its thriving sense of community, the couple signed on the dotted line in 2011, when a humble bungalow underutilised the site in Melbourne’s south-east. “The 1920s two-storey, rendered-brick house had undergone many changes over the years, but the interiors were still dark, lacked natural light and couldn’t cater for the client’s needs,” says Inarc Architects director Reno Rizzo, who took on the project with colleagues Andrew McLeod and John Gatip.

The owners rented out the property until eight years later when they asked the trio to design a dream home for them and their three children. “As well as the look of their projects, we were drawn to their attention to detail,” says the owner. And the brief? “We wanted open plan, with lots of natural light and the garden connected to as many rooms as possible.

And, equally importantly, sizeable spaces for dinners of up to 30 people, with the flexibility of a day-to-day dining table beside the kitchen and a more formal dining table that we could join up when the occasion arose.” For such entertaining, the areas had to be generous, but Inarc also had to include zones that could be sectioned off to create intimate, homely spaces once the guests had gone home.