From Dwell writer Mimi Zeiger: “Architects John Wilkin and Susanne Pini spent five years transforming their long and narrow ‘semi’ — Australian parlance for a single building split in two by a party wall — into a 1,200-square-foot Japanese-inspired retreat. The designers studied Japanese architecture while at university, and Pini once worked for a company that imported antique Japanese furniture, so the pair not only felt drawn to Eastern aesthetics (particularly Japanese design’s ‘compactness and lightness,’ says Pini) but also to a slow, cumulative approach to renovation and woodworking.
“Crafted out of hoop pine plywood, the cabinetry makes use of every inch of the limited space. In Tom’s room, a new bay window faces onto the road. It doubles as a guest bed and a window seat with hidden storage space inside. The architects deliberately chose natural materials like wood and leather for their warm tones and texture, in spite of the fact that in wet, high-traffic areas the surfaces would quickly wear and darken. For Pini, weathering is a welcome part of the home’s design, a chance for the passing of time to be expressed. It’s a case study in wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic precept in which beauty is beheld in the incomplete and unrefined.” Full article with photo gallery here.
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