When an interior design project perfectly meets the clients’ needs you have the ultimate successful result. That’s the case of Sidney’s Spiegel Haus by architecture and interior design studio Carter Williamson Architects based in Summer Hill, Australia. Synergy is probably the word that best defines this work: after communicating their brief, the clients were largely prepared to entrust the studio with the vision for their home. This gave the designers the chance to take ideas that the practice had been exploring for many years and to see them resolved. The use of mirrors to bring light into a deep, square plan was something the studio’d suggested to a number of clients in the past but they’d never been installed. At the Spiegel Haus the namesake mirrors line the slot void and bring light into the heart of the plan, providing happen-chance views of the trees and sky beyond and casting diaphanous trails of light along the walls and onto the polished concrete floors.

The mirror-lined void above spatially divides the living and dining spaces without the need for walls. On the upper floor it cleaves the main bedroom suite from the children’s bedrooms. Moreover, the studio doubles as study, future teenage retreat and home-away-from-home for a string of international visitors, accommodating overlapping programs to minimise material and spatial wastage. The spatial rigor and basement buried below the watertable left room for a generous yard and an outdoor room that makes the most of Sydney’s temperate climate. With frequent guests and a house that operates across three levels, grey-ironbark was used to line and demarcate the circulation spaces. The sculptural timber stair sits at the heart of the home, bleeding out at each floor to define the path of movement. Spiegel House is the perfect place where to enjoy the more intimate, peaceful yet convivial side of life without even getting out of town.

INFO: www.carterwilliamson.com

PHOTO COURTESY: Brett Boardman