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Here’s the score – we’ve been alerted to this, a slice of classic, Sydney Mid-Century Modern domesticity (architect as yet unknown**) – in grave danger. We hear/tell that the market audience for this property so far has consisted of self-styled renovators armed with plenty of cash and a diploma from the infamous Channel Nine School of Design who, as such, don’t ‘do’ architecture and certainly don’t know concrete block. They cannot appreciate nor recognise a material expressly chosen for its earthly countenance, its raw beauty or the warm (yes, we said warm) embrace of its stability when thoughtfully utlised and paired with similarly natural timbers and walls of glass. Concrete block for these buyers is something dad’s mate used to knock up a shed in the 70s. It’s a bedroom in a juvenile complex. It’s something which must be done away with, most likely and simply by the crime-trend we call rendering. Well, we declare, as is our mantra, this home is not for rendering. This residence cries out for someone who knows this to be the truth and will leave well enough alone to be relished au naturel, as its intelligent and creative designer intended. Send it on people, hook someone in for we all know, by any metric, it will be worth more in the future if you do.
Many thanks to Instagrammer (and Modernist Australian) @95bianchi for the extra pics and the heads up!
**Update** We have been contacted by the daughter of the original owners who dearly would like this to fall into respectiful hands. She has also advised the architects – Schmaehling and Partners – Year – 1962 and a PDF outlining its design origins with a remarkable elevation drawing to boot!
