Down a lane behind a building that fronts a main road, perched on a small inner city patch, reaching for the sky is a box-like building. Back turned to the outside world it climbs up stairs and slowly unfurls through sliding doors and screens that can be raised to balconies with city glimpses. A perfect inner city pad. A retreat from the hustle and bustle but right in the action. Small house living in big style. Real estate staking in Richmond, Melbourne.Link here while it lasts.

I have real estate stalked so much these past few years that it has all become a blur of gorgeous home after gorgeous home. It’s a hard job but someone has to do it. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remember this house the first time round when it was for sale. Or I think I do. I often bookmark houses, excited that I have found them then promptly forget them as I find another and another. The original dropped. The new house offered up on desire to Inspire. The point of all this waffle? I think I may have posted this house in another incarnation… perhaps. The giveaway… there are two versions of the living room. Still a wonderful inwardly looking modern home. Link here while it lasts

New work from Argentinian architect Martín Gómez. Sitting firmly within its landscape it is a contemporary home of soaring voids and intimate spaces. Holistically embracing architecture, interior and landscape design this statement home turns its back on the street and looks reflectively inwards to its private lush garden providing refuge from the everyday world in a luxury setting. More see previous work by Martín Gómez Arquitectos here.

“We endeavour to create spaces that people want to spend time in. Spaces to relax in, rejuvenate in and enjoy, because that’s what gardens are about. They exist to make people happy.”

If I owned the pool in the first few pictures I’d be ecstatic. Bold contrasts, lush foliage and a glass edged pool transform a small inner city space into a tropical retreat. Fabulous urban gardens by Sydney landscape firm Garden Life.

Mimicking the ancient rocks of the Blue Mountains is a house of concrete block, timber and stone left to weather. It rises like a monolith or a rocky outcrop from the sheep paddocks providing shelter from the elements, a place to retreat. The fireplace is central to the idea of hearth and home, protection and warmth. “Mending Wall” (from a line in a Frost poem) is by Australian firm BVN Architecture via World Buildings Directory.

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