Displaying posts labeled "Outdoors"

The rain is bucketing down here. A month’s rain will fall in one day as an ex tropical cyclone winds slowly down the coast. Schools are closed and even the government has sent non essential staff home. (I can’t complain as many to the north of me have lost houses and livelihoods as the cyclone made landfall.) There is a silver lining to all this water falling from the skies. My garden will drink it in, the grass will turn green and my water tanks will overflow. With all this promised bounty to come I’m daydreaming of stylish urban gardens like this new design in inner-Sydney Leichardt by Adam Robinson Design in collaboration with Garden Society.

Photography by Natalie Hunfalvay

“Purposefully lo-fi, The Retreat embraces a low-tech aesthetic towards the operation of the building itself, fully embodying the idea of retreat and slowing down. Celebrating craftsmanship and integrity of materiality instead of technology, every wall of the building have been designed to contain components that manually fold, open and close to manipulate the space and transform the program of the building.”

More and more these days I don’t need large and ostentatious. I don’t need transplanted and often inappropriate design styles. I do need quality and craftsmanship, beauty and a sense of purpose and place. I do need a slow building for slow living. I would love this multi-use private retreat/studio, not as a stylish folly but as my home. (I’d just need a storage shed conveniently out of sight or the willpower to divest myself of the treasure and junk I have accumulated over the years.) The Retreat in Balnarring, Victoria by Branch Studio Architects.

Photography by Peter Clarke

Robert Passal via this post

Eckersley Garden Architecture from this post

Secret Gardens from this post

Chad McPhail from this post

Secret Gardens from this post

Colwell Shelor from this post

Camellas-Lloret from this post

Technè Architecture + Interior Design from this post

Palomba Serafini Associati from this post

GCG Architectes from this post

SPAN Architecture from this post

Marylou Sobel from this post

Luis Galliussi from this post

Fella Villas from this post

Durham House from this house

Luxe Houses from this post

Pepo Botanic Design from this post

Secret Gardens from this post

Neil Architecture from this post

Myers Ellyett  from this post

Billabong (BIL-ə-bong) – an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course.

A swimming pond at the end of the garden? Yes please. Even better if it doesn’t have a slimy bottom 😉 This beautifully crafted pool and surrounding garden are by Sydney-based Landart Landscapes. Love the cantilevered boardwalk perfect for that running jump into the cool waiting water.

Friday at last, the end of the working week and I couldn’t think of a better place to kick off my shoes, collapse on the couch and indulge in a chilled wine or two than this fabulous courtyard by Marylou Sobel. The rest of the Rose Bay, Sydney house is pretty special too but you’ll have to head over to the website to check it out. Then come back and join me in a drink.