Skinny concrete house in Melbourne designed by Oliver du Puy

Architect Oliver du Puy carefully designed all of the rooms of the house to celebrate the daily rituals of modern living. Pictured here, the bathroom.

(Image credit: Tom Ross)

By Harriet Thorpe

last updated 10 October 2022

in Features

In Melbourne, architect Oliver du Puy has slotted a concrete house into a slim piece of land stretching just 4.3m wide. Inspired by Tadao Ando and Patrick Bateman’s New York City apartment, the house is a restrained dwelling designed for a master of minimalism.

Inside, raw concrete walls and floors, skylights, and seamless interior architecture are the perfect quell for the jetlag of the London based owner; a keen meditator and insomniac, with a high stress job as a high frequency currency trader, who desired an house that could also be a remedy to his high intensity life.

Skinny house in Melbourne — The concrete facade of the 'Skinny House' designed by Oliver du Puy

Architect du Puy – who cut his teeth at Foster + Partners, Kengo Kuma and Junya Ishigami – started off by thinking about Tadao Ando’s early domestic work in Japan: ‘Much of Ando's early work, situated in urban areas, responded to chaotic surroundings by turning inward around courtyards protected by enclosing concrete walls, as exemplified by the Kidosaki House,’ he says.

Life at the trading desk too often forgets the basics of a healthy, considered life
Oliver du Puy

While the adaptive reuse project was confined by its site – a forgotten rear yard of a 19th century Victorian shop – it still finds ways to connect to nature. Interpreting the Japanese concept of ‘shinrin-yoku’ or forest bathing – a practice that links immersion in nature to good health – du Puy designed large skylights and apertures to connect the interiors to ‘time and nature’.

Interiors featuring chair by Faye Toogood — Living space featuring 'Roly Poly Chair', by Faye Toogood.

The grid-like concrete façade of the house is a barrier to the world beyond and a commanding monument. Large voids between connected concrete columns cast light onto the exposed concrete surfaces of the interior in an Ando-esque way.

‘The client, an atheist, and keen meditator, wanted a quiet and spiritual piece of architecture. The cross carries a complex iconography associated with sacrifice, atonement, redemption and resurrection. I have tried to evoke other associations such as: primitive ritual, equilibrium, and connection with one's own senses. Life at the trading desk, too often forgets the basics of a healthy, considered life,’ says du Puy.

Bedroom featuring 'Bamboletto' leather bed, by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia 1972.

To help with his client’s insomnia, du Puy made things as smooth and seamless as possible across the interiors where a simple palette of oak, concrete, stainless steel and Tinos Verde marble was used. Oak joinery makes interior transitions undetectable by moonlight; dimmable strip lighting recesses beneath the pelmets for measured light during moments of restlessness; and a kitchen sink made of a single slab of Carrara Marble is easy on tired eyes. Silence is built into the walls with double glazing and extensive insulation to block out all the sounds of the city.

While smooth surfaces can be wiped clean, and repentance might be granted at the altar of architecture, there’s nothing like a vitamin C-infused shower to cleanse you of your sins at the end of a long week – designed by du Puy to ‘improve overall wellbeing, stabilise mood and sharpen cognition’.

Shower with a green wall — ‘Tinos Verde Marble (Tinos Island, Greece) is used sparingly throughout the dwelling – giving a sense of refinement and calm to the entry and to wet shower areas,’ says du Puy. A Vitamin C-infused shower neutralises chlorine and enhance shower water with antioxidants.

Honed Carrara marble and oak joinery, with Vola tapware from Denmark

Living room with a sofa and large windows — The living space – featuring Net side table by Benjamin Hubert for Moroso; Coneco marble table from Marsotto; and sofa by Douglas and Bec

The bedroom with a bed and large windows — The bedroom space filled with light

Off-form concrete walls, cast with shadows from the exterior façade

Exterior of a house with lights on — The house viewed from the street at dusk

Garden space — Ground floor garden space

The concrete façade that frames the house and terrace below, offsetting the more private upper level of the house away from the street

Staircase — Oak stairs and joinery with polished concrete floor and white walls

Wooden door opening to a staircase — Door featuring Tinos Marble step detail

Wooden staircase with a shadow of the railing — Detail of the concrete flooring and oak stairs

Light casted from the skyline — Light cast from the skylights into the space below the stairs

Concrete details on the outside of the house — Concrete details of the external façade

Concrete pillars — Concrete details of the external façade

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Oliver du Puy website

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Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.

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