Idling in Melbourne’s Bayside, Sussex Residence was the “perfect blank canvas,” says Shareen Joel, founder of her eponymous multi-disciplinary design practice. With strong architectural foundations, the task for Joel and collaborator, Joyce Architects founder Tarryn Joyce, was to inject textural warmth and soul. A light-filled family home, the redesign draws on the clients’ Mediterranean heritage and travels, specifically “Mediterranean-inspired principles of light and deep connection to landscape,” Joel explains.
Joel’s approach “centres on essentialism, and subtraction—human-centered design achieved through simplicity,” she explains. This seed of restraint was planted early during automotive and industrial design training. Her Ford Motor Company mentors emphasised, “Good design is not about what you add in but what you leave out.” An admirer of Le Corbusier and Achille Castiglioni, Joel’s unique lens and expertise now spans architecture, interior, landscape and furniture design. “Restraint and ‘simple’ design are hard to achieve and require incredible detail and discipline,” Joel says.
Inside Sussex Residence, the fruits of Joel’s design ethos beam through classic proportions and craftsmanship. A museum-like entrance and a gestural, ribboning staircase, announce that light itself is a core design material of this home. Tadao Ando-inspired, light is considered a “soft, living presence,” Joel notes.
Natural oak blankets the interiors, making a single, coherent surface of cabinetry, walls and furnishings. Travertine bathrooms and limestone floors provide the tactility, the natural landscape underfoot and hand. “What has always interested me in projects is seamless integration and design, even whilst using such contrasting materials,” Joel says. These broad, yet precise strokes of materiality contextualise characterful art and collectible design pieces.
Oak translates from the communal kitchen to the quiet study where a hand-carved and brushed desk illustrates detailing shaped into the broader material vision. Outdoors, the renovation comprises the pool house bathroom, an outdoor commercial-style kitchen befitting the clients’ culinary love, alfresco dining and thematic landscaping: wisteria, thyme, olive and citrus trees.
As Sussex Residence brings the bliss of holidays home, Joel reflects, “What emerges is a house of quiet order and subtle richness.” It’s a design that speaks to the depth of personality and ease achieved through the rigours of design integration and the discerning merits of restraint.
