Set back from the predominant street frontage and sitting delicately on its site, Nick Kent’s new house in Bondi doesn’t shy away from its modernist intent. In fact, it wears its architectural ambition proudly, a shimmering presence inserted into the disparate context of a relatively busy suburban street. Among a rogue’s gallery of housing types – bastardised bungalows, infill flats and “camelback” cottages – the house makes no attempt to blend in, choosing clarity over camouflage.
The streetscape, as Nick puts it, had “little cohesion, consistency or care,” and this lack of order has paradoxically given him the freedom to write a new rule book. Instead of the awkward pastiche and poor proportions seen elsewhere, this house steps back – literally and conceptually – to offer something quieter, more refined.…
