Josh Abrahams House
Josh Abrahams is addicted to base, pretty young women and his new home. Designed initially as a hall that could house a cricket match, it morphed into something more like the interior of a violin. Josh doesn’t like cricket but he does have a magnificent baby grand that will take the place of the pitch.
This house is also a memory. Josh grew up in his mothers house designed by Australian architect Alistair Knox who was heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. Josh wanted this feeling to continue – he knew it so it was safe. Clerestory windows and recycled Jarrah are strong characteristics of the Wright Knox Fahey lineage but they are punctured by idiosyncratic quirks.
A bit of techno, a bit silly, a bit of color, a bit of hearty beef? Fire going, tunes humming, fig tree out the window….bed’s not far away honey.
The plan is symmetrical and comprises the central sunken music space that is surrounded by an acoustic curtain – a bit like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz….peel it away and you see the real thing. Dirty laundry, last nights takeaway pizza boxes, some lacy knickers maybe if you’re lucky – but all the things of life spin off the central music space. The music infuses all, all infuses the music.
Look harder and you will see the space invader door handle, Adolf Loos inspired chandeliers, cheap as you like shower head and caroma taps, grandma’s tiles, granpas paintings and the sky dancing in from above.
This particular view shows the kitchen adjoining the music space. Glazed green tiles, concrete benchtop, recycled jarrah, lots of CD’s start to merge the programs within the house. All is connected. Areas are delineated by the heights in the floor. All areas share the same light, the same sounds. A house for a bachelor waiting for the bird to sing.
