Rather than adding space, Atrium House became an opportunity to reimagine the home - one that balances generosity with restraint.

The house is conceived as a single level dwelling aligned with the rear alfresco and pool, allowing living spaces to open seamlessly to the north. A discrete garage below enables the main floor to sit on an elevated platform, creating a gentle rise from the street that guides visitors upward through the landscape and into the home.

Entertaining plays a central role in the plan, with fluid connections between kitchen, dining, living and outdoor spaces supporting large family gatherings while maintaining calm, intuitive circulation.

Architecture & Design: Can you describe the initial vision for this project and how it evolved over time?

Di Bartolo Architects Director Marco Di Bartolo: The project actually began quite modestly, as an extension to an existing post war clinker brick house that was intended to support the family’s lifestyle over time. As the clients’ circumstances changed, particularly with the prospect of a growing family, the brief naturally evolved.

What initially felt like an additive exercise to an existing home, quickly became an opportunity to rethink the house in its entirety and start from a clean slate, to create a new, much more cohesive, unified home.

As the design developed, three key ideas came to define the project: the garden, the family, and the arrival experience. These principles guided both the planning and the emotional experience of the house, ultimately leading to the introduction of an internal atrium as the main organisational element.

Over time, the home became a choreographed sequence — moving from street to courtyard to living spaces — where everyday family life is balanced with moments of ritual, pause and generosity.

What were the biggest challenges you faced during the design and construction phases, and how did you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges was accommodating the clients’ desire for single level living on a site with a natural slope. Rather than flattening the land or fighting against it, we chose to work with the site conditions.

The garage was tucked discreetly beneath the main floor, allowing the primary living spaces to sit comfortably at the same level as the rear garden, alfresco and pool.

It was also essential that the house didn’t read from the street as something perched above a garage. We addressed this through careful landscape integration and by allowing the architecture to rise gently from the street — so the ground plane itself feels like it’s lifting you towards the entry.

A close and collaborative relationship with the Landscape architects – Mint Design, and the builders - Alternative Construction was critical here, helping us refine these ideas into a structure that was both buildable and true to the architectural intent, without compromising performance or clarity.

How did you ensure that the project met the client’s needs and expectations?

From the outset, we spent a lot of time understanding how the family lived. With four children and a strong culture of entertaining, the house needed to support both lively gatherings and quieter, more intimate moments. This led us to prioritise strong connections between the kitchen, dining, living and outdoor areas, so spaces could flex easily depending on how the house was being used.

Equally important were comfort, sustainability and long term performance. These principles informed many of the technical decisions across the project — from solar generation and water storage to hydronic heating and high performing insulated double-glazed units. Together, these systems ensure the home feels comfortable year round and operates as a durable, efficient and nurturing environment for family life, now and into the future.

Were there any unique or innovative techniques or materials used in this project?

One of the most meaningful material decisions was the reuse of the original home’s clinker bricks. Rather than removing that history, we saw an opportunity to embed material memory into the new architecture while also reducing waste. The bricks are reinterpreted as vertical elements, intersected by lighter horizontal layers of steel, timber and glass, creating a dialogue between solidity and openness.

From a construction perspective, we adopted a lightweight structure enhanced with Hebel PowerFloor. This allowed us to achieve thermal mass and acoustic comfort without the cost and rigidity of a traditional concrete slab. Internally, features like the raked ceiling, south facing highlight windows bring light, movement and a sense of seasonality into the living spaces.

A suspended stainless steel trellis over the internal atrium above a reflective pond, provides support to suspended greenery and a gentle motion of the water adds an aura of calm. You are both outside, yet inside a private sanctuary.

How does this project fit into your broader portfolio and design philosophy?

Atrium House captures what we strive for as a practice — creating tactile, robust and well crafted spaces that harness natural light, sit comfortably within their landscape, and foster a sense of calm. Rather than thinking of the house as a singular object, we approached it as a layered spatial experience shaped by materiality, movement and light.

Architecture and landscape are inseparable throughout the project. Reclaimed clinker bricks and warm timber elements ground the home materially, while the internal courtyard, raked ceilings and framed treetop views draw landscape and daylight deep inside. The result is a home that feels solid and enduring, yet soft and atmospheric at the same time.

Like many of our projects, Atrium House is experienced as a journey. The gradual movement from street to courtyard to living spaces creates a clear sense of arrival and repose, allowing daily life to unfold in a way that feels intuitive and calm.

In that sense, the project sits comfortably within our broader body of work — architecture that’s deeply connected to place, responsive to light, and designed for long term belonging.

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