Ask anyone to guess how many bedrooms there are in this new-build Melbourne home and few would answer two. Dig into the story of its creation, however, and it is just one of the many idiosyncrasies that make it special. Designed by Kon Karakolis, director of Enth Degree Architecture, for his brother Michael, the founder and creative director of terrazzo expert Fibonacci, this is a project that, at its core, is all about a love for family and friends.
‘From day dot there was an emphasis on the communal spaces,’ recalls Mardi Doherty, director of Studio Doherty who, along with associate and designer Phoebe Lipscombe, was tasked with creating this home’s memorable interior.
‘Michael and his wife Lidija both have big families,’ says Mardi with a smile. ‘They told us that they really like each other – they want to spend time together!’ That is why there’s a giant conversation pit on the ground floor, lined with Patricia Urquiola’s cosy ‘Tufty-Time’ sofa for B&B Italia.
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‘It is an unusual decision,’ admits Mardi, discussing the home’s division of public and private spaces, ‘but I remember Michael saying that you can’t design a home for resale. He wanted the house to be all about them.’
Mission accomplished. This is a home that proudly proclaims its full-volume personality. That said, outside observers may have expected the Fibonacci founder’s house to be more of a love letter to terrazzo. It is present, of course (two new designs were created specially for this house), but confined mainly to the floors. ‘He didn’t want people to walk in and say, “Oh, that’s Mr and Mrs Fibonacci’s place,”’ explains Mardi. Michael also didn’t want to use any natural stone, preferring Mardi and Phoebe to think outside of the box when it came to material choices.
Michael’s common refrain of ‘Girls, kook it up!’ rang in their ears as they strove for the unexpected and fabulous. There’s the kitchen, clad in a seamless skin of elephant-grey tiles from DTile – ‘like a giant mathematical puzzle,’ marvels Mardi – or the apple-green tiling in the main ensuite bathroom, which is so precise it has an almost hyper-real quality.
‘When we first stepped into that space, it was overwhelming,’ says Phoebe. ‘We work with 3D rendering, so when we walk into a room we often feel like we’ve been there before, but this exceeded expectations. It has real zing.’
The furniture choices, too, pass the kookiness test. Influenced by mid-century Palm Springs and the audacious designs of the 1980s, the pieces include a mix of the contemporary and the vintage – from an original ‘Super-Elliptical’ dining table by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen to Francesco Binfaré’s ‘On the Rocks’ sofa from Edra. This blend of inspiration was something Michael and Lidija shared with Mardi and Phoebe.
It was a useful coincidence that Mardi, upon taking on this project, had recently returned from a trip to California. ‘I had been there on an architectural tour,’ she tells us, but it was the historic Morse House (designed in the 1960s by Dan Palmer and William Krisel), whose current owners she was lucky enough to be introduced to by a photographer friend, that left the biggest impression. ‘It had only one or two bedrooms and the whole focus of the building was around the swimming pool, with its own bar, that you could wade into from the lounge. It was all about generosity to friends and family, and really resonated with the way Lidija and Michael live.’
Even the photoshoot for this feature ended in an open invitation for everyone to stay for dinner. It’s understandable: this is a warm, welcoming home that’s made for natural hosts. ‘Lidija quite likes having people over and seeing their immediate reaction to the place,’ Phoebe tells us with a smirk. ‘Sometimes, she can tell that they just think, “What is going on here?”, but she loves that!’ For her and Michael, it’s just perfect. studiodoherty.com.au; fibonacci.com.au; enth.com.au
