Toorak Residence
Toorak, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Toorak Residence is a family home drawn almost entirely in curves: the roof lines sweep out over the garden, the living rooms follow a long wall of curved glass, and the shelving bends to meet it. Ai Republic designed the interiors, and Lucretia supplied the lighting for the whole house, from a bespoke Pharaoh pendant in each living and dining space to the architectural lighting set into the ceilings and joinery.
A house with this much curved glass gives a lighting scheme very few straight lines to work against. The ceilings follow the glazing, the rooms open into one another, and a pendant that depends on hard geometry would sit awkwardly in rooms like these.
The pendants and the living room wall lights come from one series, Pharaoh, whose crystal rings and loops are made to order for each room, the bathrooms move to textured glass with Running Water, and the architectural lighting is kept in the ceilings and the joinery so the curves of the house and Ai Republic's interiors stay the first thing you notice.
One series, a different shape in every room
Each of the main living and dining spaces has its own Pharaoh pendant, shaped to the room it hangs in. Above the long dining table a horizontal infinity loop runs most of the length of the top, in the living rooms the rings close into interlocking circles, and in the formal dining room they rise in a spiral against the timber shelving.
Pharaoh is made to order, with crystal set into an electroplated metal frame and each piece customised in size, finish and ring configuration. That is what allowed one series to run through the whole house while every pendant was sized to its own room and table, down to the frame, which is finished in gold above the round table beside the walnut kitchen.
Through the living and dining rooms
From crystal to textured glass
On the living room walls, Pharaoh wall lights carry the crystal of the pendants down to eye level in a slim curved blade, so the series reads through each room from the ceiling to the wall.
In the bathrooms the light moves from crystal to glass. Running Water wall lamps are mounted vertically, beside the vanity mirror in the bathroom and in pairs along the ensuite wall, each one a slim blade of European-imported textured glass, handcrafted to emulate the fluid movement of flowing water and natural stone patterns. Once lit, each glass blade displays organic ripples and layered tones, which sit easily against the marble, the mosaic tile and the timber vanities around it.
Kept in the ceilings and the joinery
Behind the decorative pieces sits an architectural layer that is meant to go unnoticed. Recessed downlights are set into plain white ceilings through the living spaces and bedrooms, and in the main bedroom a concealed LED line washes down the wall from a recess above the bed head.
In the dining room the light is built into the walnut shelving, so the joinery reads as lit from within rather than lit from the ceiling. Keeping this layer in the ceilings and the joinery means the fittings you actually see in each room are the ones meant to be seen.
Specified in this project
Photographs of the house
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