A Colorful and Chic Private Home Full of Art in Melbourne, Australia

Dowel House is a colorful private home located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was designed by FMD Architects, this beautiful house offers such a unique feature with the central study to be flexible as third bedroom or study.

Dowel House by FMD Architects

The brief was to create refurbish the existing single fronted terrace internally. The layout remained as is, with the central study to flexible to as 3rd bedroom or study. A clerestory skylight was to remain but be furbished to become a point of focus over the dining area.

Our design strategy is always to celebrate the particularities of the project.While exploring the functional opportunities of opening and closing the windows in the skylight as well as incorporating shading devices, the use of the timber dowel offered an opportunity to become the rod to open the louvres as well as a decorative chandelier over the dining table. The chandelier can be reconfigured, with the coloured elements highlighting which dowels can be removed and repositioned to change to dowel display.

The use of the dowel then extended to is application within the kitchen as an art display device, shelving and support legs for the concrete benches. The dowels are also used as display ledges for the client’s extensive art collection, doors pulls, towels rails and wall hooks amongst many other things. The colours selected within the interior have been drawn from the collection to personalise the design response. These colours are applied to the dowels within the chandelier as well as dowel elements which punctuate the space.

The circular cut-outs featured in the sliding study wall panel, robes and panelling to the skylight and the TV cupboard also repeat the dowel motif throughout the spaces.

The dowel establishes a consistent design approach through each space, while varying its function in each and every space. This humble material is elevated to higher level, as it blurs the boundaries between the functional, the decorative and art. The series of spaces create a holistic yet diverse experience between each other in constant dialogue with the ever changing art collection on display.