Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 52 i est living magazine

LOCATION Los Angeles, California, North America Tucked away in the Santa Monica Mountains, with unobstructed views stretching across the Pacific Ocean, Saddle Peak House was originally designed by architect Michael Sant of the eponymous Californian studio as his own personal retreat. Shortly thereafter, LA-based film producer and design enthusiast Goktug Sarioz purchased the home and opened its doors to the public, offering a destination where people could come and appreciate the role of architecture in deepening our connection to nature. “Why create beautiful architecture if not to share it?" Goktug says. To access Saddle Peak, located just 30 minutes from Santa Monica, one meanders through a series of winding canyons, ascending to the 2,500-feet-high ridge where the home is perched. “The journey up to Saddle Peak is in itself very…

UME ARCHITECTURE James Garden Pavilion Meanjin / Brisbane, Australia Designed by Brisbane-based architecture firm UME Architecture, the James Garden Pavilion challenges the idea of the typical subtropical suburban pool. The project was born from a desire to capitalise on an outdoor space and its impressive city views, leading UME Architecture to a series of ‘landscaped interventions’: a pool and pavilion surrounded by a garden, equipped with a barbeque, firepit and sundeck. “The project allows one to engage with all the elements – fire, earth, water and air,” UME Architecture principal Craig Channon says. UME Architecture deliberately chose to combine structure and finish, expressed through raw and unadorned concrete geometric forms that mediate a balance between strength and simplicity. Reminiscent of mid-20th-century Brutalist Mexico, the James Garden Pavilion creates spaces for…

FABIAN MARTINEZ Fabian Martinez is a photographer and visual artist based in Mexico City. As a photographer, Fabian is known for his particular style: elegant, simple and often melancholic. For the past five years, Martinez has focused on photographing well-known architects, gallerists, interior designers and artists and their work. In this issue, Fabian captures the Mexican nature retreat Casa Cometa by Gabriela Carrillo and Mauricio Rocha. @fabianml HOLLY BEADLE Since joining the est living editorial team in early 2022, Holly has penned countless pieces on exceptional architecture, design and products for estliving.com and in the past nine issues of est magazine. The senior writer and digital content creator speaks with LA-based designer Brigette Romanek on the design of Gwyneth Paltro’s home and Melbourne designer Meredith Nettleton on her own renovation…

LOCATION Cadigal Country/Sydney, Australia A couple enthusiastic about the notion of a ‘lock and leave’ home for the new chapter in their lives engaged leading interior design studio Arent&Pyke to transform an existing apartment into a place where they could entertain family and friends with introspective spaces in which they could indulge their extra free time. Occupying a rectangular floorplan within the entire third level of a boutique apartment block, Arent&Pyke avoided unnecessary structural interventions given the generous proportions and fluid integration of the rooms, opting to transform two of the apartment’s four bedrooms into a study for each of the couple, while also retaining the original limestone floors. Responding to their client’s request to ‘relieve the apartment’s dominant creams and browns, plus cold steel grey kitchen tones,’ the studio…

LOCATION Mazunte, Mexico Punta Cometa is a community nature reserve on the southern edge of Oaxaca, Mexico. Taking its name from a mountain that juts out into the Pacific Ocean, it’s a place of both environmental and pre-Hispanic historical significance. “You can see the sunrise and sunset between the steep slopes, the imposing sea, and the arrival of flocks of migratory birds,” architect Gabriela Carrillo says, who was approached alongside architect Mauricio Rocha, to design a retreat-like home for a prominent hotelier in the town of Mazunte that borders the National Park. Gabriela describes the location for their Casa Cometa project as a medium-sized jungle that loses its leaves in the dry season and becomes ‘lush and exuberant’ in the rainy season. The architects, who’ve worked together for 19 years,…

LOCATION Gadigal Country / Sydney, Australia ARCHITECTURE Allied_Office Set within the grounds of an 1879 Captain’s House with a rich, recorded history, it reflected something of the fluctuations of the Sydney economy: prosperity to poverty, ownership to tenanted, including a time as a residential facility for patients with mental health issues, complete with a Yurt in the backyard. The current owners acquired the heritage-listed Captain’s House in 2013. They engaged heritage specialists Hector Abrahams Architects to revitalise the house and Allied_Office to create the pool, boatshed and harbour connections. “We had a clear demarcation of responsibilities, and it worked well, as our clients were prescriptive about the siting of the pool and its dimensions – it needed to be precisely quarter-Olympic-size,” Allied_Office principal Telly Theodore says. They also wanted to…

LOCATION Gadigal Country/Sydney, Australia When Simone and Justin Drape bought the existing house ten years ago, they ignored how dark and uninspiring it was, safe in the knowledge that they would one day build an airy and bright house for their young family within a 100-metre walk along a leafy pathway to the beach. They researched suitable architects, settling on Andrew Burges because of his quiet, calm demeanour, rigorously considerate approach and apparent lack of ego. They loved his preference for honest, tactile materials within a clean, modern architectural style, “We didn’t want anything artificial or faux,” Simone says. “We wanted every material to speak for itself and be durable, straightforward and real.” Simone and Justin are both creative, working in the advertising, media and design industry. While they had…

LOCATION London, England There’s nothing more exciting for a designer than developing an interior around a striking artwork. Multi-disciplinary global design studio Banda found themselves in this unique position when an avid art collector whose collection includes paintings, photography and sculpture by the likes of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin engaged them. “We were lucky to have full access to the client’s collection of incredible pieces collected from far and wide,” Banda founder and creative director Edo Mapelli Mozzi says. The property was not without innate assets. The five-storey Victorian townhouse has an enviable location in Kensington Village, close to Hyde Park. Despite being situated in central London, it’s exceptionally wide, with the lower ground kitchen and dining level opening out onto an artfully executed garden by Olivia…