- Stephen Crafti
Culinary stunners
Designed with both form and function in mind, these elevated kitchen spaces are contenders for a major award. By Stephen Crafti
Featuring some of the world’s best kitchens, these culinary masterpieces focus on the serious entertainer – those who appreciate the finest appliances by Sub-Zero Wolf. From built-in wine fridges to state-of-the-art ovens, these kitchens celebrate the best-of-the-best from Down Under.
Designed by leading architects, these kitchens have been shortlisted in Sub-Zero Wolf’s Global Kitchen Design competition. A total of 13 global winners will be announced in Florida, US, in October.
Toorak House, Melbourne
Rob Mills Architecture and interiors
These competitions attract serious architects and designers worldwide. Among the chosen few nominees for this year’s awards is architect Rob Mills, who is known for his high-end houses and apartments in both Sydney and Melbourne.
Rob Mills Architecture and Interiors was shortlisted for the kitchen in a large new house spread over three levels in the blue-ribbon Melbourne suburb of Toorak. The kitchen is at ground level, with arched French-style doors leading to a terrace and swimming pool beyond.
Like the rest of the five-bedroom home which is stocked with premium fittings and fixtures, the kitchen features Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances in both the main kitchen as well as in the substantial butler’s kitchen. Installation of a lift from the basement car park allows food to be delivered directly to the main kitchen, the butler’s kitchen or the large walk-in pantry.
The Toorak house benefits from French doors orientated to the east, receiving the morning light. This light is beautifully expressed across the kitchen’s four-metre-long island bench, clad in Calacutta Oro, a marble with bronze-coloured veins that lend a golden blush in full sunlight. Complete with a chamfered marble base, the bench appears as a chiselled form in the kitchen.
With the kitchen framed by stained oak timber joinery, with a marble splashback and window reveals, there’s a sense of balance in the design – with the Sub-Zero integrated fridge and wine fridge on one side, and two Wolf ovens on the other.
Rob Mills has learned that a sense of balance or order is often sought by successful people. “Symmetry was important in the design, as well as structure. Things have to be seamless, beautifully crafted and easy to reach,” he says, pointing out the matt black interior of the wine fridge with its timber-lined shelves. Although the wine fridge has a glass front, it doesn’t scream for attention – rather, simply creating a window into what’s available to accompany the evening meal.
As the owners enjoy cooking Asian cuisine, Mills and his team also included a built-in wok in the butler’s kitchen, delineated by a sliding door. “We were very conscious that cooking odours were contained, as well as ensuring any kitchen clutter wasn’t seen from the other areas in the house,” Mills says.
As with the choice of appliances, Rob Mills Architecture was keen to include the highest standard of furnishings and fittings. The Ventura Stools in the kitchen are from Poliform, and the superfine bronze pendant light over the island bench is from Viabizzuno. Given the sculptural feel of the kitchen, it’s appropriate there’s a bronze sculpture by Camie Lyons that ‘speaks’ to the bronze-clad flue. “There’s a unison in the choice of the materials, but, also in the selection of the appliances – creating both a highly functional and balanced design,” Mills says.
Hawthorn East House, Melbourne
Adrian Amore Architects
From the street, this two-storey Edwardian home appears relatively untouched. However, beyond the front door, it has been completely restored with a strong contemporary feel.
“The house had been added to in the early ‘noughties’ with quite a jarring ceiling line, almost triangular in shape, that felt at odds with the architectural language we were using throughout the new design,” says architect Adrian Amore, whose brief extended to the ground floor only, reworking the kitchen and living areas which formed an L-shape around the garden.
The new areas feature large picture windows, with herringbone parquetry oak floors extending throughout. While the location of the kitchen, dining and living areas hasn’t changed, the triangular ceiling has been replaced with a softer, more curvaceous recessed ceiling. Amore also used a darker palette of materials for both the kitchen and living areas, to create a gentler transition from the period rooms into the contemporary wing.
A sustainable charcoal timber veneer was used for the kitchen joinery that complements the Pietra Grigio stone used for the benchtops, splashback and the rangehood. Rather than having a butler’s kitchen located out of sight, Amore treated it as part of the kitchen, with sliding doors allowing it to be either on show or screened. When the doors to the pantry are left open, there’s a loop or path around the central bench that allows for greater activity in the kitchen – with extended family and friends perched around it.
Pivotal to the kitchen design is the central island unit with its curved bronze metal base that picks up on the lines of the ceiling. The curvature of the base also allows for stools to fit comfortably, rather than making dining at the bench feel strained or awkward.
Amore and his clients opted for a Wolf oven as well as the induction cooktop – the latter embedded in the bench to allow for effortless cleaning. For the fridge, they selected a Sub Zero fully integrated fridge and freezer.
“The detailing of these appliances is truly seamless, with the aesthetics aligned to the way we approach design,” says Amore, who also wanted to strengthen the connection to the garden, with deep window and door reveals creating a more monumental feel with the new wing.
For Amore, while aesthetics are important, so is the way a kitchen operates. “It’s about providing the most efficient flow, and locating appliances where they’re needed most,” he says.
Concrete Curtain House, Toorak
FGR Architects
Named the Concrete Curtain House as a result of the concrete columns that wrap around the entire home, this Toorak abode is home to architect Feras Raffoul, director of FGR Architects, and his wife Sarah Chang-Raffoul, also an architect who works in the practice. Sarah was seen as the client for the briefing stage of this new two-storey home, with the kitchen being an important component.
A trigger for the kitchen was Sarah’s selection of distinctive green quartzite, sourced from Brazil by Artedomus. With its creamy coloured veins, it’s liberally used for the kitchen’s three-metre-long island bench, the kitchen joinery – including cupboards and drawers – as well as splashbacks and sinks. It also extends to the northern terrace, piercing the glass door to form the joinery for the outdoor kitchen.
“Sarah was looking for the experience of being near the ocean, with the foam generated by the waves,” Feras says. “This kitchen has a very unique feel. Being immersed in the stone we get the sensory feeling we are in the surrounding landscape.”
For the appliances, the duo couldn’t go past Sub-Zero and Wolf – including a black glass induction hotplate set into the bench. There’s also a convection steam oven and combination microwave (Wolf) and a dual fuel range that can be found in the butler’s kitchen. And rather than one fridge, there are two – a Sub-Zero integrated fridge and freezer, as well as under-counter refrigerator drawers, also from Sub-Zero. “We wanted to use as few joints as possible within the stone to create a sense of something carved in situ,” Feras says. “So it was important that the appliances fitted perfectly into this ambition.”
This is an extract from an article that appears in print in our thirteenth edition, Page 98 of Winning Magazine with the headline: “Culinary stunners”. Subscribe to Winning Magazine today.
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