In a bold embrace of open concept living, our client had the notion of creating a house in the likeness of a shopping mall. With this brief came the challenge, if not the dare, to resolve the contradictory requirements of show and privacy in the most personal of building types.

While the glass-sided ground level is generously open, welcoming views both inward and out, an aluminium encasement wraps around the upper part of the house.

Materialising in shimmer and gold, the mesh asks to be seen yet denies the gaze, guarding privacy for the bedrooms on this level. At night, the light inside softens the shield and lets up more of the activity inside.

In all its boldness, the house has delicacy in its quieter details—in the control of spacing and setbacks, for example, or in its engineering, such as the achievement of the 90-degree bend in the corner panels, or free sculptural loop in the stairs.