At Walsh St
At Robin Boyd's Walsh Street House, everything seems to float; beams, walls, saucepans, ceilings. All these elements gently touch the structure suspending them in space. The most obvious example is the undulating ceiling, made of slats of timber floorboards, resting on two steel ropes, suspended from east-west. The design emphasis is on providing the right space for conversation between guests. Thus screaming ornamentation, or banal "featurism" is rejected. The space feels lightweight, effortless and as though every element of the design fits in with complete rationality and reason.
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An Arthur Boyd painting, title unknown |
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The ceiling at Jimmy Watson's (where we went for lunch afterwards), also designed by Boyd |
At Jimmy Watson's, there were obvious parallels between the two designs. For example, beams become lights here too. Also this curved ceiling reminded me of the suspended slatted ceiling at Walsh Street. There is a definite urge to participate in conversation with your guest when seated at Jimmy Watson's and at Walsh St. Because it's darker and more cavernous than Walsh Street, JW's feels as though its inspiration is drawn from European pubs and taverns, rather than the Japanese inside-outside relation as is palpable at Walsh Street.