John Wardle

I knew nothing about the fabrication of steel, but I would have this curiosity and go down to his factory and, I mean, he built scale model...

train sets he built an aluminium plane and flew it around Australia amazing guy and he I just learned through just the asking the questions and that curiosity but he became a dear friend and he made everything we didn't steal for many years until he he died you know what they're capable of and it actually enhances your ability to design things what do you like about sharing your homes with people

Yeah, it's interesting because after a busy practice life and staff and clients and builders and others, you just sometimes want to crawl into a house that captures you utterly.

And this for us is sort of that house, but it's a bit of a...

hybrid i think for a beach house it's uncharacteristically moody it's a darker tonality it's less glass than many beach houses might have so you can actually withdraw into it but at the same stage you can pull open that big sliding door and but yeah i there are times when you just really feel like being absorbed by the house and other times when you want the house to actually open up and invite others in

Yeah, no, it's certainly not one that I'd feel comfortable with.

And again, it's funny because I've got very broad tastes.

I sometimes see something that is completely minimal in the work of a fine architect, which is so disciplined, which I'm not.

And I really respond to it.

And I could visit it and I could think of many architects that do that so well.

I just don't do that.

So I think unless it's done extraordinarily well, and minimalism can, I find there's a disappointment getting to that third reading and there's nothing there.

So I do like it so that the intensity becomes even more pronounced the closer you get to something and you find a table with a notch cut out of the corner.

So those sort of little moments that you think they'll stop and make you consider.

Yeah.

Well, I think that's something about you.

We were also talking about photography and what it's like to see something in real life.

Yeah.

And my story of Can Lees is it was a very early monograph I bought as a student, which I still have, and loved it.

D'Lo just...