Review
Lucy Foster
Aussie dream house is as sparse as our nearest natural satellite.
Whoever says that Australia lacks culture hasn’t met the client who commissioned this exemplary home. Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has a habit of creating museum-esque houses for people who: a) have lots of money; and b) appreciate minimalist design. And, with that brief in mind, Cardillo produced this, the Concrete Moon House in Melbourne. The three-storey building, including a basement, covers an impressive 6,200sq ft, which any estate agent will tell you is large enough to accommodate your own bowling alley, department store and fromagerie alongside your average three-bed domestic requirements. There are two parts to the house; the first is the façade that resembles a concrete crescent emerging from a pool in the front, the other being a private section that comprises a long, narrow form opening out into the garden. It cost around AU$2m (£1.1m) to construct and, while that is pricey, the proud new owners must have appeased their bank manager by convincing him there would be no wild, buy-all trips to Ikea. A promise, by the look of these pictures (inset), that they have stuck to.
“The residents of Tatooine loved what the Stormtroopers had done to Owen and Beru’s place.”