The plan is the source of all repose in a house. It must be invariable and it must elevate the design to a perfect announcement of the desires of its inhabitants. The creation of a plan for a house is a selfless task for an architect in the sense that it must not reflect the architect’s desires as much as it must lead to the betterment of the life of its intended inhabitants. It is as though for a house to become a home, it must be designed in the clear space of the “unemotional”; it must develop by virtue of this into a place of full emotion for all the participants in the process of its creation. The process of the design of a house concentrates therefore on utility and can show us how the absence of art can make art more intense. 

This house sits in a street in Paddington behind a facade which for much time has held its fort in this place. Streetscape is important here and there is no apparent reason to alter things; even not for understatement. The nature of a terrace can be re-examined, however, a concept that can provide many solutions; but here, slivers of light to the west emerge from the planning that is resolved around the front facade’s present forms (a door on the east of the street facade forms an immediate agenda for rooms to the west); there is always a consideration of moving toward the light where light is difficult to achieve. The rear facade is “enclosing” rather than “open” and develops a relation with the outside like a widening aperture to the light. It constricts the entry of light and assists in the generation of the facade within a tripartite composition. It holds the space like the sphinx in Egypt. The rear courtyard’s repose lays in the subtleties of space between two yielding arms, the courtyard walls.