When we use the word “house,” we often think of the walls, the floor, and the roof that hold our belongings and host our daily existence. Nevertheless, in reality, a house can be so much more than that. It can be the place where we not only live but are. In it, we can be joyful, frustrated, confused, annoyed, excited… but, above all, we can simply be ourselves.
A house becomes a home when we feel that both our physical and spiritual beings are embraced. A home is where our rituals, our thoughts, and our objects overlap effortlessly. Yet, for this to happen, the space has to welcome it. Rooted in this belief, J. Kidman Architecture developed one of their latest projects: Temple House. Together with the thoughtful work of Golden and Studio Tali Roth, involved in the interior design and interior decoration respectively, the outcome feels truly reverent.
Located in Melbourne, the project takes its name not from resemblance, but rather from a poetic idea. “Temples are containers for space, with a focus on the space rather than the container,” explains James Reid, director of the architecture practice. And that was the intention for Temple House: unlike many modern buildings, where the container takes precedence, here it steps back to let the space emerge.
“It was important that the architecture wasn’t making all the noise, with look-at-me forms or overly busy materials,” he mentions. Instead, the result is a breathable ambience where the interior elements, the owners’ art collection, and their everyday rituals all converge harmoniously. Transcending an objective of creating a real estate metric, the project was shaped by the largeness of spirit.
“It’s the objective to build a space that invites the better parts of yourself to come forward and exist—your sense of wonder, your sense of contemplation, your sense of the sublime, and your smallness in relation to things.” Those better parts of ourselves go further from our physical bodies: “they are much more projected and nebulous, which means they still require space, but not just floor space and footprint; they require vertical space and long sightlines for our thoughts to bloom up into and travel along.”
With this guiding vision, strengthened by the owners’ openness, the planning process evolved into a unique concept: “rather than defaulting to the typical dynamic, it was inverted, with a house of multiple volumes weighted toward the back of the property.” Once the plan was finished and integrated with the landscape design by Plume Studio, “it became apparent that it had perhaps less in common with a house and more in common with a place of worship,” describes James.
“We followed that cue and leaned into the idea of a domestic temple for the form of the building,” states James, “imagining a construction of quiet but powerful forms that invited contemplation and in turn remembrance of those things that the modern world so often seems to be conspiring to make us forget.” In other words, a serene sanctuary where vitality and reflectiveness thrive in their own rhythm.
Temple House expresses itself through a reduced and distilled aesthetic, yet it is far from lifeless. “Its effect is akin to noise-cancelling headphones, those which remove so much noise that your own heartbeat and, by implication, your literal aliveness become evident and undeniable.” In a magical way, this project embodies the balance between monumentality and intimacy and speaks a language of contrasts.
Modernism, elementality, antiqueness, novelty, and functionality all intersect at Temple House, weaving a space where intentionality is present in the core of it all. Simultaneously mystical and futuristic, the space exudes a timeless aura, while texture and light enhance it and transport us to the present. At Temple House, architecture reminds us that possibilities are infinite, encouraging us towards a continuity rather than fixed limits.
