Prestige Property: 26 Hobbs Avenue, Dalkeith, WA
A stunning contemporary home in Perth’s dress circle.
1 min
Driving through the iron gates and up the semi-circular driveway, one is immediately greeted by the sense of scale and enviable luxury provided by this contemporary residence.
The two-storey, 6-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 7-car parking pile features gallery-inspired interiors with porcelain flooring complemented by parquetry-herringbone walnut flooring and Venetian plasterwork throughout.
Moreover, a glamourous blend of granite surfaces and white gloss cabinetry draws one into the kitchen, hosting a full suite of European appliances and a scullery, it is equipped for the largest of soirees.
Soaring ceiling heights demarcates the grand spaces of the home, highlighting three separate living areas split across the two-level home including the library or formal lounge and a first-level winter retreat. Elsewhere, the home is privy to a contained theatre with a split-level design and top-of-the-line surround sound.
However, the residences entertaining ability is where it really shines, with the outdoor, north-facing alfresco dining area complete with an inground swimming pool and built-in barbecue/kitchen. Here, space is accessed seamlessly via completely retractable glass walls.
Away from the bustle of the main quarters, the home’s main bedroom suite is replete with a palatial ‘his’ and ‘hers’ dressing room and glamorously appointed marble-finished ensuite.
A further five bedrooms – including a guest suite and separate pool house – all feature private walk-in robes and ensuite bathrooms, which complete the accommodation.
The home is fitted with three gas fireplaces throughout and many mod-cons including a Savant system home automation, security system, parking for seven vehicles, including the four-car garage,
Within a 2-minute walk of Swan River and desirable proximity to Claremont Quarter and some of Perth’s finest private schools, this luxurious home is found in the enviable Dalkeith, 20 minutes to Perth’s CBD.
The listing is with Ray White Cottesloe Mosman Park’s Jody Fewster (+61 414 688 988), POA. rwcmp.com.au
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
A new AI-driven account by leading landscape architect Jon Hazelwood pushes the boundaries on the role of ‘complex nature’ in the future of our cities
2 min
Drifts of ground cover plants and wildflowers along the steps of the Sydney Opera House, traffic obscured by meadow-like planting and kangaroos pausing on city streets.
This is the way our cities could be, as imagined by landscape architect Jon Hazelwood, principal at multi-disciplinary architectural firm Hassell. He has been exploring the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces using AI for his Instagram account, Naturopolis_ai with visually arresting outcomes.
“It took me a few weeks to get interesting results,” he said. “I really like the ephemeral nature of the images — you will never see it again and none of those plants are real.
“The AI engine makes an approximation of a grevillea.”
Hazelwood chose some of the most iconic locations in Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as well as international cities such as Paris and London, to demonstrate the impact of untamed green spaces on streetscapes, plazas and public space.
He said he hopes to provoke a conversation about the artificial separation between our cities and the broader environment, exploring ways to break down the barriers and promote biodiversity.
“A lot of the planning (for public spaces) is very limited,” Hazelwood said. “There are 110,000 species of plants in Australia and we probably use about 12 in our (public) planting schemes.
“Often it’s for practical reasons because they’re tough and drought tolerant — but it’s not the whole story.”
Hazelwood pointed to the work of UK landscape architect Prof Nigel Dunnett, who has championed wild garden design in urban spaces. He has drawn interest in recent years for his work transforming the brutalist apartment block at the Barbican in London into a meadow-like environment with diverse plantings of grasses and perennials.
Hazelwood said it is this kind of ‘complex nature’ that is required for cities to thrive into the future, but it can be hard to convince planners and developers of the benefits.
“We have been doing a lot of work on how we get complex nature because complexity of species drives biodiversity,” he said.
“But when we try to propose the space the questions are: how are we going to maintain it? Where is the lawn?
“A lot of our work is demonstrating you can get those things and still provide a complex environment.”
At the moment, Hassell together with the University of Melbourne is trialling options at the Hills Showground Metro Station in Sydney, where the remaining ground level planting has been replaced with more than 100 different species of plants and flowers to encourage diversity without the need for regular maintenance. But more needs to be done, Hazelwood said.
“It needs bottom-up change,” he said. ““There is work being done at government level around nature positive cities, but equally there needs to be changes in the range of plants that nurseries grow, and in the way our city landscapes are maintained and managed.”
And there’s no AI option for that.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
