Laura

The Story

Laura is a deeply personal project — a home designed by Cumulus Studio and built by Davies that demonstrates what's possible when thoughtful urban design meets meticulous construction on a challenging site. The block is small and triangular, the kind of site that most developers would dismiss and most architects would find daunting. But constraints breed creativity, and Laura is proof that the most memorable homes often emerge from the most demanding conditions.

Laura's form is a carefully composed combination of brickwork blades, timber soffits, and lightweight cladding, each material chosen for its specific properties and positioned to create a dynamic interplay of texture, colour, and shadow. The brick blades serve a structural role while also defining interior spaces and creating privacy from neighbours. The timber soffits add warmth and depth to the exterior, their honey tones glowing in the late afternoon sun. The lightweight cladding provides a crisp, contemporary contrast.

Brick pavers were used to create a curved courtyard that connects inside with outside. This courtyard is the home's secret weapon — it facilitates a place for gathering and entertaining while borrowing the landscape of neighbouring trees and sky, making the house and garden feel much more generous than its footprint. Standing in the courtyard, surrounded by brick, timber, and greenery, you'd never guess the block is barely larger than a tennis court.

Materials & Craft

A defining feature of Laura is its 4.5-metre-high spotted gum ceiling — a soaring plane of warm timber that creates an extraordinary sense of volume in what is, objectively, a modestly sized home. The spotted gum's rich, varied grain adds visual complexity overhead, while its sheer scale draws the eye upward and makes the living space feel cathedral-like.

Joinery throughout the home — including an expansive built-in couch and bench seating — is also crafted from spotted gum, creating a consistent material language that ties the spaces together. This level of custom joinery is challenging to execute: each piece must be precisely measured, cut, and installed to maintain clean lines and tight tolerances. The Davies team's carpentry skills are on full display here, with joints so precise they appear seamless.

Cork flooring and plush green carpet complement the mid-century aesthetics that run through the home, adding warmth and softness underfoot. Bronze powder-coated window frames look out to leafy surrounds, their warm metallic tone harmonising with the timber and brick palette. Natural light streams in from carefully positioned windows, creating a rich, moody interior tone that shifts throughout the day.

Kitchen & Bathroom

Laura's kitchen is a functional and sophisticated space that showcases meticulous craftsmanship. Occupying an angular corner of the house — one of the geometric consequences of the triangular block — the kitchen is complemented by a bench-seated dining area that makes the most of the unusual angles. Visible from all angles through 2.5-metre-high windows is an expansive exterior tiled wall, designed to seemingly continue the path of the bench seating and create a visual connection between inside and outside.

The island bench includes generous storage beneath and is lit by a pendant hanging from the 4.5-metre-high spotted gum ceiling. It's a space that functions beautifully for both quick weeknight meals and elaborate dinner parties — compact enough to be efficient, generous enough to be comfortable.

The bathroom is a jewel box of carefully considered materials. Speckled black, white, and buttery yellow 70x70mm tiles line the walls, creating a textured surface that catches the light. A tiled Japanese-style soaking tub provides daily luxury in a compact footprint — deep, warm, and utterly relaxing. High windows frame views of distant bushland and skyline, ensuring the bathroom feels connected to the landscape even in this most private of rooms. Brushed nickel tapware complements the tiles with a quiet refinement.

Recognition

Laura's exceptional design and construction quality has been recognised by the industry's most prestigious awards. The 2024 Master Builders Tasmania award for Dwelling Construction $500,000–$750,000 acknowledges the overall quality of the build, while the High Commendation for Kitchen Project highlights the exceptional joinery and design thinking in that space.

But perhaps the greatest recognition comes from the daily experience of living in the home. Laura proves that a small, awkward block in an urban setting can yield a home of extraordinary character and quality — that constraints, when embraced rather than fought, produce the most creative and satisfying results. It's a lesson that applies far beyond architecture: the best outcomes often emerge from the tightest brief.