"Introducing Eden 37" (Ft. Emma Forwood & Hamish Scetrine) Ep. 9

In this episode of Building Dreams, we’re joined by Emma Forwood (Senior Building Designer) and Hamish Scetrine (Junior Building Designer) to explore the vision behind our upcoming Eden 37 Display Home.

Transcript

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Welcome back to Building Dreams with Virtue Homes. I'm your host, and joining me in the studio today, we have Virtue's very own in-house building designers, Emma and Hamish. Thanks for having us. Thank you for joining me. We are so excited for this episode. We'll be talking about something that I think will have a lot of ears pricked. Yes. The new Eden 37 display currently under construction. It's going along very nicely. Yeah. So when is that expected to be finished? I would like to say the end of the year. Um, but Ali, the supervisor, may not like me saying that. Soon ish. Oh, it'd be really great. Hopefully in 2026. If not, then the very start of 2027, which is fast approaching. It is. So can you tell me a little bit about the Eden 37 beyond just the name? What is the inspiration behind the design and uh what are you hoping to achieve? Well, with this one, we've decided to go with a mid-century modern kind of feel. Um something a little bit different to what everyone's been, every other builder's been building and stuff like that. So yeah, the inspiration was you know, dark, moody, bringing the the garden into or like the outdoor into the indoor and stuff like that. And yeah, I think that the mid-century modern kind of feel is starting to come back. We've had a couple of you know clients that are wanting to go more that direction rather than the Hamptons or you know, contemporary and stuff like that. Yeah, absolutely. I think not even just in like home design, but through all sorts of design, fashion even, it's that like retro style is coming back very much. And in the miniaturion styling and everything, yeah, everything. We're all hearkening back to like the 60s, 70s. Yeah, we're actually watching a webinar the other day on um the like Milan Design Week or whatever, and the same thing they'll at the flag that it's mid-century is very much a coming back in thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, which is exciting. I mean we're on the right path, we're like a step ahead. So yeah, yeah, and that's that's what we aim to be doing is our display homes to be that one step ahead from the um the other um the other builders and stuff like that. So setting the trend rather than following. Trying to be cool, you know, trying to be cool and hip. I love it. So is that a huge part of the design process for a new display home? Like, what is the this, what are the steps that you take to design a new display home for a custom home builder? Well, it's sorry, it's yeah, it's pretty it's pretty exciting because um, especially when we sort of came up with this brief and want to go down, and we're a very collaborative team. So not just obviously in the design team, but the wider virtues, like we all sort of like to get involved and be able to sort of share our expertise and work together, not just with obviously displays, but with client homes as well. And um, this was a sort of a good one where, like, especially because it's got a bit of a fun brief too, where we were able to sort of we actually originally went and um downloaded all these floor plans of um original mid-century modern. Um then we got out a heap of tracing paper and kind of put it over the top, and we were doing bubble diagrams and all that to really sort of figure out all our flows and zones and really build a um a concept, I suppose, that's gonna work both as the brief, but also to do with the site too, as well, because obviously we had a very restricted site in the dimensions of it, and as well as obviously trying to get solar orientation and all the rooms in the right location to still have authenticity to being mid-century modern in the the design. So that's yeah, that's really cool. So it's in its core, it is like an original 60s, 70s design, just updated and modified for modern energy ratings and yeah, modern leading, I guess. Yeah, yeah. That's really cool. Oh, I like that. So, like essentially walking through, it's almost like you're taking a step back in time, like walking back through your grandparents' place. Yeah, like it's like Emma was saying, too, having that whole blurring, the indoors and outdoors kind of spaces and stuff. There's a lot of components you'll find in the home which give you that feel, if that makes sense. Which um, like I said, the in the design stuff, but also when you walk in, you'll feel the space and you'll feel like I suppose the window, the sun, and like it's all it's all part of it. Well, we hope you do. So yeah, that's in the design. Now it's up to the trades to actually bring that to life. Yeah. So far, they're doing a really good job at doing that. Yeah. That's exciting. So, what stage of the construction is the home in currently? Currently it's being bricked. Um, we've got some really great brickies out on site at the moment, and um they have they've been working really closely with us, um, the design team, to make sure that those components that we're doing that are a little bit extra than what we usually would do on a standard house, um, that they they are, you know, the right measurements and there too what our um our vision was um for this home. So yeah, so it's being bricked at the moment and the um the carpenters are working on um starting to do some more cladding so as well. So it's getting so there. Another cool thing as well about being the custom home builder is like you said, with the trades and showing how good our trades are too. We've done some very technical sort of work with um with the especially the bricks, yeah. And stuff, which is it's gonna be a wow, I think. You're not gonna see another display home. So yeah. Right. Yeah, a little bit of a like cut above. Yeah, which is I'd like to say cut above the rest, yeah. Yeah. Exciting. So being the designers and being a custom home builder, you guys are essentially taking the role of the clients when it comes to interacting with the trades, like the referring to you and asking you for your opinions and things in the design. Whereas if it was a customer's home, that those sort of questions would go to the clients. Sort of. Like I'd say with the client, we're still very much on board. Like it is still a conversation and we're it is also both of us sort of, yeah, it's all very collaborative, the whole process. And it's not just the design team, like um even um the selections team and stuff. The materiality is a really important part of um mid-century too. And some of the selections that have gone into that are stunning. Like the toilet. I can't wait to see. I got a little preview, and I cannot wait to see it actually in the home. Oh, I'm so excited. And Emma and Tanya have just blown it out of the park with this one. Um, I think that they're we've got our joinery um meeting next Monday, and I'm so excited to see what Roddy, our cabinet maker, um, brings to the table because those girls have just aced it, I reckon, in this in this house. So, like they do in every house, obviously. But like Yeah, in particular, they've really gone uh yeah, again, uh a step beyond the the usual. Yeah. Is that a real collaborative process between the building designers and the selections team? Um with display homes, yes. Um, because we do have this vision being the design team going, this is what we'd like. We've obviously got to get approval from the big reeks like Nick and Narada, but um, but we we present that to the the um head honchos to go, is this something that we can achieve? This is our um vision, and the you know, when they're all on board, that's when um it it gets pretty collaborative between the styling team and and the designers, um, you know, just with different um shades and and all of that stuff, different colours and everything. And um, but really the girls do take the reins when it comes to it. We just have like if they want to ask our opinions on something, we go, yeah, like we love that, or or maybe something different. So it kind of works out well, like you're saying, with um with us sort of playing sort of like the um the client sort of role. Yeah, we've got like a shared Pinterest board that we're all putting into inspo in there so that make sure we are sort of talking the same language and the same sort of thing. So if whenever yeah, it's been the case of when we saw what they'd selected and had it's like perfect, yeah. Yeah, that's what you had sort of in your head. Like they get like they've pretty much come into our minds and gone, oh I know what these guys, like these guys want, and they're loving it. They're like, oh, we haven't done something like this before, so they're really loving it. It could be something unique. Um, you know, a lot of the other virtue displays have either been you know, the brunch style Windsor, which is very Hampton's cross country chateau. Yeah, and then the rest of very contemporary, very contemporary, very contemporary. This is something really different. I can imagine everyone who has worked on it has enjoyed getting to really delve into something. Absolutely, yeah. And it's been good as well, and very intriguing too, to make sure you stick to because it's very easy to be like, oh, maybe we can go down a bit more contemporary here or something. Like it is still a contemporary type, but but we've done, I think, a really good job in making sure it's very true. Like, I suppose is the it's all it's got that authenticity about it. Yeah, I love that that you guys downloaded like actual floor plans from that era. That was like the first part of it, is it is it's a real 60s, 70s home. Yeah, it's really exciting. It is. So, can you guys tell me a bit about the process of building a display home for a custom home builder? I imagine volume builders they go for a popular floor plan or you know something like that, and they they'll build it, and what you see is what you get. Virtue, you don't choose a floor plan, it's tailored to the clients. So, how do you decide what to display? Yeah, so um it's a really good question. It's um quite tricky to land on an architectural style. So um we kind of look into the trends um to try and find is there something that's coming up in the market? What haven't we seen? And um, that's why we decided to settle on the mid-century modern because we could see that a couple of clients of ours have gone, oh, we want turned bricks and we want um timbers and and like you know, the the muted tones. And we thought, is that something that's coming back? We couldn't see it in any other any other builders that they were really displaying this. So we thought let's do it. Like, let's go all in on this. Um, and it's actually an architectural style you do have to kind of go all into because it is and it's so varied between there's mid-century and then there's mid-century. So like it's so varied. So um it was really fun to come up with our not our own mid-century, but to go with us, you know, a specific take on mid-century. Yeah, like our direction and stuff. Because we have um, like we're talking about the other day, we did we do a fair bit of like palm springs and stuff like that, it's quite popular around here. Yeah. So it's kind of like when we're talking about it's like, do you go that way or do we go something like a bit warmer or again, maybe a bit more Australian and but also trying to create something that supposed as a custom home builder, there's got to be a reason to come to our display village to um see how so it's not just the same as all the others, and it really will be, I suppose, kind of avoid if they see online or or through the socials and stuff. And it's like, wow, I've got to go see that because like I'm intrigued, yeah. And hopefully just to get the um brain juices flowing in the way, because like I feel like in the design I find it's most exciting when a client comes and it's like, I've got a big idea. Yeah, can you make it happen? Because we do get a fair few really fun ones. Yeah, we do try and sort of work with it. So hopefully, yes, like you said, it's not about here's a floor plan, go build that. It's like get your ticking over and being like, okay, well, like I could do this, or I've seen something like this, or can we do this, or rather, really um bringing out personality because that's another thing that I was saying in the that Milan design thing was it's like we're entering a time now where a lot more people want to do um things that represent them more so than just what they've seen on Pinterest or anything like that. It's kind of like this is all about um finding yourself, personality growth, I suppose. Reflecting them as individuals and as families, yep. And especially with the rising cost of um living and fuel and everything like that, people are wanting to spend more time at home now with their families, you know. So it's like it's gotta be a home for them that they they yeah, so um, so yeah, it's definitely gonna be. I'm really excited for it because it's something way out of the park. I didn't think that like we'd be going this route. Um, so it was, yeah, it's really exciting. To get the yeses there has got the whole team very excited. Yeah, absolutely. And I know like virtues displays aren't so much again about showcasing a floor plan and like this is the home that you can build. It's all about inspiration. So, do you think that the Eden in particular will be inspiring for those who walk through it, that it will give them some ideas? And I reckon there'll be a lot of um wow moments. And there's the there's a fair few things in there that we've done which um you're just you're not gonna see elsewhere. Like jaws will be dropping. I hope so. Absolutely. And are we hoping maybe to inspire some clients to translate that into their designs? Yeah, I are we forecasting seeing a little bit more of this mid-century style. I think so. Like, I mean, when I started here five years ago, there was nothing like mid-century was not a thing. Not even Palm Springs wasn't even really something that was being talked about. It was still very contemporary. It was very contemporary, very Hamptons. Um, we still get the odd like traditional and stuff like styles, homes, but um, it was very contemporary, modern Hamptons. Yeah, and now it's yeah, things are changing. You know, Pinterest and Instagram, they're just they're they bring like they do. I find Instagram and Pinterest really help my juices flow when I'm like trying to design someone's house. And so like what's being portrayed on social media um is leaning more towards that way, like you know, the lighter, you've got your lightened area, and then you've got your your moody, warm, kind of like sensual, like yeah, very like speakeasy 70s, yeah. Yeah, and a lot less black and grey as well. Yeah, a lot less black and grey. Seen a lot of timbers. Um talked last season with Tanya and um Laura from Carpet Country about just trends and design. Um Tanya being our colour consultant at Virtue, and they're saying the same thing, a lot warmer tones, um brushed brass and and like quite rich tones and tapware and hardware and lots of timbers. Is this the sort of direction that the Eden's going? Maybe. You'll just have to wait and see. You'll have to just wait and see. I am really excited. You did touch on the Eden, um, and I'm assuming this is the inspiration for the name of the display that the the house is really bringing the outside in. Yes. How are you achieving this in the design? Well, we do have a beautiful fernery. I don't want to give too much away. We do have a lovely ferny that has been incorporated into the design. Right. Um, so that you can see from the three three sides pretty much in the house. Like it's oh yeah, it's a berg like internal atrium. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, internal, external, and it really just like the light just coming in from these windows. I don't put too much away. But yeah, it's all top secret stuff, but it sounds divine, yeah, and um just having a really lush garden kind of presence in the landscaping and everything like that. It's just trying to you know, bring that really below those edges between outside and inside, which is also something I think we're seeing a bit in design, and especially here in Australia, it's always been about indoor-outdoor living. We're in a country that is warm a lot of the year, maybe not in Victoria, but we love a good Barbie out the back. So, is that also something that you consider when designing the display homes that need that craving for an indoor-outdoor lifestyle? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because I suppose it is one, yeah, both trying to stick to the style, um, especially it is end of and um keeping traditional to that, but also still still giving it contemporary and to be especially about how people use their homes, both how it is now compared to the style that we are aiming for at the time. So um things have changed over 50 years, yeah. Spot on. So um yeah, but like you said, still trying to keep all that in where like I said, that that ferny which opens on to study, entry, hallway, living, dining. Too far, but it's um but but making sure it's all sort of um still the way people live, and then it makes sense for today's lifestyles. Spot on, yeah, yeah. I really can't wait to see this display home. So we've already said multiple times, it is a mid-century modern design or virtues take on mid-century modern. What defines mid-century modern when it comes to architecture and design for homes? I'm gonna let you because mid-century modern has, I suppose, across multiple countries, like it's not just obviously an Australian one. And um, I think if anything, a lot of our inspiration came from overseas. And it sort of started with um, I think a lot of developments in both how they build structurally, but um also um I think all of it they sort of say is to come down to like a sense of optimism too. So it is this sort of coming out and um again, so feeling better about yourself and doing um the thing, which I mean in a post-COVID world, maybe that's where self-love and self-help and all the rest. So that's actually leaked into building design. Absolutely. So um yeah, that blurring the indoor-outdoor is a big one. Um, you'll see again across there's a lot of different sort of um styles of mid-century, like saying with the Palm Springs and um Sydney School is another really popular one. Um I think it's a fair bit of um Melbourne's got quite a strong press. Robin Boyd was a big Melbourne architect who did a lot of mid-century modern. Um but yeah, having a lot of the like the straight lines and um Skillion roofs, spot on, yep. Um, and even low line, flat roofs and everything as well. Yes, yeah, there aren't a lot of of pictures. You see a lot of sort of it's just flat, or you know, you can get your a gentle slope, but not the traditional house shape. You know, we draw a square and triangle. Yeah, it's it's a little bit more low level, which is interesting actually. Yeah, and the um oh I call them celestry window, cholesterol windows. Um, you know, the the highlight windows that go above like your your doors and everything, letting the light in. And that's what we've done in we haven't done the cholesterol windows in this home, but you know, popping up the um the ceiling and everything like that to give it that like grand like the warmth and the grandness and stuff like that of the possibility of having those lights, uh the the cholesterol um windows put in and stuff like that, having the warmth and the sun come in at every angle, you know. Just factoring in a lot of orientation and things like that. And I imagine you'd have to have like two seven ceiling heights or taller ceilings throughout because the the lack of a pitched roof, I imagine means that you can't have like raked ceilings or anything like that in the you can, um, but they're very low line um and stuff like that. So um, but two 2.7 meter ceilings. Well, they they um were 10 feet back then, so it was all about I think nine foot ceilings and stuff like that. Right. So that's that's the kind of standard um that you can. And it can be clever as well in achieving like a flat roof and um well, that's of course like a parapet, which we've sort of done around the outside too. We can almost hide the roof kind of profile by having a slightly slightly raised portion in front of it too, which um lets you achieve as well. More so we've got um in the living it gets quite high, especially in the um the feature that we're not gonna talk about an exciting feature in the living space, right? Oh right. Yeah, I think that's yeah, that's what I meant. Like the the design, there is a lot of low-lying in your facades and and roofs. So, how do you still create a sense of space and and room within the house? Well, another big part of mid-century as well, modern design is um oh it's all about that open open plan living and sort of thing. So you'll find too in this one, you walk in the door, you can see all the way down to the very back of the house. Oh, I love it. And um as you enter sort of through the entrance, quite a wide entry. I'm not going too far. No, then um, no, no. And then um, yeah, get the living dining, and it's all very open. Everything's large and open, the whole family can all be there. It's cleverly zoned, so like whilst it's it's big is not too big, thanks. But it's um, yeah, it's just another sort of feature with sort of yeah, opening a front door and being able to see all the way back through the home. It just, you know, if you can see the green on the other end, it just feels very open and inviting. Like rather than my current house, you open directly into a wall and it's just like, no, you may not pass. Like it's it's much nicer to have that sort of open space, and that's definitely I find where families and even you know retirees are heading is just open space, place for entertaining, and then having the bedrooms and things courted off in a more private part of the home. That's right. Yeah, is that what we're looking at achieving in this display home? Possibly. We'll have to wait and see. Yeah, possibly. Very exciting. So, what has been your favorite part of this design journey for the new display home? That's a good question. Um I not necessarily part of the design journey, but I've really liked in interacting with the trades a little bit more in depth and going out on site to talk to the carpenters also about what could work better and things like that. So I've actually really enjoyed that part of it. I mean, I love my job as a building designer, it gives me the greater satisfaction. Um but it is exciting in the first stages to kind of go, oh, like because our client is our boss, it's like oh, designing something that Mick's going to like is like it's like the it heightens the um the excitement, I I find so the reward and payoff at the end is like almost it. Yeah, yeah, if he if he likes it, and I'm sure he does, it's like job security. You've done a really good job. Has it been difficult to translate? And Hamish, I might direct this one to you. Has it been difficult to translate the mid-century design and the authenticity? But to modern standards, like now we have to reach a minimum seven-star energy rating. There's a few other you know rules involved, whereas I imagine back in the actual day, it was a little more loosey-goosey. We were still there mobility standards. Yeah. Um, it's kind of in from my point of view, part of the fun, part of the role. In it's more the analytical side of it, but it's um kind of where like because this is the case with all homes, and as I suppose stands gets stricter and stricter too, it's kind of like still just trying to achieve what you want to achieve, but then it's the puzzle of trying to make like. I was literally gonna say the puzzle of the jigsaw, yeah. Absolutely. So, um, and we're always working on things, and this is obviously what we're we're paid to do. So it's kind of to make take the big idea and then make it a real thing. So um, like I said, we're constantly in the background working on ways to um yeah, work with the energy raters because we've got a really good um relationship with a lot of our external consultants as well, and trying to be like, okay, how's the best way for us to um approach this moving forward? Because it is all a conversation too. It's not just um you've got to do this. It's kind of like, well, how can we do it how can we? Can we tweak something to make it work better or achieve this seven stars or yeah, without compromising the vision? Yeah, and that's it. And not just from the engineering side of res code and um obviously with all your standards and stuff. It's like there's a lot of still rules that like if you don't know, you don't know. But like just you've got to sort of stick within these sort of boundaries, and then to suppose to be able to transverse that while still delivering the vision is kind of um you guys are professional problem solvers. Tetris. I just I think we're pretty good at Tetris. Really, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't want to be versing you guys and anything like that. That's no, that's and is that something that you have to tackle not just with this display home, but clients' homes as well. Every single house, I reckon. It's you the clients come in and go, here's our vision. You go awesome, and then you go back to the office and look up all the guidelines and and go, okay, now how are we gonna do this? Yeah, right. Yeah, it's and it's very satisfying, I find, when I go, I'm like, how am I gonna do this? And then you do it and you're like, oh, wow. Like you'll achieve that. Okay, and I'm like, I'm good at my job. Absolutely, that's really exciting, guys. I cannot wait to see this display, hopefully at the end of the year or potentially next year. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with in the interim. Yeah, I'm excited. Thank you guys so much for chatting with me today about the Eden 37 and uh and look forward to seeing the finished product. Me too. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you.