The brief for Peace Project was centred around the division of space, specifically, how best to allocate space to three boys and two parents. The rear ground area functions as the family zone – the kitchen, dining, living and backyard – while the parents and children are allocated to the front ground area and upper floor, respectively. Traffic between zones was an important consideration, as was the need for both privacy and interaction.

In the art of restoring, Carole Whiting chose an opposite but complementary approach to the home’s existing Edwardian features; keeping the new decisively different from the old while maintaining a distinct language of elegance and simplicity. “The ‘new’ needed to enhance a sense of place and transcend what is currently fashionable,” Carole says. In other words, there needed to be a sense of belonging – not replacing. A streamlined, non-fussy approach – clean lines, simple geometries and minimal materials – helped achieve this.

This kind of approach, however, begged the question of how to organically embellish an objectively bare space – to which there was a simple answer. Skylights, lightwells and bi-fold bay windows render Peace Project a vessel of natural light, providing a perfect example of where nature can be used to dress up a space. Without this recourse to nature, the aspiration for a modest, minimally-designed home may not have been fulfilled.

Peace Project is what you get when you blend a seamless layout with an elegant, simple design – all the while finding the missing puzzle piece: non-stop light.