How does one maintain excitement while embodying elegance? The artful tension of the Ivanhoe House, as designed by Billy Kavellaris of the Australian firm KUD, is an excellent example. Located in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe, the single-story 370 square meter house initially engages visitors with its unusual aesthetics and then creates settings that are elegant without ever becoming staid. "The house is a clever orchestration of balancing tension that has created wondrous moments throughout. Ivanhoe house can be read as a conversation of dualities, of heavy and lightness, public and private and of light and darkness," as the architect explains in his project description.

This conversation starts with the imposing rectilinear entryway, which combines weighty solidity with the allure of a luxurious glassed-in portico. During the day, the entryway resembles a black void, but at night with the lights on, it becomes a vividly lit domestic portal. The mass of the entryway is echoed by another dark void on the other side of the house, which is likewise transformed by lighting into a floor-to-ceiling glimpse of the interior. Meanwhile, the exterior curvature of the entryway creates a dynamic pull without giving anything away, making the extent of the house hard to discern without taking a look inside.

Once inside, this curvy wall turns into a hallway with dark timber-paneled floors and ceiling. Abstract forms and wall art create a pleasant sense of disjunction, maintaining the initial aesthetic tension by virtue of keeping the visitor completely visually engaged.

"The public space which is experienced through implied volume, mediates between the private which are smaller volumes within the overall open plan larger volume," the architect continues. "This is reinforced with the monolithic timber volumes which are private bedroom and bathroom spaces with concealed entries and flush panel doors. The winding corridor is interrupted by an interplay of forms lined with different textured surfaces of straight timber, hard edge faced brickwork, counter-balanced with a long, smooth, curved, flat white wall."

But the house distinguishes itself with the intriguing placement of an exterior pool which, by virtue of a transparent swimming pool wall, both extends and complicates the experience of the interior. While the pool must be accessed from the exterior, the pool becomes its own constantly shifting source of energy and excitement within the home. As Kevallis notes, it's "a perfect counterpoint that lies somewhere between, inside and out, cold and warmth, relaxed and active, openness and enclosed, the experienced and the experiment, the old and the modern."