5 December 2016:

The fabulous Fooks House in Howitt Road, North Caulfield. Open as part of a special exhibition last weekend. Built by Jewish Czech/ Austrian emigre architect Ernest Fooks as his own home in 1966, which he shared with wife Noemi; she was there until 2012 passing away at 102, and kept everything perfectly intact. Modernist but richly detailed, with a heavy dose of Japanese influences, loads of built in screens and furniture, a great wavy timber ceiling/skylight (shades of Aalto), spaces flow from one to the other with every inch of the block designed, from the pebbled front path to the pergola behind the pool. Love the bed. And the bar. I didn’t take nearly enough photos, the kitchen was also intact. Fooks was well known in his day, but like most of the European refugee architects who tended to design in a more complex decorative mode, were passed over in architectural histories until rediscovered in the 2000s. This house is one of the few from that group on the #VictoriaHeritageRegister (I helped get it there when at the @nationaltrustvic in 2009. I recall it was friends of Noemi’s who were really worried for it, one of whom bought it at the auction at a price well over the average for the area – whew !).

Update : in 2019 the new owners applied to add a second floor, since it’s only really got one bedroom, and replace the kitchen in the process, but resale value wasn’t a good enough reason, so it was a no. But seems they got a permit for an extension, and it was put up for sale in 2020. I don’t know if it actually sold though. Last two pics are a house in Camberwell he designed in 1967 that has a similar wavy ceiling idea.

Update 2024 : I’m told it was bought by celebrity chef @benshewry and his partner Kylie, they’re big big fans of mid century, and from various pics I can see it’s all intact, even the kitchen.

Lots of love on Instagram

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