OF LANGUAGE & LIGHT

With a refined interplay of dark turns and bright twists, as well as heritage elements enhanced with a modern approach, architect Mary Ellen Hudson has brought her own plot points to the family home of Australian author Markus Zusak.

With a refined interplay of dark turns and bright twists, architect Mary Ellen Hudson has brought her own plot points to the family home of author Markus Zusak

“There is an undercurrent of MATERIALITY in the things I love to use. It’s a rawness and robustness in design that carries through a lot of my projects”

MARY ELLEN HUDSON

The narrow pathway that leads to the Sydney home of celebrated Australian author Markus Zusak is discreet and low-key. There’s a palpable sense of discovery as the quiet side alley unfolds to reveal a tall front door. Through an elegant covered entry hall, a warm walnut timber kitchen glows with the afternoon light that spills from a window across a patinated brass countertop.

It’s here that Zusak, author of international bestselling novel The Book Thief — which in 2013 was adapted into a film starring Geoffrey Rush — likes to immerse himself. “I love sitting at my spot at the kitchen table because, now that the walls [between the kitchen and the ground-floor living areas] have come out, I can see into the other rooms,” he says. “Combined with the natural light, it just makes me really happy.

“Whereas before I felt like the space was caving in on me and the look was very traditional and aged… Now you can feel a part of the whole house, with the chaos of the kitchen and life and the kids arguing. It’s got a really nice feeling and brings you all together that little bit more.”

The reimagined interior of the three-storey family home, resplendent with soaring ceilings and original Victorian-era details, is the work of architect Mary Ellen Hudson. A former fashion and textile designer turned architect, Hudson met Zusak’s Polish-born wife and business manager, Mika, through their daughters who attend the same school. “Mika was talking about how damp and dark the house was,” says Hudson. “It was freezing and needed more light, and none of the electricals worked.”

The eloquent and decisive Mika had little experience with the world of design, but she knew that she wanted a home with a lighter atmosphere — and Hudson was the woman for the job. “We wanted to open it up because the rooms [on the ground floor] were completely hidden,” says Mika. “I knew the feeling that I wanted to create, and Mary Ellen helped me realise it.”

Markus — personable, thoughtful and with an almost disarming honesty — nods in agreement. “I was finishing a book that had been hanging over me for a really long time, so for me, it was just such a weight off my shoulders to not have to think too much about it. I trusted Mika with the process, and Mika trusted Mary Ellen. In my mind, Mika has really good taste, and Mary Ellen is faultless with the work she’s done.”

The award-winning author travels regularly for work and treasures his arrivals home — even more so now that his house of more than a decade has undergone a renovation three years in the making. “We never really felt like it was our home before,” he says. “We never really bothered to find the right spots for artworks… It didn’t feel like it was a home that was decorated with much love and attention. One of the things I enjoy the most is that it actually feels like our house now.”

Hudson’s reworking of the Zusak home was ambitious. She knocked down walls and reconfigured the ground floor to allow more light. She updated the kitchen and bathrooms, and created a whole new third level complete with a sun-drenched rooftop courtyard.

There is now a tangible sense of fluidity and flow throughout the three-bedroom residence. A wooden handrail on the newly monochromatic staircase “feels more like a continuous ribbon that connects each level”, says Hudson. A tall, narrow bathroom is cleverly refined with a curling ceiling — the entire space encrusted in green and blue oceanic-hued tiles. “We wanted it to feel like you’ve stepped into a wave,” says Mika.

On the ground floor, the open-plan living areas follow a similar, natural sense of movement, encouraging the eye to travel — from kitchen to dining space to lounge to intimate library — through a series of zones that draw and captivate the viewer at once. In one such zone, an expansive black-elm table topped in glossy marble and finished with the kinetic charm of a lazy Susan creates an inviting dining space. In another, an elegantly furnished lounge area, a deep pine-green Edra Essential sofa and luxuriant handmade Tibetan rug form a cosy, conversational sphere.

References to Markus’s career casually mark the interiors. A literary prize from Germany in the form of a weighty metal ox sculpture adorns a living room shelf. An illustration of a birdlike character by Trudy White created for The Book Thief, which Mika had enlarged and printed onto canvas for her husband’s birthday, forms the focal point of a bedroom. A photograph by the late Len Speier, Hooded Figure in Snow — used for the first-ever edition of The Book Thief — takes pride of place in the main bedroom.

The restored staircase, which ascends to the new third storey, creates a dynamic play of contrasts: steel against timber; hard, graphic lines against original curvaceous Victorian flourishes; and a palette of dark charcoal against Dulux Whisper White paint. Newly acquired contemporary furniture throughout further emphasises the architect’s delicate balancing act between retaining heritage features and fashioning a fresh, modern aesthetic.

As author and philosopher Alain de Botton declared in his book The Architecture of Happiness, “Beauty is a likely outcome whenever architects skilfully mediate between… the old and the new, the natural and the man-made, the luxurious and the modest, and the masculine and the feminine.” In this thoughtfully constructed interior, Hudson has achieved just that. “There is an undercurrent of materiality in the things I love to use,” she says. “It’s a rawness and robustness in design that carries through a lot of my projects.”

The thread of happiness and delight continues in the new rooftop eyrie. This is Mika’s sanctuary, the tranquil space she most frequently inhabits — with Markus opting for a smaller home office on the second floor. “I much prefer a smaller office,” says the author. “In a bigger space, I’ve got too much room to get distracted and find other things to do.

“I’m just starting work on a new book… For me, personally, I’m looking forward to writing again and not worrying about things too much. Now the house is done, it’s beautiful, and I want to enjoy that. Even the other day, I was thinking that I need to just write about what’s actually going to make me happy. That’s how I’ve always worked — but sometimes you have to remind yourself.” meharchitects.format.com