BUSH MODERNISM

“People didn’t see the modernist elements of it. It felt quite heavy."

When photographer Sean Fennessy and art director and stylist Jessica Lillico began looking for a house, they knew it might take time. The Australian couple wanted to move on from their small Melbourne apartment and find a proper home that would hold a family of four. After many months and a lot of research they alighted on the work of Alistair Knox. The designer of more than a thousand homes between the 1940s and the 1980s, Knox developed an organic, angular style now dubbed “bush modernism.” Fennessy and Lillico’s home, known as the Fisher House, is 15 miles from Melbourne in the suburb of Warrandyte and has been sensitively restored, retaining the building’s earthy hues and mid-century spirit. 

Rosalind Jana: Tell me more about Alistair Knox. Why did his bush modernism appeal to you? 

Sean Fennessy: When he started building houses out here it was [still] bush, back in the late 1950s and early ’60s. He was building with local materials: mud bricks, timber, recycled things. Knox was quite ahead of his time. A lot of the houses have been renovated [since] because the characteristics of his work are this dark timber, lots of textured brickwork. . . .  In the ’80s and ’90s or even more recently, that wasn’t a particularly popular aesthetic. People would just whitewash it or rip out the timber kitchens. We weren’t interested in the houses that had happened to because the idea of stripping that back or reinstating everything, I don’t even know if you could practically do that. Anyway, we found this place that had been basically untouched since it was built in 1969. 

RJ: That’s funny—and also sad to hear—given the present popularity of his work.

SF: Visually, I think, people didn’t see the modernist elements of it. They just saw the timbers and bricks, and it felt quite heavy. But there are these modernist and mid-century characteristics: straight lines, raked ceilings, a general simplicity in the shape of these buildings and their orientation on the land. That is fundamentally modernist. It just doesn’t necessarily look like Palm Springs. 

RJ: This seems like a house designed to be in tune with the outdoor world surrounding it.

SF: Absolutely. As well as being interested in the architecture, the idea of having this space was really a draw after living in an apartment in the city. The landscape design was always an element of Knox’s approach to a new building, which makes sense when you see the big windows. The outside is right there, so [why not] extend the experience of the house into the garden?

RJ: Do you feel much more attentive to things like the changing of the seasons? 

SF: You do because the front is all glass. And we don’t have any curtains. Especially in the winter, it’s dark when you get up but then you’re facing east so you see the sun coming. 

RJ: What other examples of bush modernism do you admire?

SF: There’s a house that forms part of a museum not far from here, the Heide Museum of Modern Art. It was designed by some Melbourne architects—David McGlashan and Neil Everist—for the owners to eventually turn into a [habitable] gallery. It’s called Heide II. That was very inspiring, especially the interiors.