Why I Love Building Beautiful Homes

By Peter Mason

Drive through any new housing area and you’ll see that the homes are generally one of only two choices – beautiful or boring.

‘Unfair!’ I hear you cry. We wanted a beautiful home but …

• we couldn’t afford it
• we had to fit in with council restrictions
• we had to buy from the developer’s plans
• we were in a hurry

OK, fair enough. All those reasons are likely to get you something that’s cookie cutter and just like all the others. I’m sure it’s water-tight, warm and functional.

But did you look hard enough? Did you really search for more interesting, more creative options? Was there a particular reason why you had to build in that new development?

Sometimes, buying off the developer’s plans is a simple, more immediate option. You’ll get a house. But is it a home filled with harmony and elegance that lifts your spirits and fills you with contentment? Can you breathe, see, hear and experience your surroundings? Did you look ‘outside the box’ to find somewhere that gave you joy?

Japanese Architect Tadao Ando summed it up perfectly:

"You cannot simply put something new into a place. You have to absorb what you see around you, what exists on the land, and then use that knowledge along with contemporary thinking to interpret what you see."

For an architect, spectacular scenery is always both a challenge and an opportunity. It demands that the land should speak for itself. Even the smallest of homes on the most modest of budgets can become part of the wider expanse. It makes little difference whether it’s a small part of the wider landscape or an enclosed jewel in the cityscape.

I love my job. I’m given specific project parameters to point me in the right direction, and then I have the freedom to follow my artistic interpretation of those parameters. Good architecture enhances the lives of those that live within it.

As Renzo Piano the Pritzer Prize winning architect said:

"If you have total freedom, then you are in trouble. It’s much better when you have some obligation, some discipline, some rules. When you have no rules, then you start to build your own rules."

So true. Collaboration can bring about wonderful things. American Charles Gwathmey said a similar thing: I think constraints are very important. They’re positive, because they allow you to work off something.’

It excites me to see one of my projects taking shape and it’s incredibly rewarding when the client appreciates what we have created between us. It’s a lifestyle, …. A way of being certainly not a job, and it consumes me.

Peter Mason is the Managing Director of Ducon, an award winning builder based in Melbourne, Australia. Peter is a third generation industry leader known for his empathetic yet ‘getting it done’ attitude who finds relaxation from the hectic building design world sailing the cool waters of Port Phillip Bay.