The terrazzo maker who didn't want terrazzo to be the hero

Fibonacci's Michael and Lidija Karakolis' Gloss House. Image credit: Anson Smart.

In residential design, conversations around quality are often dominated by performance. But while those things matter, they are rarely what make a home memorable. A house does not feel timeless or well-designed because every surface performs well.

The more interesting approach is what happens when a designer brings materials together in a way that creates character: juxtaposing gloss against matte, stone against timber, and layering colour, texture and contrast to create spaces that have depth. The homes people continue to love years later are usually the ones where materials interact in thoughtful, sometimes unexpected ways.

This idea sits at the centre of a conversation between Fibonacci founder Michael Karakolis and Studio Doherty interior designer Mardi Doherty, reflecting on Michael’s own home,Gloss House, six years after its completion. What makes the project still exciting today is not simply that the materials have lasted, but that the design still feels engaging after years of daily life.

“When it comes to choosing materials, it’s not a performance discussion, it’s a design discussion,” Michael says. “When designing homes, we should just have a blanket rule: use good products. Then the real conversation is how the designer puts the materials together.”

While the industry often discusses longevity in technical terms, Michael argues that if materials meet building standards, quality should already be assumed. What determines whether a home still feels inspiring years later is the way materials, colours and finishes work together as part of a larger experience.

The details count. Here, Fibonacci's terazzo is perfectly inlaid into a timber handle with metal border.

Reflection, light and spatial delineation is created by a mirror screen.

The timeless materiality of Gloss House

Gloss House was an exploration of that thinking from the outset. Despite Michael’s close connection to terrazzo and materiality through Fibonacci, he and his wife Lidija were determined not to create what he describes as “a shrine to Fibonacci”. Instead, they wanted a home that felt layered and engaging rather than dominated by a single material language.

“I didn’t want materials to be used in a typical way,” Michael explains. “I wanted to work with a designer who would not favour our own materials, but who was focused on the overall integration of materials and somebody who would challenge me.”

That instinct led them to Mardi Doherty, whose interiors are known for creating visual tension rather than polished uniformity. For Mardi, materials are never simply decorative additions applied at the end of a project, they are one of the tools used to shape the feeling of a space.

“Material selection is one of the things we do very early on in projects,” she says. “They’re often the spark that draws together the concepts for the project.”

What gives her interiors their staying power is the willingness to avoid making everything feel too resolved. Contrasting textures, colours and finishes are intentionally introduced to stop spaces becoming predictable.

“We often put together a colour scheme and finishes palette and then say, ‘Okay, let’s just mess it up a little bit,’” she says. “That tension creates ongoing interest and curiosity.”

The stair's sculptural form is enhanced with a bright blue.

The Karokolis' brief allowed designer Mardi Doherty to play with multiple textures, forms and colour.

Throughout Gloss House, those moments become the source of the home’s character. In the kitchen, glazed ceramic DTILE sit against textured terrazzo and timber. Gloss paint intersects with matte surfaces in subtle but deliberate ways. In the laundry, a gloss-painted wall was chosen specifically to withstand splashes from Lidija blue hair dye, turning a functional requirement into a playful design detail.

Even the bathroom reflects this approach. Rather than showcasing Fibonacci materials, the room uses intricate Japanese mosaics to create a mood that feels immersive and transportive.

“We used a fantastic Japanese mosaic in the bathroom,” Michael says. “It’s completely different from what we normally do, but it speaks to the same philosophies. You walk in there and you feel like you’re on holiday.”

The room demanded extraordinary precision to execute. Tiny mosaic tiles wrapped across floors, walls and vanity surfaces, requiring every junction to align perfectly. At one stage, Michael asked the builder to rebuild a wall to ensure the tile alignment remained exact, despite the additional labour involved.

“The question was put to me by the builder: are you sure you’re okay with the amount of work required to do this?” he says. “But if we were going to compromise, this was not the place to compromise.”

Soft organic furniture forms are balanced against timber, terazzo and tiles.

The details that you touch every day, such as hardware, were given particular attention at Gloss House.

For Michael, moments like that capture something clients often underestimate about highly considered homes. Spaces with genuine character rely on shared standards and a willingness to follow through on details when they become difficult or expensive.

“You have to understand the task you’re taking on when you ask for a highly designed home,” he says. “If you don’t see that process through, everyone ends up unhappy.”

What also stands out in the discussion is the collaborative nature of projects like Gloss House. Both Michael and Mardi speak less about authorship and more about the value of teams working towards a shared outcome. Architects, interior designers, builders, suppliers and clients all contribute to the atmosphere and integrity of a home.

“Nobody owns the project exclusively,” Michael says. “The project itself becomes an entity.”

Mardi believes clients are becoming increasingly aware that strong homes are rarely the result of isolated decisions. They come from carefully assembled teams that know how to communicate, challenge each other and protect the integrity of the design vision.

“Look at who credits their collaborators,” she says. “When architects, interior designers, landscape designers and builders are all acknowledging each other, that’s usually a sign of a harmonious team.”

Six years on, Gloss House demonstrates that the homes people continue to connect with are not necessarily the ones that stay pristine. They are the ones where materials, colour and texture have been brought together with enough thought and confidence to keep revealing new qualities over time.

In many ways, the conversation around Gloss House reflects a broader shift happening across the design industry. Clients are becoming increasingly aware that great projects are not built through isolated decisions, but through carefully assembled teams, trusted suppliers and shared creative values. It is the kind of collaboration ArchiPro aims to support by connecting architects, designers, homeowners and material specialists in one place, allowing projects to move from inspiration to execution with greater clarity and confidence.