Soft Grey Granite tiles are a striking presence in this contemporary Albert Park home

Albert Park House is the ultimate in contemporary, luxury living. This four-bedroom residential home creates a striking presence on the street. And, once inside, first impressions continue with a well-considered design spreading across four levels, providing the perfect setting for a young professional couple or a family to call home.

The development is the brainchild of Fili Property, while its thoughtful design is the mastermind of Matyas on the externals, with Zunica driving the interior scheme, all with spectacular results.

The home offers everything you’d expect in a high-end residential development and more. Its basement stretches the entire length of the block, offering a gym, sauna, laundry, bar and sunken lounge, and theatre. The ground floor (entry-level) contains the fourth bedroom (or possible sitting room), mud and powder room, along with a kitchen, concealed butler’s pantry, dining room, and a living room opening onto the courtyard. While level 1 houses three bedrooms, each with en suites, including a master suite built under a large gabled roof overlooking Kerford Road, level 2 is an open plan rooftop with skylight, complete with a bar, spa, powder room, and city views.

“We wanted to appeal to the targeted demographic, but also create a contemporary, exceptionally minimal design. So, selecting really good quality, high-end materials with a carefully considered palette, all within a singular colour tone was critical,” says Andrew Zunica, Creative Director, Zunica.

Typical to Zunica designs, three key materials make up the palette­–all of them textured–including granite, Victorian Ash timber and timber veneer, and concrete.

Soft Grey Granite tiles, supplied by Robertson’s Building Products, are a key feature and, for Andrew, the standout material. They’re used extensively throughout the interiors, from the stairwell to the wet areas, butler’s pantry entrance, and along the hearth in the living room forming an inviting bench seat underneath a skylight.

“I love the Soft Grey Granite tiles and the wonderful colour differentiation in them, particularly the way their natural minerals seem to refract the light. Wherever we’ve used them, they are all arranged in a gridded vertical stack, and we’ve also tried to keep the tiles uncut and use the full tile width as much as we can. It just looks amazing,” Andrew comments.

Without a doubt, the Soft Grey Granite tiles are most striking on the walls of the four-level stairwell, which stretches 12 metres from the basement to the top floor. Connecting all levels, the idea behind the stairwell was to provide a different experience depending on which direction you take. Walking down to the basement, it’s dark and moody, created by the solid Victorian Ash stair enclosed between walls of dark Soft Grey Granite tiles. In contrast, from the ground level upwards, it’s a floating stair hanging between the two walls of granite tiles. The further you climb, the lighter it gets, and the lighter the tiles appear. This is thanks to level 2’s skylight and floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows along the entire staircase, which are planted out with greenery. The staircase essentially floats between big brick columns, with greenery growing on the outside walls. It’s simply magical.

Fili Projects couldn’t be happier with the end result and is looking forward to the real test once the property is placed on the market this year. We have no doubt that this spectacular, contemporary home will attract strong demand and more than reap rewards for everyone involved.

Developer: Fili Property
Interior Design: Zunica
Exterior Design: Matyas Architects
Product: Soft Grey Granite tiles (honed) 230x76x10mm
Photography: Paris Thomson, Sirap