When Casey Dunn originally asked Arthur Furman to design a house on a double corner lot in the rapidly developing neighbourhood of East Austin, the brief focussed more on the design of the house rather than how he planned to live in it. The simple shape, gabled roof and lack of embellishment encompassed the original vision for the project. The use of stucco, inspired by Dunn’s affinity for West Texas, gives the house its monolithic appearance. By recessing all the windows, Furman managed to create the look of much thicker walls, whilst also protecting the wood, that surrounds the windows, from the elements.

“When we started out, Casey wasn’t married and wasn’t dating anyone,” says Arthur, “So, the original project brief was less about bedrooms and bathrooms, and more about the character of the home. Specifically, the shape. Casey had an image in his mind of a house he had photographed early in his career in a wooded area of Maine. The house was a basic shape—as one would draw as a child—just a box with a gabled roof.”

Whilst planning the house, Casey met his wife Sarah and, although at the time they did not discuss marriage, he started to think more about building the house with a future family in mind. Sarah is a baker and loves to cook with fresh ingredients from the garden and so she became the driving force behind designing a multifunctional kitchen space.

This move towards creating a family home is where Fisher & Paykel appliances stand out the most. Their design allows for the clean finish that Dunn envisaged, whilst creating the multi-functional and practical space that a family needs. Furman comments, “when it came to specific appliances, the two of them picked out what they wanted, and we designed around that — but we were very pleased with their choices.” The Built-in Oven is positioned in the kitchen island, with the Steel Cooktop situated to the side of the kitchen. The nature of the Fisher & Paykel appliances, as separate units rather than one connected range, means that the family can work together, cooking and baking alongside each other, with access to both appliances at once.