This was the most common response I’ve gotten from the public when touring them around the house. And to be honest, I wasn’t too surprised. Everyone in the team over the past 2 years has poured their time and passion into the Desert Rose to make a house that is actually a house for life. And that means the house should feel like a home. It is well known that you recover and heal faster in a home; and as someone who has seen a loved one in palliative care, I wish there was a house like this.

Good design is invisible. When you walk into the living room, it feels spacious for a house with a 90m² floor area. And even though I know we’ve designed the living space to give a sense of scale to the occupants, seeing it another thing. Today Meg, Emily, and I toured the Interior Jury and we walked on the same path that any of us would tour the public. When standing in the entrance way (designed for Middle Eastern considerations of privacy from the external eye) I forewarned them that the space will feel spacious and quite warm. Upon opening the door, they were as shocked as I was when I first saw the house as a completed product. Hearing that it was spacious was one thing. But seeing it is another.

To be honest, I actually wrote and re-wrote descriptions of the house for the readers. I eventually deleted these as it wouldn’t give any justice to the consideration and passion that has been put into every detail of the house. Did you know that all the power points are raised at least 300mm off the finished flooring sp occupants in wheelchairs don’t falling over trying to reach electrical plugs?

Come see the house in Dubai. Or come see the house when it is back on UOW Campus in Australia, Wollongong.

We’ll find out tomorrow how we did with the Interior Judging, but regardless of the outcome I could not be any prouder of the home we’ve built over past 2 years. It’s a home that the public has said that they can imagine living in. It’s a home that I can imagine living in. And it’s a house I wished was around 3 years ago.

– Vivian Pham, Liveability Team