Australian choreographer Phillip Adams lists Hope Street House in Spotswood

Leading Australian choreographer Phillip Adams was at a crossroads with his dilapidated Victorian workers’ cottage on an inner-western Spotswood street. Either the house had to go, or he would.

“There was nothing between me and the floorboards. The verandah had fallen down. I’d lived there for 10 years, and it was a bit of a mess,” says the avant-garde all-rounder who has worked across the fields of design, fashion, photography, film and the visual arts. “I was like, ‘hang it’ – I’m going to knock it down and build something really special.”

The resulting Hope Street House could only have been the work of a creative. Evoking the spirit of Palm Springs modernism, it’s all clean lines, pure light and a feeling that cocktail hour is just around the corner.

The 1960s were a reference point from his first meeting with Edition Office architects. “I handed over a book about Case Study houses and said, ‘Well, I always thought that if I had to build a house, it would follow the line of the Hollywood Hills and the architectural masters of the 20th century,’” he says. “But what would that look like in a daggy suburban block in the west?”

$1,650,000 - $1,800,000

41 Hope Street, Spotswood VIC 3015

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The answer lies behind the intriguing gap-brick facade. Custom designed by brick artisan Greg Saunders, it pays homage to Palm Springs and Australian modernism’s love of the Besser Block wall.

Stepping inside the Hope Street House is an exercise in tranquillity: “The world outside falls away,” Adams says. “It’s this gentle lowering of any anxiety; it just melts away and you feel very safe and calm.”

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Instrumental to that is the three-metre-high white timber fence running the property’s perimeter. Creating an utterly private compound, its seamless transition to the interior walls is a defining motif of the home while providing plenty of scope for Adams to display his collection of modern art.

The study is a standout. Adams’ creative space is a sunken room, striking in its simplicity, with a built-in floating rosewood desk lit naturally by a sliver of skylight. It’s simultaneously whimsical and Zen.

The kitchen is similarly custom-designed. Its four-metre-long stainless steel bench “floats” between the outdoor view of an olive tree to the front of the house and the back garden. “Everything is super hidden, tucked away and minimalist,” Adams says. “You can’t see the dishwasher or the fridge, but you push stuff and it all comes out.”

Another successful Hope Street curio lies in the main bedroom, which inhabits a separate pavilion behind the main house. A true retreat, it’s accessed via a walkway with a black-steel canopy that doubles as an outside architectural feature.

“I call the master bedroom “the sanctuary”: It has its own patio looking out onto a garden area,” he says. “When it’s really pouring, which is very rare in Melbourne, you do a quick dash, but otherwise it’s a lovely walk – it’s like a mini monumental moment.”

Adams is preparing to hand the keys to a new owner, but he’ll miss his friendly Spotswood neighbours and his home of the past five years. “It’s a home built for cocktail hour. It’s built for Peter Sellers’ The Party, it’s built for the soiree,” he says. “I hope that this house becomes an icon on the Melbourne landscape for many years to come.”

He has one parting gift for the Hope Street House: Hanging above the dining table, the striking pair of modernist “priest collar” pendant lights by Dutch designer Claus Bolby will greet the new owners.

“It was a big decision, but they’re staying,” he says. “At nighttime the house lights up like a jewel box – they go from this beautiful baby blue to a pinkish colour. It’s a real treat. It wouldn’t be the same if they were taken away.”