Bud Tingwell

Bud Tingwell's dream home was a North Balwyn residence he rented back in the Seventies while working on the TV show 'Homicide'. He had just returned to Australia after sixteen years on the London stage and in Film and Television, living in a cramped, two-storey block that was pretty much the antithesis of Australia's wide-open spaces.

The house in North Balwyn was of a Sixties vintage, made of brick, architect-designed in the Modern style, open-planned and very conducive to the Tingwell family of four. There was plenty of room to roam for the kids ("We lost them in that space it was amazing," Bud says) and had two extra bedrooms, one of which Bud devoted to his 'Homicide' research, or as he called it, his 'Swatting'. Bud and his late wife Audrey missed an opportunity to buy the North Balwyn house in the mid-70s and eventually moved to a cul-de-sac in an adjacent suburb where Bud has lived ever since. His son's family occupies the house next door.

One of Bud's favourite things about the house was its timber floors. "I used to tap dance on them like I was Fred Astaire…and gee I got fit!" The floors proved to have some special healing attributes as well. "See I had a bit of a hernia from carrying Googie Withers across New Zealand," he recounts in his jovial timbre. "I had to pick her up like a baby and carry her across stage and Googie, she's a big girl you know, and even though I had done a bit of weightlifting, she was getting more and more difficult to carry, and then one night something went, down there, so I confessed to John, her husband, it was his repertory company, and he said I'm sorry, but we have a confession to make, Googie is pregnant. So I had a couple of check-ups and the doctors said, 'well, it's not worth really worrying too much, but just don't lift anything.'

So by the time I finished my tap dancing at the house there was no sign of it, and there hasn't been any since. My theory is that that house cured my hernia! Anyway I can't find a place where I can tap dance here," he laments, looking around the fully-carpeted living room.

Archicentre architect Christopher McSteen is present, taking notes. He will be responsible for developing a plan that recaptures the essence of Bud's dream home. Chris will look to provide Bud with a dedicated place to dance, as well as catering to a host of other needs. "You know I'd love to be able to put people up more conveniently too," Bud adds.

During the course of Archicentre's visit, Bud pulls random anecdotes from a lifetime in showbiz. "The best directors are quiet on the set and shut up and listen to the actors," he says, chuckling irreverently. About playing Susan Sarandon's father in last year's 'Irresistible': "We were sitting on the set and I asked her how she pronounced her name. She said it's Sarandon, rhymes with abandon. She is just fabulous, a delightful lady." Next on the cards, Bud is teaming up with Barry Humphries and Julia Blake (who played his love interest in Paul Cox's celebrated 2000 film 'Innocence') in another film by Cox, a love triangle called 'Salvation'.

Bud flew Spitfires in World War II and those hair-raising missions may have helped his nerves when it comes to acting. "The most calm feeling I've ever had was when I let the controls go and I thought I was going to fly vertically into the Mediterranean," he says. "I was in bad cloud, disorientated and everything, I was going down at about 500 miles an hour and I knew I could not avoid the water, so I just let it go and it was the calmest feeling, but I thought jeepers I haven't hit the water yet and I grabbed the controls and pulled back and out I came from some sort of hump in the base of the clouds at 700 feet. Anyway that's my yardstick for being totally calm."

In his Archicentre Design Concept, Christopher Mcsteen draws Bud a thoroughly modern wedge shape design, situating the public/living areas at the big end and the private/sleeping areas at the small end.

A stone path-way off the double carport leads to the front door and into the open-plan living area.

The fireplace was a centrepiece of the North Balwyn home and a double-sided version of it is recreated here for its original warmth and sentiment, but also as a divide between the theatre and the kitchen and meals area. Having a good home theatre was crucial in the design because when Bud's off-set, he has homework and that's watching TV in a comfortable setting. Bud records three to four programs every night, one of which is Neighbours. The architect allocates space for a wall-size, wide-screen with soft, plush furniture surrounding it.

When Chris had asked Bud if he needed a state-of-the-art kitchen Bud had burst out laughing, confessing he's not much chop in the kitchen, omelettes maybe, but that's only because of a stage production years ago when he was required to make an omelette per performance (there were 800 performances). Needless to say it's a quality kitchen, equipped with a breakfast bar, meals area and indoor/outdoor bench with sliding door ideal for transferring food out for barbeques. One imagines the large decking area would be a popular hang-out at movie wraps and Logie Parties, angled perfectly to maximise the evening sun. To the side of the deck, Mcsteen adds a swimming pool, a place to cool off on hot days, and a reminder of Bud's stint in the lifesaving club growing up in Coogee, New South Wales.

Even though Bud says his wife was the voracious reader, there's books piling up everywhere in his present house and he's in desperate need of shelf space. Mcsteen designs an area for Bud's books and it's located behind the stone walled entry, a wide nook the architect reckons could double as a study. The large bookcase works as a makeshift wall, shielding the work space from the open living area and offering a pleasant garden view for Bud, for him to post updates to his popular blog (http://www.budtingwell.com.au/blog/).

At the narrow west-end, Chris keeps the bedrooms on one-side and the services on the other. Bud's bedroom has a massive walk-in-robe and easily accessible ensuite. Next to the main bedroom, Mcsteen has designed a gym, providing Bud a dedicated space to practice his Pilates; he has an instructor visit once a week. To serve Bud's tapdancing needs, the architect suggests a rubber floor (for extra lift) covered by Australian Black Butte. "It's a timber with a certain amount of grain and character to it, says Mcsteen, "not unlike our client."

Story - Shane Moritz