Furniture as Architecture | M Residence by Paul Conrad Architects

June 9, 2026

There is a discipline required when working within two distinct architectural languages simultaneously. At M Residence in Toorak, Melbourne, Paul Conrad Architects has threaded together a 1936 home by esteemed Melbourne architect Marcus Martin with a contemporary addition, unified through material restraint, considered proportion, and a commitment to calm.

Furniture as Architecture | M Residence by Paul Conrad Architects

M Residence, in the words of its owner, was never intended as "an architectural statement for its own sake," but a home in which his family could find peace and solace. It is architecture that calls for intention in everything it houses inside, and the Poliform pieces specified throughout the home rose to meet that demand. "The furniture was always considered as an extension of the architecture," says founder and architect Paul Conrad. "We looked for forms that could sit comfortably within both the heritage fabric and the contemporary addition, unified through a calm and disciplined material palette. Texture, tone and proportion became the key tools. Poliform's pieces carry an inherent timelessness which allows them to inhabit the house naturally, without feeling tethered to a particular era."

"The furniture was always considered as an extension of the architecture. We looked for forms that could sit comfortably within both the heritage fabric and the contemporary addition, unified through a calm and disciplined material palette."

—Paul Conrad, Founder of Paul Conrad Architects

That lasting relevance is immediately clear in the living spaces, where the Curve Chair and Le Club Armchair occupy their rooms with sculptural ease. Both possess softened, rounded forms that feel at home, a quality Conrad values highly in a project where architecture could easily overwhelm its interiors. "Both the Curve Chair and Le Club have a sculptural softness that immediately humanises their surroundings," he explains. "Their rounded forms introduce a sense of ease within the home's more rigorous architectural moments. With restrained colours and a strong material presence, they sit gently within the space, grounding it while still reading as considered design objects." Of Le Club in particular, his affection is clear: "It operates at the intersection of sculpture and use; it belongs to the room even when unoccupied."

That sense of presence becomes equally important as the home's interiors shift in scale. Entering through the dark, metal-clad threshold that bridges old and new, the foyer opens to a double-height void where tactile brickwork soars upwards, drenched in natural light from a linear skylight above. It is a moment of drama, and one that calls for careful grounding as the spaces unfold into the warmer, European-informed living areas beyond. Here, the Nara Bench and Ube Coffee Table provide the anchoring weight that those transitions require. "In spaces of shifting scale, grounding elements become essential," says Conrad. "The Nara Bench and Ube Coffee Table provide that sense of anchoring through their materiality and weight. Timber introduces warmth and tactility, while their crafted forms speak to longevity and care. These are pieces that feel embedded in the architecture and carry a sense of permanence that resonates strongly with the home's heritage qualities."

It’s a distinction worth lingering on—the subtle shift between furniture that inhabits a space and furniture that feels integral to it. At M Residence, where period cornices and double-hung timber windows sit in dialogue with Calacatta Viola marble and Apparatus lighting, Poliform’s pieces settle effortlessly into the latter.

In the private spaces, the Dream Bed and Abbinabili bedside tables define the bedroom with a stillness that mirrors the home's broader sensibility, one that the client described simply as "modernised yet relaxed." "The private spaces called for clarity and stillness," says Conrad. "The Dream Bed and Abbinabili bedside tables were selected for their simplicity and timelessness. By specifying them in contrasting but complementary finishes, they read clearly within the room while maintaining a composed, restful atmosphere. The result is a bedroom that feels grounded, calm, and quietly resolved."‘Quietly resolved’ feels the most precise articulation of what M Residence achieves in its entirety, and of what Poliform, in the hands of an architect who treats furniture as architecture.