Landscape designer Adam Robinson describes this captivating courtyard in Sydney’s east as “the warm face of minimalism”. Packed with striking paradoxes, his recent project is streamlined and elegant, simple and ornate, modern and traditional, all at the same time. The design respects its past while embracing its future. In achieving the former, it helped to have a hunky and handsome original sandstone wall as a starting point – and Adam missed no opportunity in playing that up to the full.
When the owner, a high-powered
