Pasquale Cianfagna’s Cottesloe luxury beach house designed to embrace the community opens to public

When Pasquale Cianfagna has a public open house for his new luxury Cottesloe beach pad next week, the first person through the doors will be his wife, fashion designer Aneka Manners.

Manners, who has been working in London, has not yet seen the property, which has been built where a 1970s Bauhaus-style home once stood hidden by a 1.8m solid wall and double garage.

The owners’ design goal for the their contemporary three-level house was to bring bring that wall down and let the local community in rather than shut it out.

“Being Italian, we like to watch the world go by,” owner Pasquale Cianfagna told Western Suburbs Weekly.

“That’s what you do in Europe and now it will be like that at our place.”

Mr Cianfagna, who owns a commercial and residential real estate business, oversaw construction in Perth, while Manners, who speaks multiple languages, lives in London on a three-year secondment to run a bank.

One of those rare left-brained/right brained marvels, and exceedingly organised, she had already bedded down all the design details, and ensured everything the couple wanted could be procured, before leaving the country.

“She has been living away the whole time it has taken to build this house,” Mr Cianfagna said.

“She returns on August 29 for 10 days, when the house will be finished and open to the public so when they walk through it that will also be her first time walking through our completed home.”

The community will have an opportunity to view the Broome Street residence, which was custom designed and built by Humphrey Homes, over two weekends this month.

Mr Cianfagna said he expects his wife will be thrilled by the final result: an entertainer’s dream, grounded and tasteful, relaxed but refined, and perfectly aligned to their sociable personalities.

What sets this down-sizer apart is that it doesn’t turn away from the street, even though the owners still have the ability to control their privacy.

In fact, it appears to be intentionally bucking the gated-fortress trend that is so prevalent in some pockets of the western suburbs.

“The owners didn’t want to be shut off from their community,” Humphrey Homes in-house architect Helen Marchesani explained.