On the lands of the Bunurong people
This alteration and addition to a single-fronted Victorian house seeks to counter the experience of living on a narrow, inner-city site by designing an open and generous home that seems to extend into the treetops of the neighbours’ gardens. The addition captures deliberate and carefully composed views of landscape and is inspired by concepts of the walled garden and the borrowed garden.
A masonry wall traces around the edges of the site to the rear and defines the interior and exterior spaces of the new, north-facing addition. This continuous built edge undulates a bit like a landscape element, expanding and contracting along the northern boundary to frame a fireplace, storage and nooks for seating, before changing course and folding into the interior to define the kitchen.
The walled garden is compact but cleverly integrated into the floor plan. A glass wall with sliding doors is a protective layer through the middle of the ground floor, enclosing living spaces without visually separating them from the adjacent garden. A long kitchen organises activity within the open-plan living area. Beyond the garden walls, views of the surrounding treetops allow the owners to delight in the experience of a borrowed garden.
Externally, profiled hardwood cladding in a charcoal finish appears delicate. Openings are articulated with a geometry drawn from the shape of the Victorian awnings found on neighbouring houses. Upstairs, a small north-facing balcony projects out from the main bedroom and is reminiscent of a ship’s bridge. Framing selected views of the surrounding trees and rooflines, it playfully suggests the moment when an enormous shipping container is glimpsed through the narrow gaps between small bayside cottages.
On the lands of the Wurundjeri
This alteration and addition to a single-fronted Victorian house seeks to counter the experience of living on a narrow, inner-city site by designing an open and generous home that seems to extend into the treetops of the neighbours’ gardens. The addition captures deliberate and carefully composed views of landscape and is inspired by concepts of the walled garden and the borrowed garden.
A masonry wall traces around the edges of the site to the rear and defines the interior and exterior spaces of the new, north-facing addition. This continuous built edge undulates a bit like a landscape element, expanding and contracting along the northern boundary to frame a fireplace, storage and nooks for seating, before changing course and folding into the interior to define the kitchen.
The walled garden is compact but cleverly integrated into the floor plan. A glass wall with sliding doors is a protective layer through the middle of the ground floor, enclosing living spaces without visually separating them from the adjacent garden. A long kitchen organises activity within the open-plan living area. Beyond the garden walls, views of the surrounding treetops allow the owners to delight in the experience of a borrowed garden.
Externally, profiled hardwood cladding in a charcoal finish appears delicate. Openings are articulated with a geometry drawn from the shape of the Victorian awnings found on neighbouring houses. Upstairs, a small north-facing balcony projects out from the main bedroom and is reminiscent of a ship’s bridge. Framing selected views of the surrounding trees and rooflines, it playfully suggests the moment when an enormous shipping container is glimpsed through the narrow gaps between small bayside cottages.
On the lands of the Bunurong Boon
Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation.
Our Client’s Victorian terrace overlooks Nairm, Port Phillip Bay. Some mornings the bay is still, the lilac hue punctuated by bright jerseys of cyclists and lamps along the pier. This is Beaconsfield Parade at its most peaceful before the promenade fills with people strolling, paddling and driving. Later the wind rises, throwing waves onto the pier and foam onto the shore. At night stillness returns and lights of the shipping lane guide ships through the rip.
The brief was to reorganise the plan to improve light and outlook to the garden whilst providing a sense of entry from the lane. A single-storey, north-east facing pavilion is inserted below the existing building between the brick walls of the neighbouring terraces.
A stepped masonry wall forms a kind of lantern adjacent to an existing brick wall. Inside the plywood ceiling sweeps up, enabling light to fall deep into the floor plate. The volume created provides a high gallery wall whilst the rest of the addition is level with the adjacent boundary walls.
The lantern is the only part of the addition visible from outside of the property. This discrete intervention has improved the environmental performance of the home without compromising the heritage values of the place. The lantern is a welcoming engagement with the lane and surrounding built landscape.
Commendation – Residential Dwelling: Alteration/Addition
The Design & Development Awards, City of Port Phillip, 2022