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Home Tour: Quiet Evolution
This heritage home undergoes a renovation and extension, blending Art Deco features with the practicality of a modern family home.
Designing a seamless extension is the architectural equivalent of adding a new verse to a song without changing its rhythm. For architecture and interior design practice Fowler and Ward, the challenge was even greater with this three-bedroom Yarraville home, an original Art Deco heritage build.
Centred on the idea that the extension should appear as though it had always existed, the client’s brief introduced an additional layer of complexity. Director Jessie Fowler shares, “Many architects, like us, are reluctant to ‘re-create’ heritage architecture. We often design extensions that are sympathetic to the heritage home but remain differentiated from the old.” The challenge lay in designing an extension that felt integrated, but that did not fall into “faux-heritage territory”.
Beginning with the bones of the home was key. Fowler explains that the gable form of the existing house provided a strong starting point due to its practicality and timelessness. From here, they were able to add a “new ‘story-book’ triangular facade” that was at once dramatic, fresh and contemporary, yet still fulfilled the client’s brief that “the extension had to feel like it had always been there”.
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Working with existing high ceilings and well-lit front rooms ensured the “lofty, light-filled extension” was a natural progression, and was rounded out with a consistent materials palette of oak and neutral tones through the old and new. “A simple, timeless palette that doesn’t feel out of place in either space”, adds Fowler.
One of the primary intentions of the renovation was to reconfigure the original Art Deco house to be conducive to family life. This was achieved with a considered shuffling of the original layout.
By closing off the connection from the grand front lounge room to the former kitchen and dining space, the team was able to create a main bedroom, walk-in robe and ensuite without sacrificing the glory of the lounge. This had a flow-on effect through the rest of the house. “The previous main bedroom was enormous, and this was sliced up in a way that allowed us to create two kids’ bedrooms while retaining many beautiful period features such as the original steel-framed corner windows”, continues Fowler. With minimal other layout changes required, other original features like decorative plasterwork and distinctive interior glazing were also able to be maintained.
Having successfully blended the old with the new in an exceptionally artful way, there is plenty to be proud of with this project. For the team, this meant responding to a problem with simplicity, a strategy they stand by. Returning to the gabled roof form of the new extension, Fowler notes it was this feature that provided a vehicle for simplicity in every way. “It’s simple to construct and drain. It is sympathetic to the neighbours and is strongly connected to the original house.” She continues, “The internal volume created by the soaring ceiling feels unexpected and energising”, all “achieved through a singular and simple form that is beautiful, pragmatic and cost-effective.”
Project Credits
- Architect & Styling: Fowler and Ward
- Build: Ultra Builders
- Photographer: Martina Gemmola
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