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Casa di Campo

Werribee South

Conceived as an inward facing courtyard house, Casa di Campo is a place of sanctuary and escape amongst the surrounding farmland. The plan is designed around one large central garden and small periphery courtyards with lush landscape view and protect the home from the elements.

The material pallet is deliberately paired back and earthy, inspired by the broader surrounding landscape.

Somers

Somers

Somers Beach House occupies a prominent beach fronted property overlooking Westernport, Phillip Island and Bass Strait beyond. The Wellard Architects designed house has two generous levels acting independently of one another as an inter-generational holiday house.

A detailed build sequence meant that we completed the boat shed on the water’s edge first, before commencing the expressed steel structure of the main house on the steepest section of the site.

Flinders House

Flinders

Nestled within an existing garden on the Mornington Peninsula, Flinders House unites Modernism with the contemporary. The original house was built in the 1980s and first renovated in 2002. The clients (one a retired architect) were eager to spend more time in their holiday home, with the capacity to host friends and family. As return clients, working again with Fido Projects & Fooman Architects, the team embarked on the highly collaborative work of renovating once more.

Architecture
Foomann Architects

Photography
Willem-Dirk du Toit

Landscape Design
Phillip Johnson Landscapes

Featured
The Local Project in 2022
Houses Awards 2023 Shortlist

Threes

Albert Park

In late 2018, Vogue Living described the house as “rich but reductive, demonstrative but quiet, unified but effervescing with unique expressions.” For this home, an ornate, heritage Victorian terrace, the vision was to balance old and new, for a smart, contemporary makeover.

We worked with interior designers Golden to bring the residence to life.
For us it was the third, unrelated project on the same street, and proved that when it comes to design, and life, good things really do come in threes.

Barnet Street

Yarraville

For this renovated Edwardian home in Melbourne’s inner-west, we worked with Studio MKN (their first project) to create seamless connectivity between the home’s expansive garden and its generous internal living space. The solution: a full-width steel window, welcoming natural light onto a contemporary dining and kitchen space. Functional and minimal, the kitchen features subtle 2-pac, veneer and Carrara marble cabinetry, which complements new, solid American Oak floors.

Design
Studio MKN

Photography
Nicole England

Tower House

Inner Melbourne

The vision for this home was that of a classic, yet contemporary residence that could endure through time, and retain a sense of elegance—always. More importantly however, it had to be practical. The request from the owner: “We didn’t want a home that looked too pristine to live in.” To meet the brief, we worked with architect Dylan Farrell to strip the existing modern Italianate-style house of its finishes, rejig the floor plan, and enlarge entrance-ways to create a new rhythm where space is opened up and infinitely more liveable. We also completed minor external works in and around the garden, designed thoughtfully by Paul Bangay.

Described by Farrell as showcasing a “high level of craftsmanship, and a low level of showmanship,” the finished design is inspired by the work of Christian Liaigre and Joseph Dirand. It’s stylish without shouting it. The home featured on the cover of Belle Magazine in April, 2018.

Design
Dylan Farrell

Landscape Design
Paul Bangay

Photography
Prue Ruscoe

Normandy Road

Elwood

Pipkorn & Kilpatrick cleverly rearranged the original garage into a combined pool house & double garage with mezzanine storage. A dining room was also added to the house, opening the back of the original California bungalow onto the new garden & pool area designed by landscape architect Kate Patterson Landscapes.

House A

Alphington

House A (for Alphington), located in Melbourne’s inner north, was the proud Winner of the 2017 Victorian Architecture Award, Residential Architecture – Houses (New) category.
Responding to the inclined nature of its block, the house creates a feeling of a country escape — it’s design leading outward to a timber deck, where landscaping by Lygon St Nursery echoes the natural environment.

Timber plays a significant role here, both internally and externally, with rough-sawn Stringy Bark cladding the outside of the house and featuring inside too—this time, in dressed form, to clad walls and screening the staircase.

American Oak floors further complement the Australian hardwoods.
The windows, most of which are floor to above-ceiling height were custom built on-site by us.

Halo House

Glen Iris

Taking inspiration from the ‘halo effect,’ a biological term used to describe the thriving ecosystems surrounding icebergs in the Southern Antarctic Ocean; Halo House provides a sanctuary for its inhabitants, while allowing for increased activity in and around its perimeter. Designed by Breathe Architecture with landscape design by Eckersley Garden Architecture, the home was scaled to house a large family and a home business, with a focus on collective wellbeing.

Halo House also incorporates Breathe’s customary sustainable design, including a large solar PV array, electric heat pumps for hydronic heating and hot water, rain water tanks, as well as passive solar design features, operable shading and low impact material selections such as natural concrete, painted recycled brick and raw brass. All materials were locally sourced and environmentally sustainable where possible.

Halo House featured in Habitus Magazine in October 2018, and ArchitectureAU in October 2017.