An Honest Expression

The owners of this large house in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, were waiting for years to build their dream home. Now with two young boys, they came across an idyllic site that had both two street frontages and a public thoroughfare along one side. “It’s a beautiful tree-lined street and quite a special site,” says architect Drew Carling, director of Maddison Architects, who worked closely with well-known architect and television presenter Peter Maddison (Host of Grand Designs). “We were fortunate that we were only ‘sacrificing’ a rudimentary late-1940s timber home,” adds Carling.

Photo: Will Watt

“Retaining the timber house was never going to bean option, given our brief was to design a large solid family home that would stand the test of time,” says Carling. With the owners needing a large home office and having two active boys, getting the planning right would also not have been possible by retaining the original timber home.

As the main frontage is orientated to the south, and the site is gently elevated approximately two metres to the north, it was decided fairly early in the discussion phase to locate the basement car parking below the elevated first floor to the street. The owners can either drive their cars into the basement and access the hub of the house (kitchen and living areas) or alternatively use the side path to the front door. “Generally, visitors use the side path,” says Carling, who included perforated steel to clad the front façade as well as to create a canopy over the front door which continues inside to form part of the ceiling and ‘cascades’ down one wall. “The idea is to orientate visitors,” says Carling, pointing out the large home office located at the front of the house (approximately 35 square metres) and the kitchen and living area located on the other side, orientated to the north.

Photo: Will Watt

Given planning was at the helm of Maddison Architects’ design, there was a need to create areas for the children together with informal and formal areas for the family. So the kitchen and meals area is located at the core of the floor plan, with the formal dining and living area ‘peeling’ off to the northeast. And while the kitchen is open to the formal areas, a change in ceiling height, to approximately six metres allows for formal entertaining on a grand scale. To accentuate the forms, both of the living areas and the house itself, Maddison Architects included two dramatic voids. “We wanted to bring additional light into the core of the house. But we also wanted to express the same materials on the inside and out,” says Carling, pointing out the black steel walls, the expressed steel and the exposed concrete walls and ceiling. The monumental walls also provide the perfect backdrop for the owner’s artworks and wall sculptures.

The kitchen, located on the north-west side of the ground floor, epitomises the restrained used of materials used in the Surry Hills house. Stainless steel benches complement the black stained plywood joinery. And as with the exterior, black steel punctuated with 150mm holes, sharpens the island bench. “The children often use these holes as footrests,” says Carling.

Photo: Will Watt

While the ground floor includes the main living areas, there’s a second living area/study on the first floor for the two boys, which will transition to more of a study as they enter senior school. Separated by two voids, the architects included unimpeded sight lines to the kitchen below and to the formal dining area. “It’s a large house, but we wanted to ensure it felt embracing rather than segmented into endless rooms,” says Carling, who also included the main bedroom and the two boy’s bedrooms on the first floor.

Photo: Will Watt

As entertaining is high on the owners’ list, Maddison Architects included two large terraces to the north, leading from the living areas. Protected from the northern sun by means of the first floor cantilever (the boys’ bedrooms), these outdoor terraces function as an outdoor room for most parts of the year. A studio attached to one of these terraces has been earmarked as a further stage of the home’s development.

Photo: Will Watt

“From the start, we wanted to express the structure and materials of the house, whether it was the steel or the concrete walls and ceilings,” says Carling. “There’s an honesty in how these materials are played out. Nothing has been concealed,” says Carling, whether it’s the larger ‘picture’ or the finer detailing in the joinery,” he adds.

Maddison Architects can be contacted on 03 9696 3636