Herringbone house in Melbourne

Isn’t this extension simply wonderful? The overhaul of this Melbourne post-war home was created by IF Architecture, who praised the owners for being so receptive to the architects ideas, allowing their preconceptions to be thoroughly challenged and culminating in the finished project looking completely different to the inspiration images the owners took along to the first meeting.

The design strategy was to use the context of the existing home and the functional requirements of the clients to conceive the new built form, using the history of the house to literally ‘stitch’ together the old and the new in both the aesthetic details and the construction details.  The original house was in poor condition, leaving not a lot to draw from apart from a beautiful decorative pattern on the front door and an amazing art-deco-esque ceiling roses in the formal areas of the house. These remnants became the basis for the external and internal cladding pattern to the extension as well as the tiling pattern used through out the bathrooms and the painted ceiling features in the children’s bedrooms.

The extension features a stunning facade clad in diagonally laid Shadowclad with exaggerated timber joins in a herringbone pattern.

Sustainable features: Northern orientation, natural cross-ventilation, Low E energy efficient glass, Shadowclad and Dulux Low VOC paint was used through out the project.

Products: Jardan living room and dining furniture, Tolomeo micro lights from Artemide, Kartell Ghost stools from Space Furniture, bentwood chairs from Thonet.

Construction by Mancini Made.

[Photography by Andrew Johnson]