Three generations coexist happily under the one roof in this modern and innovative dwelling in Melbourne’s east. The home was renovated with the aim of celebrating family, offering a series of spaces designed to bring people together, and to also off er solitude when desired. The existing fibre cement-clad house was dwarfed on two sides by two-storey dual-occupancy homes that overlooked the dwelling. On the plus side, there were beautiful leafy trees which were retained and a lemon-scented gum over the fence.
As part of the brief, the home needed to adequately cater for a multigenerational family made up of two grandparents, two parents and their children. “Our clients, Susana and Chi, came to us with a sense of vitality and excited hope,” share Kim Bridgland and Aaron Roberts from Edition Office. “Their ask was that this home could comfortably shelter them all while allowing important moments of independence, and to also foster their growing creative identities.”
This abode is indeed a sanctuary, a safe haven for the family to grow, connect and celebrate life. Kim and Aaron say it’s also a home that shows strength of spirit. “It’s a house that also symbolised the resilience of their collective and enduring story, with the elder parents arriving in Australia as refugees from Vietnam.”
Given the challenges of close proximity to neighbours, and the need to create zones that offered private and shared spaces, a clever design solution was required. “The home wraps entirely around a central courtyard and links a sequence of living rooms to their corresponding outdoor spaces like a chain,” explain Aaron and Kim. The folded roof forms off er views to the sky and neighbouring trees.
In addition to kitchen, dining and living spaces, there are four bedrooms, two ensuites and a shared bathroom. The bedroom suites for the dual family elders were positioned in opposite corners of the home. Kim and Aaron explain that this is refl ected formally by the roof forms that lift and fall in alternate and opposing corners.
“This is experienced spatially as a cycle of change and of rising and falling forms as its occupants live and circulate around the central garden room,” they explain. Homeowner Susana Le says their home has an interesting duality to it. “It can be both open and private, bright and moody, feeling both residential and civic at the same time,” she shares.
“It can be both open and private, bright and moody, feeling both residential and civic at the same time” — Susana Le.
For Kim and Aaron, it isn’t just one built element or aspect of the design that makes it truly special. It’s the way the home feels. “There is always a deep sense of calm every time we step inside, like we have been taken on a journey and feel so emotionally and creatively rejuvenated after we visit,” they say. The home has a small footprint. The strong use of materiality supports a sustainability ethos and the bricks that clad the house were an eco-friendly choice. Walls and doors are lined in beautiful spotted gum plywood. The northern orientation captures warming sunlight, and burnished concrete floors off er thermal mass, creating warmth. Ample glazing offers opportunities for cooling breezes and air flow.
Susana is a dancer and the new abode is the perfect backdrop for her and her family. She sees their dwelling as both a performance space and a home. “It’s where we can be creative, dance and play between the day-to-day rhythm of family life,” she says.
“The home wraps entirely around a central courtyard, and links a sequence of living rooms to their corresponding outdoor spaces like a chain” — Kim Bridgland and Aaron Roberts.
