Building a house can be a long and arduous process, but imagine doing it from halfway across the world. Architect and interior designer Annelise Tiller and husband Kim were living in Dubai when they purchased an 1890s Victorian terrace in Carlton, Victoria. Kim came back to Australia first to undertake demolition and start building while Annelise looked after the kids, worked full time and managed the design remotely.
Delays in planning approvals, COVID-19 challenges, the discovery of artefacts and a concrete blowout — not to mention a six-hour time difference — made this build one to remember. Annelise’s passion and persistence has resulted in a contemporary family home that takes connection between interior and exterior to a whole other level.
“We wanted to create a home that captured our passion for detail and materiality, which exposed and celebrated carefully crafted built form. Like Melbourne’s rich laneways, the interior reveals itself as a series of emerging shaped spaces while peeling back layers of history,” says Annelise.
Aptly named Lanes End, this property is located at the end of a laneway and its Victorian facade is relatively intact. However, from the abutting lane, the home is “unashamedly contemporary”.
Lanes End was a renovation and extension rolled into one, with extensive demolition and excavation required. The property’s double width offered an opportunity that Annelise couldn’t deny: a home office and family home with multiple points of entry. The result is a four-storey, four-bedroom, five-bathroom family home with basement workshop and “stackable” carport. As well as the home office space, level one has been split to enable seclusion from the main dwelling with its own private entry. In the future, this can be used for adult children or visits from grandparents.
From biophilic design to efficient power and water infrastructure, Annelise has considered sustainability and the future of this project in all aspects of its design. The new extension optimises solar orientation, thermal insulation and provision for a second residential entry, while a 15kW photovoltaic system on the roof provides off-grid power for heating, hot water, kitchen appliances and electric vehicle charging points.
Biophilic design principles were applied throughout the interiors, including natural ventilation and daylight to all rooms, external and internal vegetation on all levels and a natural material palette. Featuring repurposed original timber floorboards, reclaimed ironbark, reused bluestone pitchers and locally sourced and reclaimed brick and raw concrete surfaces, Lanes End’s interior is raw and organic with a heavy use of black that adds depth and intensity. It’s brightened by an abundance of operable windows and skylights, and window planter boxes provide privacy and screening while also adding colour to internal spaces.
“The project pursues an ecosystem of sustainable initiatives that draws embodied energy from the past and reduces use in the future,” Annelise says. “The building is not a static object but hosts the growth and home beyond its human inhabitants. The design of Lanes End achieves a spacious family home despite building on a dense inner-city plot. The architecture does not rely on ostentatious design gestures; however, focuses on rawness of materiality and expression of construction detail.”
