From the architect:
Concealed from the street, the transformation of a 1920s Californian Bungalow in Melbourne's inner north is both highly personalised for the needs of its dwellers, and deliberately modest.
An 'alteration and addition', the project takes its cue from the 'lean-to' form common to homes of this era, where service rooms and open verandah spaces were located at the rear under a pitched roof leant against an east west gable roof line. A lean-to addition now stretches across the rear of the block and introduces an articulated northern elevation. Spaces within are arranged under the pitch according to tasks: low in the kitchen and pantry/storage; high in the sitting and living areas.
A new entry hallway is inserted between two bedrooms while a third bedroom is remodelled to create a laundry and pantry.
Twin openings facing the garden provide places to sit and places to grow herbs and flowers.
What makes the project unique is that it is deliberately private from the street, as we took into account the height of the east/west gable of the roof. Colour choice and form were also chosen and designed to sit apart from the existing weatherboard timber home.
