A suburban home is expanded into two hanging interconnected dwellings

Situated within the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill, this suburban home, a brand new double house by Justin Mallia Structure transforms an present two-storey constructing right into a collection of courtyards and interlocking areas. The sq. plot was beforehand house to a historically styled two-storey bungalow surrounded by a backyard that had been hemmed in by neighbouring extensions.

A suburban home elevated via a collection of courtyards and interlocking areas

Mallia was tasked to construct over the overshadowed backyard and create a brand new separate dwelling, however the ensuing mission, referred to as Scarborough and Welkin, manages to eke out new pockets of outside house along with improved amenity and privateness. Cautious planning and solar modelling allowed for the creation of angled new construction that seems to intersect the unique home. Though set again from the road, the brand new addition doesn’t learn like a separate construction, extra like a deconstruction addition to the prevailing home.

Mallia’s intervention allowed the consumer to maintain timber from the unique backyard, whereas roof gardens and terraces present new – and far lighter – areas for planting and progress. All that is linked with what the architect describes as a ‘complicated circulation community’, manifesting in a collection of paths and walkways that weave via the positioning, present a separate and personal first flooring entry to the second home, and span a number of ranges to create dynamic and vivid residing areas.

The set again of the brand new home preserves the heritage character of Clifton Hill, with out compromising its modernist credentials. To the precise of the standard picket backyard fence is a route resulting in coated parking, while pushed up on the fringe of the positioning is timber and metal arbour that slopes up in the direction of the brand new home’s entrance door.

The bottom flooring of the unique construction has been repurposed to incorporate 4 bedrooms and an open plan kitchen and residing space. The unique entrance porch has been preserved, whereas later additions on the rear have been eliminated to accommodate the brand new home. ‘The constructing mass is permeated with cracks and fissures,’ Mallia explains, ‘these permit pure air flow and filtered northern daylight to penetrate all through a vastly various association of areas which are a delight and shock to come across.’

Upstairs, the unique attic has been reworked into two bedrooms, a toilet and utility house to serve the brand new home. Reached by a wood-lined staircase that marks the junction between previous and new, the attic rooms are related to the 2 ranges of the primary home, considered one of which serves because the kitchen diner and the opposite the lounge and principal bed room suite.

The roofscape of each homes seems to mix collectively, with separate terraces for every dwelling that step up and down throughout the positioning. The unique chimney stays as a brick totem amidst the brand new planting, privateness screens, seating areas and steps that criss-cross the positioning. A photo voltaic array takes up the entire higher roof space of the brand new home, whereas the unique terracotta tiles have been left as a backdrop to the roof backyard.

Along with the photo voltaic panels, the mission consists of battery storage, a warmth pump for decent water, rainwater restoration and storage for irrigation and EV charging factors. ‘Scarborough and Welkin creatively reinvents a versatile method to fashionable housing, infilling a compromised hole within the city cloth and reaching a stability that’s daring and progressive whereas participating respectfully and modestly with its environment,’ Mallia concludes.

JustinMallia.com