KAA Family House

KAA family house is the renovation and extension of a free standing Victorian house in the historically significant suburb of North Fitzroy. Home to 4 teenage girls, 2 dogs, and their busy parents, the 1970s ramshackle extensions to the rear of the original home were gradually being outgrown and I was asked to give a new and enduring life to the house.
The design stripped the house back to the original and beautifully decorative 4 front rooms, which were built and inhabited for many years by a master carpenter and his family at the turn of the 19th century. These rooms have become the parent’s wing and include a formal living and dining areas. A new, spacious interstitial zone contains communal living spaces and is flooded with light and connections to staggered outdoor areas, including borrowed views to an enormous lemon scented gum to the south west. A suite of 4 bedrooms for the girls, at the opposite end of this zone, provides them with their very own individual sanctuaries, equipped with mezzanine sleeping spaces, study areas and a bathroom.
The scale and materiality of the new additions were designed so as to create a beautiful addition, that respects but also matches the integrity of the grand old Victorian era house.

Like many projects built during the tumultuous Covid lockdown periods, it is like a dream to return to the project and see how the original vision, together with a lot of determination and hard work, has paid off in the beautiful and joyous way the family now lives in their home.