Tag: open house melbourne

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Architecture

Open House Melbourne launches 2020 virtual program

Open House Melbourne is usually a chance for people to step inside buildings not ordinarily open to the public. But in a funny way, Covid forcing it to go virtual for the first time ever, is opening it up to many more (online) visitors.

The 13th Open House Melbourne will liven up the month of July with a schedule of free design and architecture events. The future of the city will be considered across a range of talks and discussions with a special focus on the environmental impacts of design decisions and architectural responses to creating COVID-safe spaces.

This year’s festival will embrace immersive technologies to capture Melbourne’s iconic buildings through cutting-edge VR as well as livestreamed footage led by some of the city’s renowned architects and designers. For the first time, visitors will be able to skip the queues and not worry about booked out tours to their favourite sites around town.
The full building list and access to virtual tours will launch online next week, on Thursday 16 July, and be available until the end of August.

The program of virtual tours will now allow ample time to explore Australia’s most liveable city from the comfort of home. In addition to virtual tours, the annual weekend of live events set for 25 and 26 July will host a series of digital experiences including live tours, panels, architect Q&As and performances from the musicians selected to take over five Open House Melbourne sites as part of the MERGE program.

With over 50 virtual building tours, and engaging digital content from many more significant locations, the 2020 highlights include:

Trades Hall

Aptly named the “People’s Palace”, Trades Hall is one of the most historic buildings in Melbourne that was built on the back of the struggle for the eight-hour day. The complex is a series of 10 buildings built between 1874 and 1963 and is the oldest continuously active union building in the world.

Collingwood Yards

Across three buildings and 6,500 square metres, the historic site has been reinvented as an affordable, open and connected space tenanted by artists, arts organisations, hospitality and retail. This collaboration with Open House Melbourne is an early opportunity for the public to experience the transformed spaces digitally – walk the hallways, discover the 20th century history of the site through archival footage and documentation, and meet the current tenants who now call Collingwood Yards home.

Parliament House

Step inside Victoria’s iconic Parliament House and explore one of Australia’s oldest and most architecturally distinguished public buildings. As part of the festival, Facebook Live events will encapsulate never before seen experiences of the building including the lowering of the grand chandelier in Queens Hall and access to the roof overlooking Spring Street and where Members of Parliament work.

Citylink Traffic Control Room

For the very first time, the public will be able to peer into one of the city’s busiest traffic control rooms digitally, and navigate the Citylink TCR via 3D mapping and a virtual tour led by Transurban’s Operations Lead, Brad Collis.

Lyon Housemuseum

Blurring the lines between art and architecture, the suburban spectacle that is Lyon
Housemuseum in Kew, will be a building highlight for many design and
contemporary art lovers alike. The unique home property that doubles as a private museum was designed by celebrated architect Corbett Lyon and his wife Yueji Lyon, who was instrumental in establishing the public extension of the Housemuseum gallery that opened in 2019. Open House audiences will receive a digital view inside the home restoration while catching a glimpse of the family’s expansive art collection.

Open House Melbourne is an independent organisation that fosters public appreciation for architecture and public engagement in design in the built environment.

For more details of this year’s online program

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Architecture Design House Tours Interviews RENO ADDICT

Real reno: Architect’s inner-city cottage reimagined

Valiant House

Located in a gritty inner-city Melbourne suburb, ‘Valiant House’ is a masculine-edged, contemporary transformation of an original workers’ cottage that befits its industrial heritage. “Many of these small workers’ cottages are being demolished in the surrounding streets to make way for townhouse developments and glitzy apartment buildings but we wanted to preserve the history of the original house,” says the home’s owner and architect Anna Rozen from A for Architecture who lives in it with her partner, two children and the family dog.

Valiant House
Dining, kitchen & living

The original home was a traditional, small, unrenovated cottage with minimal windows and zero outlook but with an expanding family, Anna was hesitant to leave the inner-city for something more suitable and decided to renovate instead. “My partner and I both worked within walking distance of the house and childcare and school were also in walking distance. We didn’t want to move further out to the ‘burbs to establish our family home so we set about designing a family home that would suit the needs of our growing family but that was set on a small footprint,” says Anna.

Bathroom
Bathroom

Valiant House
Skylights fill the rear extension with natural light

The total site area is 180 square metres and the block is long and narrow – at just six metres wide and 30 metres long Anna’s central challenge was fitting in all of the requirements of a family home. “The main factors we considered were creating a sense of space on a small block, maximising the connection between the garden and the living spaces, allowing the kids their own space to make mess that was separate from the main living space and incorporating a home office. All of this aside, my main objective was allowing the mess and clutter of everyday family living to be hidden. Every inch of the house needed to be considered and functional,” says Anna.

Unlike the original home, the new design connects it directly with the rear garden
Unlike the original home, the new design connects directly with the rear garden

Testament to her commitment to maintaining as many of the home’s original features as possible, the original boundary brick walls were retained complete with old glue, cracks and nails. “They were given a fresh coat of paint. The painted chevrons playfully allow a glimpse to the old bricks below and the shapes of the chevron reference the pitched roof forms of the house,” says Anna.

Valiant House
Original boundary walls are a feature in the lounge room

The standout area of the home is perhaps the kitchen and living area; a centralised timber box. “While the front portion of the original house containing two bedrooms was retained, the back of the house was re-imagined into one large open volume that stretches the full width of the site. The services of the house – bathroom, laundry and kitchen – have all been located within a timber-clad box in the centre of the plan. The timber box conceals the family bathroom, a laundry and an appliance cupboard, pantry and fridge. Hidden doors within the box can be ‘opened’ while the house is in use, or ‘closed’ to hide the clutter behind,” says Anna. Genius!

The kitchen appliances are cleverly hidden behind stylish cabinetry
The kitchen appliances are cleverly hidden behind stylish cabinetry

And Anna is rightfully proud of how her clever design ideas tackled the challenges of small-footprint living. “We designed the house to our specific needs – not with a real estate agent or resale in mind. The house is on a small footprint, but due to the considered planning of every nook and cranny it’s more than enough space for us. We’ve been able to turn an inherently dark housing typology with a south-facing garden into a light-filled, spacious house fit for a family of four and their dog.”

Study
Study

Valiant House

Valiant House will be open to view as part of the upcoming Open House Melbourne 2019 Weekend that is taking place on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 July.

Photography: Peter Bennetts

The full Open House Melbourne 2019 program | Another Victorian cottage renovation

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Architecture Design Designers House Tours Interviews RENO ADDICT

‘Stealth House’ hides ultra-modern extension behind

The rear extension
The rear extension

Appropriately titled ‘Stealth House,’ this post-war weatherboard Melbourne home was expanded recently with the addition of an ultra-modern extension at the rear, that cannot be seen from the street. “Like its aeronautical namesake, the form of the house is memorable, yet when it needs to be, is invisible,” says the home’s architect Mark Lam.

The rear extension
The home’s new highly-angular timber-clad rear extension evokes a Stealth bomber

“The extension to the rear of the house is invisible from the front other than the timber laundry ‘box.’ Although it looks dark from the outside the interior is bright and spacious and is connected to the garden via large windows and glazed doors,” says Mark.

The original home
The front of the home

Home to a family of five, the owners of the West Footscray home wanted to maintain the heritage focus at the front but demolish the run-down extension at the rear. “The brief was to keep the original front of the house so that the character of the street is maintained. The dilapidated back of the house was to be updated with an open plan living area with plenty of wall space for the owners’ art collection,” says Mark.

The lounge room features some of the owners' art collection
The lounge room features some of the owners’ art collection

Timber is undoubtedly the star of this home, which is unsurprising when you consider that the owner is a highly skilled carpenter and joiner. “He did most of the work himself,” says Mark says that the timber details are one of his favourite things about the home.

Dining area
Dining

“The simple yet effective form of the roof and the timber work at the rear of the house is my favourite part. The timber finishes – especially the cladding, eaves lining decking and joinery. I also love the seamless blending of the old and new parts of the house,” says Mark.

Bedroom
Bedroom

Melbourne readers will be able to get inside and take a look when the home is opened as part of the upcoming Melbourne Open House program in July. With 224 buildings opened to the public, the 11th annual Open Open House Melbourne Weekend runs from Saturday 28th-Sunday 29th July and will be the largest program ever presented. There are 87 new buildings in the program, as well as 23 residential properties, and 84 buildings in the City of Melbourne.

Stealth House

“Aside from the timber finishes, visitors will be able to check out the owners’ art and upcycled timber furniture collection gives the space a homely yet gallery-like feel,” says Mark.

Photography: Gary Ko

For more | Another daring extension in Melbourne

 

Categories
House Tours

Inside a raw and minimalist home in country Victoria

I once met a woman who spent every Saturday morning going to open houses. The thing was, she wasn’t looking to buy… she was just nosey! And while I haven’t gone as far, I too love a sticky beak (probably why I’m so suited to this job) and I can’t help but ogle at the Two Halves House in Ballarat, Victoria.

Taking the ubiquitous pitched-roof country house form and splitting it in half, the Two Halves House sets up a close relationship with its bush setting. The two halves of the house are offset from one another, improving its access to northern light. The upper pavilion houses an arrangement of bedrooms and bathrooms, and forms the more private part of the building, while the lower pavilion is the more public side of the house with a large, open living space, and views to the south.

The landscape is invited into the interior from all sides, as the split form sees the home nestle into the site and create eye-level connections to the outdoors. The material palette is minimal and raw from the outside, but warm and refined on the inside. Naturally fire-resistant Blackbutt is used for the exterior cladding and windows, while light-toned birch ply is used to line the interior walls and ceilings; a raked ceiling and skylight encourage you to look up as well as out.

If you find yourself in Ballarat on Saturday 28 October you too can be like that woman (with no judgement!) as the Two Halves House opens its doors to the public. Part of the inaugural Open House Ballarat Weekend, running 10am-to-4pm on both Saturday 28 October and Sunday 29 October, some 20 architecturally significant buildings will be open to the public.

A spin-off of the popular Melbourne variety, the free event is a chance to challenge your opinions on architecture, build your knowledge about Ballarat’s history and arm yourself with information about future developments that will impact the city.

For more on Open House Ballarat | House tours

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Interiors Addict

The mini-skyscraper home built on just 20 square metres!

Standing on just 20 square metres in inner-city East Melbourne on a 5×4 metre block, the 5×4 Hayes Lane Project’s commitment to environmentally sound, sustainable design can be seen in the way it was designed, built and now functions. The home’s owner builder Ralph Alphonso built it on a site that used to house an old shed adjacent to his former home.

5x4 Portrait

“The house is down a laneway that is adjacent to a property that I own. It was a remaining parcel of land that I subdivided and the old parcel of land dictated the size of the building,” says Ralph. Building to the boundary on three sides, with 900mm on the fourth, Grand Designs Australia referred to it as a ‘mini skyscraper’ when they featured it in their sixth series.

5x4 Bedroom

Plywood cabinetry chosen for its eco-credentials

 “I wanted an efficient house that was built in a sustainable manner but was liveable too. I didn’t want to live in an eco-house that wasn’t functional for everyday use.” The home was built with products and materials that used minimal energy to produce, constructed from hardwood timber offcuts that would otherwise have ended up as woodchip. “The offcuts are glued together to form an even stronger material,” says Ralph of the home that operates entirely on renewable energy – most of which it produces itself.

“The solar panels on the exterior of the building generate about 19 kilowatt hours of energy per day in summer which is a substantial amount of electricity for such a small site. We’re going to have battery storage soon so we’ll be storing power on site and will probably generate more power than we use and put it back on the grid,” says Ralph.

5x4 Sofa-Couch

The lounge that transforms into a dining table

For those of you wondering about any feelings of claustrophobia, floor to ceiling glass on one side and myriad windows on the others really work to reduce the feeling of enclosure. “Also, exposed ceilings increase the height above your head which makes the rooms feel larger too. These were subtle, design-driven choices made to help make the home feel larger internally,” says Ralph.

5x4 Roof-top Deck

The geo-thermally heated outdoor spa

With small internal spaces, the rooms are designed to be multi-purpose with furniture created accordingly. “The sofa turns into a dining table and its foot rests become stools. There is also a TV that pops up and hides away which means it doesn’t obstruct the home’s city views when not in use,” says Ralph.

5x4 Ensuite

“We like to think of the building as an exemplar of what can be done. We wanted to show that sustainable design can be liveable and built on a small footprint. Sustainability is also about urban in-fill and using pieces of land that aren’t being used,” says Ralph.

The home is open as part of this year’s Open House Melbourne which is taking place on 30 and 31 July. The weekend puts a spotlight on the unique spaces and places that form the foundation of the city, providing an opportunity for you to consider what makes Melbourne unique. It showcases buildings of significance in a free and accessible format so everyone can experience the value of good design and architecture, and consider what makes a liveable city

For more on the 5×4 home, see here.