Contemporary suburban house extension and renovation in Melbourne by BiLD architecture

Details

Category: Houses

A small-scale project, but this contemporary suburban house extension and renovation in Melbourne isn’t short on aesthetic and material drama.

The first in a series of studies into the adaptation of vernacular Australian suburban typologies, ‘Blurred House’ is a major renovation and extension to an original 1930’s Californian bungalow in Melbourne’s inner-north. Reacting to the established convention of residential extension which prescribes a jarring juxtaposition of existing ‘old’ and introduced ‘new’ architectural elements; the ‘Blurred House’ offers an alternative proposition; that of a blurring between ‘old’ and ‘new’ to produce a hybrid. Gradually transitioning from the vernacular to the contemporary, the division of architectural elements are deliberately ambiguous, producing a unique formal and visual language.

Viewed from the street, the house appears largely unchanged, with a small clerestory window the only hint of reconfiguration. Both internally and externally; moving through the house, new materials, spatial characters and formal language is progressively introduced. By the time of arrival in the back yard, the house has evolved into a different building; no longer recognizable from its original starting point; an architectural ‘rabbit in a hat’.

Architects: BiLD architecture
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Photographs: Tanja Milbourne

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