This is a family home, passed from mother and father to their sons. It served as the first family home and as the sons got older it became the house of their early adulthood. Shared at different times, it has always been an important place that enabled lives and built prosperity. And as the sons have started families of their own, it has become the primary residence of one son and his growing family whom have all become our Clients.
Project Name: Casa Famiglia
Studio Name: BOARCH
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Photography: Emma Cross
Project size: 160 m2
Site size: 580 m2
Completion date: 2016
Building levels: 1
We met our Clients at a point where the house needed to change, to grow a little in size and to allow for an extended personality which reflected the new generation. Designing homes is never easy, but given the history and sentiments here it was a challenge to mediate between honouring the past while giving space to new memories and new family members.
To ensure that what was introduced had meaning but that it also complimented the existing. The easier way to refer to this project is that it involved alterations and additions to a 1930s dwelling.
The design solution was to celebrate the transitions between old and new. These are marked with copper thresholds and patterned brickwork. As well as by giving form to the new, through the gesture of a large roof collecting new and old external and internal spaces together.
Given the period of the original home, the works also need to bring light and a visibility to the garden, an incredibly important feature in supervising young children. The extension sought to remedy these issues, bringing a north facing skylight into the center of the plan and opening the house onto the backyard. The quality of the interiors in the extension, were seen as opportunities to interlace new voices into the fabric of the home.
