How a clever reno turned buyer’s regret into homeowner’s delight

It’s incredible the difference access to natural light can make to how liveable a space feels. In the case of this house in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville, it was transformative, taking the ‘long, skinny block’ and turning it into a relaxed family home ideal for contemporary living.

Having moved to Melbourne from interstate, the owners of this single level late Victorian house soon questioned their decision to buy it, architect Rod Allan from ROAM Architects says.

“It’s an extreme version of a long skinny site with a party wall on one side and a narrow path down the other side, typical of the inner west of Melbourne,” Allan says. “But there were a lot of other places they could have bought at the time.”

Read more stories like this in the launch issue of Kanebridge Quarterly magazine. Order our copy or subscribe today here

With just a 6m width to work with, he says the challenge from the start was making the house feel larger, while offering the family sufficient space to be together, as well as provide space to be apart.

“From the first day it was looking at different ways of overcoming the width of the site,” he says. “They also wanted three or four bedrooms with a big open plan living space.”

The obvious solution was to create a second level, but the plan was abandoned for several reasons.

“We did a scheme which went up and we gave it pretty serious consideration,” Allan says. “It was a more expensive option and with the planning requirements in this area you would have had to set the upper floor in from the lower floor. 

“When we got it costed up, we all came to the same conclusion – it wasn’t worth it.”

Instead, Allan came up with the design that would treat the site as a whole, extending the new living and dining area from the original house, with a deck taking up most of the garden. The three bedrooms at the front would be in the original part of the house, which was still in reasonably good condition.

“The builder loves the restoration side of his work so the front of the house was treated quite respectfully,” he says. “The original red brick in the hallway was in surprisingly good condition so we cleaned it up and painted it white to retain the texture of the bricks.” 

The bedrooms were separated from the communal living spaces at the rear via a central ‘pocket courtyard’, which sits between the kitchen and dining space and a secondary multipurpose space. Deliberately designed for flexibility, this room can serve as a playroom, reading room or fourth bedroom as the need arises.

“There are pocket sliding doors in each of the two walls and you can slide them together to create a private room,” says Allan.

This intermediary zone also has a study space in the hallway, separate from the distractions of the living areas at the rear.

“It has pocket bi-fold doors and the desk is set back so that you can push the chair in and shut the door,” Allan says. “It was a pre-COVID design but it is a pretty relevant solution.”

While the width of the house was a significant constraint, Allan says it helped considerably that the side of the house faced north. He made the most of this access to the abundant natural light with large sliding windows opening onto the side path.

In keeping with the desire to maximise space, Allan opted for built-in joinery to give the owners the storage they needed while maintaining flow through the spaces. 

“You can have people relaxing out on that bench with the couple in the kitchen, the kids can hang out and you can slide the big window open and be inside or outside,” Allan says. “There’s an element of appreciating what contemporary living is all about. 

“We were also quite keen not to go down the road of the big kitchen island unit, which was particularly because of the narrowness of the site, but we wanted the dining table in that space, to make it feel more like a country kitchen.”

Allan has also manipulated space and light by breaking up the strong lines with curves and softer angles, which makes it feel both contemporary and more connected with the outdoor space. It also creates a sense of discovery for visitors moving through the house – a significant achievement on such a small site.

“Although we are mostly dealing with straight lines in this house, those soft curves make all the difference,” he says. “It’s using design to make those moments of enjoyment. Inside, it’s reflected in the bench seat that wraps around the curve.”

In the end, though, this place would feel dark and pokey if not for the amount of light streaming in.

“Materials come and go but if you can get that fantastic light into the house and track it over the course of a day, if you can get that light, you can do a lot less with everything else.”

Pictures: Tatjana Plitt