Beavers House is located in Northcote, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia.
Northcote has a village vibe where older Greek and Italian residents live alongside artists, musicians, and young families.
The Altereco Design team carefully considered the heritage characteristics of this Victorian Terrace but proudly introduced a contemporary addition to the front façade.
The addition extends into an open plan, light-filled and practical living/dining space at the rear of the dwelling.
The seamless transition between the existing and the new seeks to align each space with the needs of its inhabitants and offers a high-performance solution that responds to the external elements yet provides a healthy and comfortable interior.
This house is quite a unique single fronted brick Victorian.
This terrace house must have been planned to have a twin sister.
However for some reason, it never eventuated.
As a result, Altereco Design was presented with a long narrow strip of west-facing vacant land.
The existing structure poses a long, tall double-brick wall facing west.
That was less than ideal for two reasons; lack of connection to the long yard, and a large thermal mass heat bank in summer.
Sometime in the 1970s, an extension had been added to the back of the house that didn’t celebrate the backyard nor take advantage of the ideal north facing orientation.
So it didn’t provide adequate daylight and comfort into the living areas.
This structure offered no value, so it was demolished.
The building was then brought back to the original single-fronted brick terrace house.
Although not in a heritage overlay area, Altereco Design designed the new building’s street face to sit harmoniously with its Edwardian facade.
They wanted to create something impressionable, but not dominant or overbearing.
Short on space for this family home, the design response was obvious: keep the bedrooms in the original front portion of the house that were proportional with high ceilings and good volume, and migrate the living zones toward the back of the house, allowing more opportunity for light and better connection to the backyard.
Altereco Design utilised some of the vacant land alongside the building to create a master suite and connect it to the hallway and other bedrooms. This enabled the master bedroom pavilion to appreciate its northern aspect. It is almost a smaller replica of the north facing living areas at the back.
The dining room flows out onto the large deck through a lift and slide door and is encased in a rough-sawn ironbark pergola covered in ivy creeper.
At the back of the house Altereco Design retained the carport that provides rear lane access, somewhere for the bikes to be stored, and a common access point into the home.
This is where the mudroom was placed which also doubles as a brewery for the resident part-time hobbyist brewer.
It connects and flows well into the kitchen and the heart of the home.
Maximising the functionality of all 485 m2 of land available was the driving force behind the design. A key design objective was to optimise the kitchen, dining area, and master bedroom or orientation to the north.
The house is zoned for separation of living areas from sleeping areas.
And even though the transition may feel seamless, the original terrace house has been restored and emphasised, creating new apertures and exposing the brickwork, tastefully reflecting on the past while moving into a modern future.
The predominant use of natural materials throughout the new additions helps soften the building. As the landscaping establishes in the years to come, the home will provide a private and tranquil oasis.
Project Details
Project size – 201 m2
Site area – 485 m2
Completion date – 2020
Building levels – 1
Project Team
Building Designers
Altereco Design
Altereco Design is a boutique building design practice creating beautiful and functional homes in Melbourne’s leafy suburbs and throughout regional Victoria in Australia.
They draw inspiration from the site and surrounding environment. Natural materials play a big part in their ethos, along with efficiency, sustainability, and practicality.
Photography
Jade Cantwell
Jade Cantwell is a Melbourne-based architectural and interiors photographer.
Photo Gallery
Click on a thumbnail image to enlarge.
Design © 2020 Altereco Design. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2020 Jade Cantwell. All Rights Reserved.
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