Location: South Yarra, Victoria, Australia.

Architect: Robert Simeoni Architects.

The Powell Street House is located in South Yarra, Melbourne, and is a 1930s brick duplex in an Art Deco style. The house was originally two separate apartments, but the clients, an architecture and design writer and his partner, wanted to combine them into a single residence. The aim was to work with the existing fabric of the building and retain the original layout as much as possible. The alterations and additions were designed to capture the spirit of the 1930s duplex and respond to the qualities of these simple yet noble dwellings. The design approach was to treat the new elements as interventions that were distinguishable from the original fabric but respectful to it. The ground floor addition forms a double-height volume that incorporates a carefully located high-level window and was conceived as a quiet space with ambiguous connections between the existing and the new. The compact central staircase connected the two previously separated levels of the building and was located within the former bathroom space to each level to minimize the need for internal alterations. The bathrooms were designed with materials evocative of the 1930s architecture of the original house, including basins tiled in situ and the use of traditional shower curtains. The addition and new architectural elements generally read as insertions within the existing fabric and connect enigmatically with the materiality of the original. Views were limited and curated through the new steel windows utilizing a combination of clear and opaque glazing, using narrow reeded patterned glass, sympathetic to the house’s original era. The design was developed in response to the quiet interior and muted light of the existing home, with a deliberate quietness and the creation of long diagonal views through the existing shallow floor plan. The alterations and additions endeavour to capture the spirit of the 1930s duplex and respond to an understanding of the qualities of these simple yet noble dwellings. This approach results in a validation of the qualities of the original.

Photo credit: Derek Swalwell.