Rethink | Pitch Perfect

from est Magazine Issue #38 | Evolve

by est magazine

Rethink | Gold Standard

Rethink | A New Perspective

Four Australian architects and designers each pursue an existing home’s renewed potential through adaptive reuse and mindful reinvention.

WORDS Sophie Lewis | PHOTOGRAPHY Katherine Lu, Rory Gardiner, Shannon McGrath, Ross Honeysett

Pitch Perfect

studiofour

DESIGN studiofour | PHOTOGRAPHY Shannon McGrath

studiofour approached a heritage-listed Art Deco home in Melbourne with a readiness to not only improve its functionality but create an immediate link with the landscape. Devising a two-storey addition with a residential scale amphitheatre, the team concentrated on a fluid connection between the new and the old, inside and out.

studiofour co-director Sarah Henry says the value of this renovation lies in their ability to repurpose an existing home and sustainably conserve its built fabric. “The design response is an addition that is minimal in materiality and detailing, placing emphasis on the backdrop provided by the gardens beyond,” she says.

Double-height interiors with a pervading sense of repose bask in the light and fresh air. Off the communal living area, the outdoor space unfolds under the pitched form to create space for integrated seating and dining in the warmer months beside the pool. Sarah says that while the heritage home’s legacy was retained, its purity and intent were strengthened through an addition that hits all the right notes.

The pitched form of the new addition provides an over-scaled view, to experience the full breadth and height of the mature trees to the rear of the site. The architectural framework beyond the façade of the building provides a tangible element to draw inside, to further blur the boundaries from inside and out.

– studiofour co–director Annabelle Berryman