Garden Focus – Fitzroy North House by Figureground Architecture
Breathing life into an existing heritage terrace home, Fitzroy North House centres around the garden and landscape spaces as a key element of everyday life, encouraging a holistic openness. Figureground Architecture optimise the width of the site, encouraging a more evenly spread occupation and injecting a sense of connection between old and new, and between inside and out.
Set amongst other richly historic homes in the inner north of Melbourne, Fitzroy North House ensures its engagement with the streetscape and existing rhythm remains in place, while the new works and alterations sit neatly behind the original. Spread over multiple levels, the family home aims to open the otherwise formal separation of the home – typical of its period – and instead reflect a more contemporary feel, with connection the main muse. Figureground Architecture propose a series of new volumes that intersect with the existing, encouraging a connection with the natural elements.
Navigating both restoration and an addition, Fitzroy North House is built by Travancore Homes, together with landscape design by Sarah Petty Garden Design playing an integral role. As a destination of its own, and as an offering of relief from the more solid and rigid elements that comprise a home, the landscape becomes a private oasis of sorts for the owners. Directing views and movement outside also, the curation of elements between outside and inside then allows for natural ventilation to fill the home, while a greater access to the benefits of solar gain throughout the year, in turn minimising the impacting reliance on energy consumption. Integrated seating elements then anchor the functionality into the architecture, imbedding a flexibility to the space without the restriction of excessive furniture.
Extending the use of masonry as the structural base for the home, the new combined living, dining, and kitchen space to the rear utilises white concrete as the base, framing both the home and the views outward. To the rear, the placement of the music room and workshop also sit to the garden edge, further activating the threshold between the home and the garden, while adding the specialised amenity as a reflection of use. The overall palette is grounded in a natural yet robust sensibility, ensuring the knocks of family life can be absorbed, while a continuation of crafted elements forms the added joinery storage and seating throughout.