A Robust Reinvigoration – Armadale House by Pleysier Perkins and Sanders & King

As an enhancement, extension and restoration effort, Armadale House sees an existing Victorian home and its rear stables reinvigorated through an enduring and robust lens. Pleysier Perkins together with Sanders & King pay homage to the original home’s details and geometries to propose this future-focused abode.

In the historic neighbourhood of Armadale in Melbourne’s inner south-east, the project contributes to a strengthening of the area’s connection to its important and influential architectural history. As a large and expansive Victorian-era mansion and its rear stables, the home is restored and enhanced through an appropriate restoration and extension. While celebrating the home’s existing heritage details and nuanced features, additional insertions and custom joinery add to each of the spaces with considered deliberation, allowing the past and present to support one another. With architecture by Pleysier Perkins and interiors by Sanders & King, the collaborative team worked closely with the client to propose a home imagined to be the enduring and robust foundation for a growing family over the coming years.

In the historic neighbourhood of Armadale in Melbourne’s inner south-east, the project contributes to a strengthening of the area’s connection to its important and influential architectural history.

Built by North Building Group, together with joinery by TM Cabinetry and Stone Masonry by GG Stoneworks, Armadale House is a study of longevity. It is the transformation from the traditional and formally planned rooms of its past into a connected and considered series of zones. Most predominantly in the conversion of older homes is the reconfiguration of the kitchen space.Where it was previously located out of sight as a support space, it becomes a central gathering space acting as a key hub within the home. This relocation is key to the functioning of the home and its many parts. Together with restoring the original home, its stables and its extension, the carefully curated landscape by Myles Baldwin adds a formality and structure to the connecting outdoor spaces and creates purposed outdoor rooms in the process.

As a large and expansive Victorian-era mansion and its rear stables, the home is restored and enhanced through an appropriate restoration and extension.

Responding to the contemporary brief while still maintaining the original proportions, Armadale House pays homage to the many arched openings of its original design. Repeating these geometries as transom transitionary spaces creates identifiable experiences as you move through spaces. Expressed as ceiling coves, windows, circular skylights, joinery elements and internal doors, they represent a key conduit between the old and new. With a focus on preservation and contextual sensitivity, existing materials were re-used and new elements act as an extension of the old. Externally, the re-used red brick, concrete and zinc cladding tie back to the original palette, while internally the palette takes on a similar textural richness. Marble, timber, polished plaster, steel, concrete and select paint were all used due to their ability to wear and age over time and contribute to the home’s own narrative engaging with its inhabitants.

While celebrating the home’s existing heritage details and nuanced features, additional insertions and custom joinery add to each of the spaces with considered deliberation, allowing the past and present to support one another.

Armadale House uses cues from its past and its generous scale to propose playful oversized joinery elements and nuanced fittings and architectural details to continue the connection to craft originally intended. Pleysier Perkins and Sanders & King has brought a measured curiosity and restraint to extend and enhance this former beauty and create an enduring home founded on integrity.

With architecture by Pleysier Perkins and interiors by Sanders & King, the collaborative team worked closely with the client to propose a home imagined to be the enduring and robust foundation for a growing family over the coming years.