A Playful Personality – Erskine House by Kennedy Nolan
From a process of unification, Erskine House sees the coming together of multiple eras into a combined and clear identity. Kennedy Nolan combines the essence of the house’s many iterations together with its own identifiable sense of spirit and personality to create a home with a unique playful identity.
As one Melbourne’s grand Victorian homes, Erskine House has inherited many contributing additions and alterations since its early inception – each completed through a lens of their own era, responding to its time. As an exploration into bringing each of these iterations together, the team strove to take elements from each as a nod to the varying narratives that add richness to the home and propose alterations and additions that responded accordingly. Kennedy Nolan brings a well-versed understanding of restoring and celebrating heritage homes together with their curious and playful approach to conjure a considered home that projects its own unique spirit.
Built by CBD Contracting, Erskine House was born from a multi-layered approach was adopted that responds to the many styles imposed on the home with a sense of appropriate agility. While the generous proportions of the Victoria home stood as a clear reminder of the scale of the original, the other elements were not added with the same intention and so bringing each together was priority. Through a reconfiguring of the overall plan, a set of principles was established to ensure the home responded to the contemporary living condition, while still maintaining a key connection to its past. The approach was one where specific zones were created that spoke to varying functions and a natural hierarchy, while still allowing for a meaningful openness internally and to the surrounding landscape.
The overall palette creates a mood around which the home needed to function. The resulting colours, textures and materiality are inspired by a calm, cool and quiet feel and encompass many variations as they apply to varying elements. These tonalities were then matched with a playful approach to form, where shapes are used to define space. While creating a more intentionally open home, within that curves encourage movement and reinterpret the formality of the original home. Ensuring the home facilitated the multi-layered needs of a family unit while also creating interesting moments throughout was key. Furniture, lighting and artwork are then further layered to emphasise the playful and as an expression of personality and character.
Erskine House thoughtfully weave the many narratives of the home’s past, reflective of its many owners and their additions into a considered and cohesive residence. Kennedy Nolan conjures a spirited home of curious moments while beautifully retaining the original grand elements of its Victorian past.
