A Richly Layered Home – House of Bricks by Jolson
Richly layered, House of Bricks takes heeded influence from its many muses to conjure a warm and deeply meaningful home. Jolson combines a crafted restraint with an understanding and appreciation of context to propose a home that captures the spirit of its owners while offering a nod to its warehouse past.
Located in Melbourne’s inner south, House of Bricks takes occupancy in the vibrant enclave of Prahran, interwoven into the diverse and eclectic vernacular of the area. Presented as a warehouse-inspired form, the home that lies behind is intentionally layered with meaning drawn from a multitude of muses. Flanked by Victorian terraces on either side, the site was originally home to a mechanic workshop, which was also clad in a similar red brick façade. As a nod to the site’s previous narrative and as an offering of warmth, the new is encased in a sleeve of revisited red bricks, exposed on both the interior and exterior. On the upper level, sitting back slightly, a steel-and-glass-fronted volume offers a contemporary element to the site while celebrating an openness between indoor and outdoor living. Jolson draws on the attention to detail and refined rigour, for which the studio is known, to propose a home that responds to the surrounding context and also carves its own unique identity.
With an unusually generous 600sqm site, this inner-urban home is both plentiful and enviable in its proximity to the city of Melbourne. The home is located in a cul-de-sac and sits back from the street, offering a secluded sense of privacy and disconnection from the affronting Victorian shopfronts and a vibrant streetscape lining the footpath. As a nod to the adjacent Victorian terraces, the new home is intended to reinforce connections, lines and proportions of the existing. Internally, the encouragement of natural light inward is key, and large overhead skylights allow the spaces to be filled with light. This openness creates an interplay with the climatic elements and becomes a way to deliberately animate the spaces.
Responding to the exteriors, the interiors transition from a more industrial palette on the lower level to a highly detailed and refined experience on the upper level. The use of red bricks takes inspiration from the site’s past and also from the owner’s connection to the Middle East and Asia, while adding textural variation and warmth. Together with the open steel treads of the stair, warm and earthed materials play an important balancing act against the cooler elements, such as the polished concrete flooring. Intended as a vibrancy injector, colour is also used to define the interior zones, allowing for an ease of flow within the open planned arrangement. Anchoring the many zones is the kitchen and the elongated island formation, offered as an integral place to gather, nurture and to entertain and engage.
