Light and Calm – Monogram by Nexus Designs

Applying consistency and clarity to an extended Victorian-era terrace, Nexus Designs resets the tonal palette of Monogram to create a calm and restorative respite. The interior approach coalesces with the architectural vision to ensure the home is both simplistic yet curated and refined in detail.

As one of many heritage homes that line the streets of Albert Park in inner Melbourne, Monogram is given a new life behind its restored outer façade. Through an extension and reworking of the original home, the new spaces welcome natural light and encourage connections out toward the surrounding landscape. Nexus Designs ensures the structure’s original ornateness remains and is highlighted through subtle references to seamlessly blend with the new insertions.

Nexus Designs ensures the structure’s original ornateness remains and is highlighted through subtle references to seamlessly blend with the new insertions.

Enacting a timeless approach, Nexus Designs is inspired by a minimal sensibility in the composition of the material palette. By reducing the number of colour variations, and instead focusing on tonal differences and texture as points of interest, the new feels like an evolution of the old. Bringing light deeper into the home also formed an integral driver to how the reworked residence was intended to feel. With the insertion of additional glazing and by bringing light in from custom skylight openings, the interior spaces become more open and a flow between inside and out is encouraged.

Through a synchronicity of the ornate and the minimal, the home feels balanced with an overall calm. Retaining period fireplaces, cornicing and architraves, the layering of historical and modern elements creates a completed picture of the house. Combining rendered brick, natural stone, oak and concrete flooring, a steady palette of longwearing elements sets the foundation for family life.

Through a synchronicity of the ornate and the minimal, the home feels balanced with an overall calm.

Within the constraints of a traditional narrow terrace, Monogram is carefully executed and reprogrammed to overlay a new directive for its owners. Nexus Designs ensures the introduced openness is enhanced internally, and through a softening throughout, new connections enhance movement.