No Rezzavations House by Sarah Lake Architects

Addressing big ambitions and a tight budget, Sarah Lake Architects has transformed No Rezzavations House – a suburban family home in Melbourne’s north – by doubling its scale with a humble, two-storey addition that is elegantly enveloped in a dynamic, multi-purpose screen.

As avid gardeners with two kids, a couple of cats, a brood of chickens and a busy beehive, the homeowners approached Sarah Lake Architects to transform their home with additional space while preserving and enhancing their much-loved garden. “This guided our decision to go up a storey to help maximise the ground plane for planting,” says Sarah Lake, principal of Sarah Lake Architects. As social people, the clients also cherished the home’s existing pergola, brimming with vines, as a place for entertaining. “They wanted to emulate this setting in some way, which first sparked the concept for a green facade.”

The screen gently connects the dwelling’s old and new volumes and frames an outdoor entertaining space to the east.

The design team began to study classic garden arbours, trellises and lattices, considering how these structures could be upscaled to boldly fill the home’s frontage. A screen approach was favoured for the clients to grow passionfruit, kiwi fruit and grape vines, delivering “an active facade that supports a productive garden – a staple in many local backyards,” says Lake. The screen gently connects the dwelling’s old and new volumes and frames an outdoor entertaining space to the east. “It makes the garden immediately visible from the interior, and it requires tending, which is reflective of how the clients want to spend their time.”

Punctuated with large, arched openings, the screen tenderly echoes Reservoir’s suburban character of “migrant modern brick houses and their shallow porches, the timber fretwork arches on heritage verandahs, the inverse arches of scalloped white picket fences and the varied backyard pergolas and tavernas,” lists Lake. These openings elegantly frame views to the property’s thriving vegetable patches and layered native gardens. While the screen is the home’s main architectural device, “it is not purely decorative,” says Lake. Offset from the home, it provides an eave for sun shading and penetration throughout the seasons, supporting passive thermal principles, reducing energy usage across the project’s lifespan.

No Rezzavations House embraces simple construction detailing while maintaining a high level of design rigour.

To reduce costs, the existing house needed to remain liveable, driving Sarah Lake Architects to conceive the addition as a freestanding pavilion connected to the existing home via a corridor link. “This created a clear distinction between old and new, with the added benefit of creating a courtyard between,” explains Lake. The existing residence now serves as a dedicated kids’ zone, with an open kitchen, dining space and sunken lounge – a must-have in the brief – occupying the new volume. Situated above, the main bedroom suite is enlivened by a scooped aperture in the facade screen, tailoring captivating views across the garden and neighbourhood.

Throughout, No Rezzavations House embraces simple construction detailing while maintaining a high level of design rigour. Steel is minimised, ceiling heights are low and glazing is used strategically to balance cost and integrity. Humble materials, including burnished concrete, plasterboard, fibre-cement cladding and solid timber, create a recessive feel that allows the landscape to shine, reaffirming the family’s connection to place. With a belief in architecture that responds to the lives of its inhabitants, Lake suggests that “clients like these, with a clear purpose and sense of fun, are great for a project. The addition provides a clear contrast to the existing house, appeals to the clients’ playful spirit and is a testament to their role in the process.”

Architecture by Sarah Lake Architects. Build by Nook Construction. Landscape design by Paul Sampson Landscapes.