A Creative Family Home – Northcote House by Rob Kennon Architects

Family, work and creativity converge within the walls of Rob Kennon Architects’ Northcote House. Drawing on the warm and robust materiality of red brick, the project embraces the task of encompassing family home, art studio and builder’s workshop in one.

The new design unfolds as a single-level addition set behind an original Californian bungalow in Northcote, in Melbourne’s north. With the site set on a corner and adjoining a park, the architects maximised the potential to borrow natural views of sky and treetops, while also conscientiously ensuring the home gives back to the neighbourhood. But above all, the project was driven by the clients, a family with two young boys. “We often find the more interesting the client, the more interesting the house and the more layered the outcome,” reflects architect Rob Kennon.

This is clearly evident in the Northcote House, with both the clients’ work and life informing the design. As the home of a builder and an artist, it was important to dedicate space to a workshop and an art studio, and that these be integrated within the envelope of the home, while also remaining a practical level of separation. “There’s a really strong making culture in the family,” says Rob, “and for a painter, light and time and space are key. The inclusion of a home studio in the brief definitely made the project richer.” The robust russet walls, built from bricks made with local clay, delineate, define and protect a variety of spaces within the new addition, which houses the kitchen and living space, as well as the master bedroom, art studio, laundry and study nook.

The new design unfolds as a single-level addition set behind an original Californian bungalow in Northcote, in Melbourne’s north.

The widespread use of brick inside and out is key to not only creating zones with the open and connected new plan but also to contrasting the new with the old. Entering through the original front of the house, one proceeds down the central corridor, past the children’s bedrooms and a front lounge, before arriving at an exposed red brick wall, lit from above by a circular skylight. The wall and the “light at the end of the tunnel”, as Rob describes it, create a moment of pause that marks the transition from the old into the new addition. This is then further emphasised by a circulation gap, which doubles as a laundry and study area and represents a deliberate separation between the original bungalow and the new pavilion.

There is more than meets the eye to the brick wall at the end of the corridor. What reads as simply a blank yet robust wall is revealed to be much more as one makes one’s way into the new addition. Turn right to enter the kitchen, and what was ostensibly a single wall is revealed to be a central point around which the new kitchen, dining and living space pivots. On one side, it forms a comfortable nook into which the dining table is nestled. Move further around, and it houses a fireplace, joinery and becomes a place to hang artwork in the living space. Walk the full 360 degrees, and one is back at the start, facing the blank brick wall with circular skylight above.

Drawing on the warm and robust materiality of red brick, the project embraces the task of encompassing family home, art studio and builder’s workshop in one.

Approached in this way, the brick becomes more than simply a motif; it is a material whose presence is fundamental to the experience of the home. Brickwork forms the pivotal core around which the new shared spaces of the home coalesce, demarcates the transition from old to new and, continued outside to form a barbeque and boundary fence, holds the outdoor spaces so that the rear yard becomes akin to an outdoor room. A material at once familiar and striking, comforting and bold, it is above all approachable and enduring – qualities that resonate with the life of the family who live within the home’s robust walls.

A material at once familiar and striking, comforting and bold, it is above all approachable and enduring – qualities that resonate with the life of the family who live within the home’s robust walls.